London Fire Brigade carries out counter-terrorism training for NATO

Delegates (21 of them, in fact) from countries across North Africa and the Middle East took part in the training with officers from the UK’s National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer (NILO) Network, which is managed by the London Fire Brigade.

The training aims to ensure that first responders, both civilian and military, can effectively work together when responding to acts of terror, as well as introduce basic co-ordination plans that can be used by the Emergency Services. These plans can then be developed to suit the unique needs of each participating nation.

Officers from law enforcement, the Emergency Services and military backgrounds attended the course. Delegates heard from the Brigade’s officers about how the Emergency Services and public bodies in the UK co-ordinate their response to emergency situations. This included sharing the UK’s Joint Emergency Service Interoperability Principles.

The course also covered how the Brigade and is partners have responded to major incidents in recent years, such as the London Bridge attack in 2017 and the 2018 Salisbury poisonings.

The training culminated in a table-top exercise for delegates where they were able to put everything they had learned into practice with a tactical exercise designed to test their response to a potential major incident.

The NILO Network began in 2001 when officers from the London Fire Brigade began looking at how to respond to an act of terror. For over two decades the Brigade has continued to develop its expertise in this area, initially working to improve capabilities across the UK.

Counter-Terrorism Preparedness Network

The partnership with NATO grew out of the Brigade’s involvement in the Counter-Terrorism Preparedness Network, which brings together the Mayors and counter-terrorism leads of major European cities. In these meetings, it became clear that the Brigade’s expertise could be used to train NATO partners.

As a direct result, the programme has been created, with additional support from the US State Department. The aim of helping first responders increase public safety globally is a core objective.

Assistant Commissioner Patrick Goulbourne, NILO’s national co-ordinator, said: “Whenever an act of terror occurs, the effects can be felt around the world. In response to this risk, the London Fire Brigade is using its expertise to ensure first responders in different nations are equipped to respond in the wors case scenarios.”

Further, Goulbourne observed: “Partnering with NATO and the US State Department brings our collective expertise together to reduce risk, improve interoperability and protect communities wherever they happen to be. It also gives us the chance to learn from partners on how we can improve our service to London and Londoners.”

Gabriele Cascone, head of counter-terrorism, explaind: “Inter-agency co-operation is a fundamental and key element in the fight against terrorism and in NATO’s work in this domain. The NATO Counter-Terrorism Inter-Agency Co-ordination training introduces and initiates assistance-eligible NATO partners to the UK National Inter-Agency Liaison Officer as an inter-agency co-ordination model for responding to terrorist attacks.”

Cascone concluded: “With this introduction to the NILO approach, we expect participants will learn how to best respond to terrorist incidents and improve the co-ordination of information, intelligence and capabilities to facilitate an effective multi-agency response.”

Partner countries

The London Fire Brigade’s work is part of NATO’s wider work in the region. NATO’s Counter-Terrorism Section is also developing and conducting counter-terrorism courses for assistance-eligible NATO partner countries in the Middle East and North Africa, the Gulf region and the Sahel region thanks to the financial support provided by the United States to the NATO National Contributory Fund.

The latter programme encompasses both civilian law enforcement/criminal justice agencies, the Armed Forces, defence and security officials with a view towards strengthening overall civil-military co-operation and information sharing on counter-terrorism efforts through a holistic and ‘whole-of-Government’ approach in counter-terrorism areas of work such as CBRN defence, battlefield evidence, countering terrorism financing, border security and the response to terrorist incidents.