Reinforced Regional Task Force

Förstärkt Regional Insatsstyrka (English: Reinforced Regional Task Force), prior to 2015 officially known as Piketen (or Piketenheten) is a special operations asset of the Swedish Police Authority, similar to the SWAT in the United States. RRTF is called upon when situations occur that are too dangerous for ordinary police to handle such as hostage situations, serving high-risk arrest warrants and confronting armed criminals.

History
The main task of the RRTF is dangerous situations in dangerous environments, e.g. hostage situations and situations including armed dangerous suspects. Other tasks are riot control, escorting VIP's/objects of value and serving high-risk arrest warrants etc.

RRTF, formerly known as Piketen, has been active since 1979. Its creation was an answer to the events of the Norrmalmstorg robbery in 1973, where robber Jan-Erik "Janne" Olsson took four hostages at Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg ("Norrmalm's Square") in Stockholm.

RRTF operators from Malmö and Gothenburg have been deployed with the EULEX Intervention Group in Kosovo (Special Team Six), tasked with high-risk operations such as hostage rescue and arresting armed criminals.

In 2011, the RRTF officially opened up for any female officers who wish to serve in the unit though none have passed selection yet.

Due to the major reorganization efforts of 2015, Piketen was reclassified as "Förstärkt Regional Insatsstyrka", or in English, "Reinforced Regional Task Force", RRTF.

Organization
The RRTF:s are stationed in the three largest cities of Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, responsible for Police regions Stockholm, West and South. However the units can at request be put to use nationwide all over Sweden. Smaller forces with tactical training and tasks somewhat akin to the RRTF:s are available in police regions Bergslagen, Middle, East and North, often times having similar selection and training. Officers in these units normally don't operate in the intervention capacity full time, but do normal patrolling on a daily basis.

Training
The RRTF spends about 30% of its time on training, which is mainly focused on high-risk intervention. For example; one or multiple dangerous perpetrators in rural terrain or in an urban environment and perpetrators in houses or vehicles (also including hostage rescue). Such dangerous interventions require a lot of advanced tactical training. The unit strives to resolve any given situation as calmly as possible to avoid injury or loss of life and uses highly trained negotiators when tactically possible. Circumstances dictate whether officers operate in uniform or civilian clothing. They mostly make use of unmarked civilian vehicles or special assault vehicles.

The units officers are well-trained in different methods of entry (MOE), such as rappelling and door breaching. They also receive training in close target reconnaissance, close quarters battle, basic medical care, tactical self-defense, and various weapon systems. Officers are then specially trained as medics, breachers, specialist driver etc.

To be eligible for RRTF selection an officer must have at least 18 months of service, but exceptions can be made if the applicant possesses skills or experiences valuable for the units. After a series of physical and psychological tests successful applicants progress to a final week long field exercise, commonly known as "hell week". Applicants who successfully complete "hell week" then progress to 6 months of training before claiming an operational slot with their unit. The selection and training process has an attrition rate of roughly 90%.

Gear


The main weapons of the RRTF:s are the Heckler & Koch MP5, Heckler & Koch G36C and the LWRC M6. The issued sidearm is the standard police issue SIG Sauer 226. The RRTF:s did have sniper rifles on trial but the project was scrapped and the usage of sniper rifles was limited to the counter-terrorism unit of the Swedish police, the National Task Force. All operators are equipped with ballistic Ops Core helmets, plate carriers and special flame retardant clothing.

They are also equipped with Sandcats used to transport its officers.

Similar units

 * 🇸🇪 – National Task Force
 * 🇩🇪 – SEK
 * 🇫🇷 – GIPN
 * 🇺🇸 – FBI SWAT