Interior Minister Herbert Reul handed over an armored anti-terror vehicle of the type "Survivor R" to the special units of the North Rhine-Westphalian police in Essen today. "With the "Survivor R", the SEK officers are optimally equipped for terrorist attacks or operations against rocker crime," said Minister Reul at the handover to the Special Operations Command (SEK) of the Essen police force.
The new vehicle replaces the old predecessor from 1979, which no longer meets today's operational requirements. "For me, there are no ifs or buts: those who pull the coals out of the fire for us at the risk of their lives need the best equipment on the market for their protection," emphasized Reul. Around 1.2 million euros were made available in the budget for the purchase of the special vehicle.
The "Survivor R" is based on a 4 x 4 truck chassis and has a cabin made of armored steel. This protects the up to ten occupants from bullets and mines. The gas-tight superstructure with a protective ventilation system protects the police officers inside from outside air contaminated with poison. The vehicle is powered by a 340 hp (250 kW) diesel engine. The total weight is 17.5 tons. The Survivor R can also be equipped with impact protection and a ramming mandrel, for example to open heavy locked gates.
The special units of the North Rhine-Westphalian police have a total of six locations in Bielefeld, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Essen, Cologne and Münster. In addition to the special task forces (SEK), the special units include the mobile task forces (MEK), the negotiation groups (VG) and the technical task forces (TEG). The special units are deployed whenever particularly dangerous operations are required. This includes, for example, the arrest of armed or particularly violent criminals. In the current year, there have already been over 1,100 occasions when the special units have had to be deployed. "This large number of deployments alone shows how important modern and safe equipment is for the specialists. This helps them and also means more security for the people of North Rhine-Westphalia," said Reul.
