Tactical Aircraft Security Officer ( TASO )

[RedcapCrusader]

Has anyone recently attended/completed a TASO course?

Can you spare any information as to how the course is structured, material taught, etc.?

I'm interested in it, but having a hard time finding any information on the course.

 

[PuckChaser]

Interested in crushing box lunches at a furious pace while providing weight on one side of a Herc/Globemaster? I haven't ever seen TASOs do much of anything other than convert oxygen to CO2.

 

[RedcapCrusader]

Interested in crushing box lunches at a furious pace while providing weight on one side of a Herc/Globemaster? I haven't ever seen TASOs do much of anything other than convert oxygen to CO2.

I won't turn down a trip on a fancy grey bird!

 

[Stronghold]

Hey man I just finished my TASO course about a month ago, it's an awesome course with fantastic instructors.
Lots of opportunities on your flights and they're needing a lot of people for upcoming missions

 

[WEng87]

Time to hire some extra MPs and have them take over the roll... ha ha ha

 

[CBH99]

I was going to ask...don't the MP's contribute to the air marshal program?  If so, to what extent?


There's been plenty of discussion in various topics about some of the "high end, cool stuff" that the military police branch gets tasked with.  One of the things consistently mentioned is the air marshal courses.

 

[PuckChaser]

There's been plenty of discussion in various topics about some of the "high end, cool stuff" that the military police branch gets tasked with.  One of the things consistently mentioned is the air marshal courses.

Do you mean TASOs? The only thing high speed about those guys is the physical speed the aircraft they're in travels.

 

[garb811]

Do you mean TASOs? The only thing high speed about those guys is the physical speed the aircraft they're in travels.

No.  TASO and Air Marshal are two separate functions.  I know you like mocking what TASO brings to the table (based on what I imagine is you being on a flight or two where TASO were tasked) but since the RCAF keeps demanding more and more of them, they must be doing something right.

For Air Marshal, their mandate is on VIP Code 1 flights on CAF aircraft (read Royal Family, GG, PM...).  So there is no cross-over with what the RCMP are doing.  In fact, MP have being doing the Air Marshal role for as long as I've been in so "our" program predates the RCMP one.

 

[PuckChaser]

No.  TASO and Air Marshal are two separate functions.  I know you like mocking what TASO brings to the table (based on what I imagine is you being on a flight or two where TASO were tasked) but since the RCAF keeps demanding more and more of them, they must be doing something right.

Multiple flights, into some pretty nasty places that 3 people with Brownings/C7s did absolutely nothing but take up rations and oxygen. Either provide an actual section-sized element to secure the aircraft, or don't bother. These guys don't even secure the plane on layovers, just head to the hotels for beers with the aircrew.

 

[garb811]

Multiple flights, into some pretty nasty places that 3 people with Brownings/C7s did absolutely nothing but take up rations and oxygen. Either provide an actual section-sized element to secure the aircraft, or don't bother. These guys don't even secure the plane on layovers, just head to the hotels for beers with the aircrew.

Ah,  and here I was worried that you were just talking out your butt and weren't an actual expert on FP of RCAF assets.  :

For what it's worth, even the USAF don't deploy a section as part of their equivalent program, we pretty much mirror what they are doing.

 

[CBH99]

Garb811,

Mind elaborating on the TASO program and what it offers?

Even in the MP recruiting video, it has the very short clip & title of "Air Marshal" - yet obviously, that is different than what the RCMP offers.

Without violating OPSEC of any kind, what is the primary task of the TASO program & does it overlap with what the RCMP does in any way/shape/form?


Thanks

 

[RedcapCrusader]

Garb811,

Mind elaborating on the TASO program and what it offers?

Even in the MP recruiting video, it has the very short clip & title of "Air Marshal" - yet obviously, that is different than what the RCMP offers.

Without violating OPSEC of any kind, what is the primary task of the TASO program & does it overlap with what the RCMP does in any way/shape/form?


Thanks

The RCMP Air Marshal program is provided to Canadian Air Carriers. The MP Air Marshal Detail deals with providing security to the Prime Minister and Government Officials, Dignitaries onboard GoC aircraft abroad while conducting government business.

Tactical Aircraft Security Officers fly with Military Aircraft into zones where security is inadequate, nonexistent, or unknown. They provide security to the Aircraft, the Aircrew, assist with maintaining passenger discipline and providing additional security for detainee transports. They protect the aircraft from sabotage, attack, and prevent stowaways. TASO are a combat function, something the RCMP don't do.

 

[RedcapCrusader]

Multiple flights, into some pretty nasty places that 3 people with Brownings/C7s did absolutely nothing but take up rations and oxygen. Either provide an actual section-sized element to secure the aircraft, or don't bother. These guys don't even secure the plane on layovers, just head to the hotels for beers with the aircrew.

Funny, I don't remember securing an aircraft on a layover where there is adequate security being part of our job.

In hot zones, sure. I've slept on the cargo deck many times in nasty places, between standing out on the airfield in FFO when the temp breaks 45°C and the aircrew were the ones in hotels.

Not sure what you're on about, but just because you met a couple of morons, does not mean our function is useless. The Aircrew sure appreciate us.

 

[garb811]

Garb811,

Mind elaborating on the TASO program and what it offers?

Even in the MP recruiting video, it has the very short clip & title of "Air Marshal" - yet obviously, that is different than what the RCMP offers.

Without violating OPSEC of any kind, what is the primary task of the TASO program & does it overlap with what the RCMP does in any way/shape/form?


Thanks

In addition to what LunchMeat has stated ref TASO, for the actual Air Marshall program, I would expect much of it is similar, if not the same, as what RCMP do with regard to TTPs anyway.  There are some marked differences in who is on the aircraft (general public vs pre-screened and selected individuals) but at the end of the day, the ultimate response is deadly force in a pressurized tube at 35,000 feet... 

 

[dapaterson]

... but at the end of the day, the ultimate response is deadly force in a pressurized tube at 35,000 feet...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_One_(film)

 

[CBH99]

Thanks for the clarification guys.

I always wondered about the use of 9mm bullets or bigger, in a deadly use of force incident on an airliner.  Even if you hit your target 100% of the time, there is always the chance of the round exiting the target, and not always in the direction the bullet was traveling before it hit the target.

I always thought rubber bullets would make more sense, or some other sort of technology that - Heaven forbid - it hit a window, it didn't doom an entire aircraft worth of people to a sudden & violent death.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Thanks for the clarification guys.

I always wondered about the use of 9mm bullets or bigger, in a deadly use of force incident on an airliner.  Even if you hit your target 100% of the time, there is always the chance of the round exiting the target, and not always in the direction the bullet was traveling before it hit the target.

I always thought rubber bullets would make more sense, or some other sort of technology that - Heaven forbid - it hit a window, it didn't doom an entire aircraft worth of people to a sudden & violent death.

Are you basing your post on what you have seen in Hollywood movies, or the actual physics of a depressurization?

I have done more than one chamber run in my career where we went from 10,000ft cabin altitude to over 20,000ft, nearly instantly. I lived, every single time.  :nod:

 

[CBH99]

To be honest, my 'imagined scenario' is probably based more on the Hollywood version than the physics.

Beyond that series on Discovery channel (I think it was called Mayday?) about aircraft disasters, and what I've seen about "holes in pressurized tubes at 35,000ft seems very very bad" - I don't actually know the physics behind a sudden depressurization at altitude like that. 

Happy to admit, on that front, very much out of my lane.  I assumed, albeit it would seem wrongly, that a bullet through a window/fuselage at that speed & altitude would be catastrophic...


(Gonna wander off and google some facts now, don't mind me)

 

[RedcapCrusader]

That's why you train, train, and train how to shoot within an aircraft. You also don't use FMJ, you use soft-jacket or hollow point ammunition because it has less penetrating power. Less risk of it going through someone into the hull or a vital system, or piercing through from the inside.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

To be honest, my 'imagined scenario' is probably based more on the Hollywood version than the physics.

Beyond that series on Discovery channel (I think it was called Mayday?) about aircraft disasters, and what I've seen about "holes in pressurized tubes at 35,000ft seems very very bad" - I don't actually know the physics behind a sudden depressurization at altitude like that. 

Happy to admit, on that front, very much out of my lane.  I assumed, albeit it would seem wrongly, that a bullet through a window/fuselage at that speed & altitude would be catastrophic...


(Gonna wander off and google some facts now, don't mind me)

Don't get me wrong- it is very unhealthy to "bust caps" in a thin walled metal tube at 35,000 feet, doing 500 mph. I just don't buy that the airplane necessarily stops flying with a 9mm sized hole in the fuselage.

When the earth was still,cooling (and I was on Nav Training) we used to do Celestial Navigation. That meant mounting the sextant in an airlock that protruded thru the skin of the aircraft. Reasonably often enough, during act of mounting or dismounting the sextant at altitude, one could bypass the airlock feature and the cabin would begin venting through a hole maybe 2-3cm in diameter. It was a bit noisy, like standing next to a giant vacuum cleaner, and your ears popped a bit, but that was about all that happened.