6 The Mazowiecka Territorial Defence Brigade establishes the K9 Search and Rescue Group, in which dogs will besides service in addition to soldiers. Its goal is to support services in search of missing persons in peacetime, and during conflicts to detect enemy diversion groups and search for lost military personnel.
The K-9 Search and Rescue Group in 6MBOT has 16 people. It will consist of commanders, navigators, planners and six guides and their dogs. It will be the first in the brigade a search and rescue squad with contract dogs. A recruiting gathering has already been held in Radom. It was attended by soldiers willing to service in K9 and 4 - footed. Territorials who qualify to be a guide must be predisposed to work with animals and the dogs they study – health, physical fitness and intellectual resilience.
K9 means soldiers and dogs together in training and service
The K9 task assumes specialist training for the full team, especially guides and their dogs, to full prepare them for participation in search and rescue actions. The classes will be conducted by experienced instructors and behaviorists with the best training measures in the country. Before contracting for a duet group – and especially quadrupeds, they will gotta show acquired skills during the state exam.
- I'm sorry. After certification, the dog will receive a military degree, as will the soldier, from Private to Sergeant. In this group, the four-legged play an crucial role, but not the most crucial part, due to the fact that the most crucial is the soldier-man. The dog is along with a guide, serving together and working. We will be 1 of the first brigades with group K9 - it's large pride, but besides responsibility. The aim is primarily to aid local services search for missing persons and crisis situations - says Corporal Anna, soldier coordinator of the K9 Group in 6 MBOT.
Every day, all soldier-guide will take care of his dog, care for his welfare and condition. The function of the guardian is of large importance here, due to the fact that it depends on the willingness of the four-legged to execute the tasks set.
- I'm sorry. I have already been a soldier of the 6th Mazovian OT Brigade for over 3 years, I have held various functions here, but I have always dreamed, I wanted to train dogs to act for another people. I learned that specified a search and rescue group is to be formed, and I have late acquired a dog and it would be very good to service together in specified an elite squad - said Corporal Konrad, a candidate for a guide at the GPR K9 6MBOT.
Top-level actions
The creation of the GPR is closely related to the needs of the Polish Armed Forces and the challenges of the modern battlefield. Under conditions of armed conflict, they are to specialize in searching for lost military personnel in green areas: forests and lakes, as well as in destroyed city bombings. They will besides detect enemy diversion groups, explosives and weapons and ammunition. The squad is besides to be prepared to act in crisis situations, e.g. erstwhile searching for missing persons in hard-to-access terrain, or in the event of a construction disaster, searching for rubble.
Project K9 in the Territorial Defence Army was formally launched in 2021, but it was already conducted in pilot form since 2019. By the end of 2025, DWOT plans to make 20 search and rescue groups throughout Poland. GPRs with dogs are to support a crisis management strategy during peacetime, but during the crisis and war increase WOT's and full armed forces' combat capabilities.
Captain Dominic Pijarski
Press Officer
6 MAZOWICA BRIGADA
TERRITORIAL DEFENCE
