“We train and deploy our K9 Teams in service to others. Day or night, anywhere under any conditions”
We deploy teams to hostile and austere environments that most need our skills, in order to provide Search, Rescue and Recovery functions. Our mission is to minimize loss of civilian life, reunite families and in the event of deaths give closure to the families left behind. A team of handler, flanker and K9 will deploy as needed and as quickly as possible to ensure civilians receive help within the shortest possible time, maximizing the chances of rescue and survival.
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SMART TAC
TEAM
We are an experienced and highly capable team, from a logistics team in South Africa providing top cover to the boots on the ground K9’s and handlers with the ability to adapt our operational skill sets to the humanitarian crisis, specific environments, and requirements of the people in need.
Our team consists of veterans from the South African and Canadian Special Operations Forces with on the ground experience from Iraq to Somalia and Syria to Serbia, as the Logistics Team and Search and Rescue K9’s (Live Find and Human Remains) and Specialized handlers, who have operated from Afghanistan to Ghana and South Africa.
All handlers and K9’s are trained in Search and Rescue as well as additional training in helicopter deployment and abseiling. Our handlers are also qualified in Disaster and Wilderness First Responder.
James
James was born and brought up in the UK serving in the British Military and working extensively in the UK Security sector before immigrating to South Africa. Since living in South Africa James has specialised in training and teaching combatives, Gracie Jiu Jitsu and CQB in the security, military and civilian markets. This teaching has taken James to countries in North Africa, Central and South East Asia and the USA. James has been a Search and Rescue K9 Handler and trainer for over 6 years, engaging in deployments from wilderness searches for lost people to collapsed tunnels and the floods in Durban South Africa in 2022. As well as K9SAR (Search and Rescue), he has training and experience in Disaster First Responder, Pre Hospital Trauma, Wilderness First Responder, Helicopter Deployments (with K9) and Abseiling (with K9).
Kerrin
Kerrin Kruger has over 20 years commercial experience in the corporate world, including in the U.K with International names such the Marriott Group and MARS. His business acumen and networking skills working at senior level will serve Smart-Tac well with NGO’s and Governmental departments. An example of which is our MOU with Red Cross International put together by Kerrin. Kerrin has been involved in Search and Rescue for 2,5years and is currently training up his dog in Man Trailing. He has been deployed to multiple local rescue missions to locate missing people, both as a dog handler and as a flanker. He is also a qualified Wilderness and Disaster First Responder and volunteers with local Neighborhood watch groups as a medical first responder
Garth
A Veteran of the South African Army Special Forces with over thirty years’ experience in operationally challenging environments, Garth’s depth of knowledge, in multiple countries, is advanced from specialized military and commercial experience in leading various types of operations, risk advisory, search & rescue and training roles. Having worked in over twenty Countries Internationally in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, Garth has maintained key international and local relationships. Garth is a key asset to any organization with a full spectrum of logistical and procurement experience, including providing Search & Rescue over the North Atlantic as well as presenting various training models for Military & Law Enforcement, NGOs, and the private sector.
DEPLOYMENT
“We train and deploy our K9 Teams in service to others. Day or night, anywhere under any conditions”
Fulfilling a humanitarian need:
War Zones, natural disasters, collapsed builds or people going missing or getting lost, Smart Tac will deploy.
Bombings are a standard part of warfare from buildings to dams and much more. When bombs go off, inevitably the collateral damage are the civilians in the vicinity of the blast. Buried under rubble or trapped in a collapsed building. It can take days for rescuers to find them and reunite them with their families or get medical help.
Earthquakes, cyclones, floods, or structural collapse, all these events create a hostile environment for the people who live in the vicinity and inevitably cause suffering, injury, or lost loved ones.
In all of these cases, time is of the essence and having rescuers dig / look in the wrong place can cause loss of life and unnecessary suffering. K9 teams have been proven again and again to make searches more efficient, effective and to save lives.