Kenya's Rapid Response Unit (RRU) recently graduated its first batch of graduates through its newly formed joint training pipeline conducted in conjunction with the U.S. military.
The training program focused on some key skills related to the search and rescue mission, including combat medicine, personnel recovery, technical rescue and mass casualty response, according to a recent Army press release. The training was patterned on U.S. Air Force Pararescue (PJ) training.
"Training with the American PJs has been the greatest experience for me," a sergeant in the Kenyan Air Force said of the training. "Seeing my students grow from zero knowledge to where they are right now, we can trust them with the mission set laid out for us."
The Kenyan government expanded on the information released by U.S. Special Operations Command. Last year the RRU conducted a training exercise called Justified Accord 2024 along with U.S. Air Force Special Operations personnel.
In this year's iteration of Justified Accord, the exercise culminated in a hostage rescue scenario followed by hoisting a casualty into a helicopter. The RRU is considered to be Kenya's premier search and rescue unit.
As for the Pararescue training, it was ten months in duration and saw many weeded out during the course. "Only a handful were selected to proceed with training, even fewer made it to graduation," a SOCOM statement reads.