800.231.9106
Asymmetric Counter-Assault Training (ACAT)™
Course Overview:
Asymmetric Counter-Assault Training (ACAT) is an eight to sixteen-hour program for active law-enforcement and military law-enforcement personnel who may need to counter attacks designed to exploit predictable response patterns. The course examines how perpetrators use ambushes, denial of entry, fire, vehicles, explosives, chemical or smoke munitions, pre-attack intelligence, and mobile attacks to create confusion, delay response, and increase casualties. Participants move from historical case studies and attacker behavior to counter-assault decision-making at the patrol, supervisory, tactical, and command levels. The sixteen-hour option adds controlled practical application when the host can provide an appropriate training environment and approved equipment.
ACAT examines how attacks can exploit predictable responder routines, access points, communications, protection gaps, and assumptions that support conventional response models. The course uses historical case studies and operational analysis to examine ambushes, denial of entry, fire, vehicles, explosives, chemical or smoke munitions, pre-attack intelligence, mobile perpetrators, and coordinated or multi-scene attacks. Participants consider how law-enforcement personnel at the patrol, supervisory, tactical, intelligence, and command levels can recognize the attack method, prioritize life safety and responder protection, manage incomplete information, control access and movement, coordinate resources, and adapt as conditions change. ACAT is available as an eight-hour lecture or a sixteen-hour lecture-and-practical program, with practical activities developed alongside the host agency and conducted within approved policy, equipment, authority, and safety requirements.
What Participants Will Learn:
Understanding the asymmetric operational problem
Asymmetric attacks are designed to create an advantage by exploiting a responder’s assumptions, routines, access points, communications, or protection gaps. The attacker may use a familiar setting or a conventional weapon, but the sequence, target selection, timing, movement, or secondary hazard creates a problem that does not fit a simple active-assailant response model. ACAT gives law-enforcement personnel a framework for recognizing that shift and adapting before the response becomes predictable.
The course is built for active law-enforcement and military law-enforcement personnel. It is not a general-public or civilian security course. Instruction can be delivered as an eight-hour lecture or expanded to a sixteen-hour program that includes approved practical application. The host agency remains responsible for participant eligibility, local policy, operational authorization, and the safe use of agency equipment.
Attack methods and case-based analysis
Participants examine recurring attack methods and the response problems they create. Topics include fire-as-a-weapon, vehicle-as-a-weapon, explosives, denial of entry, chemical and smoke munitions, extensive pre-attack intelligence gathering, mobile perpetrators, ambushes, and attacks that create multiple scenes or secondary threats. Case studies may include the Dubrovka Theater attack in Moscow, the Beslan school attack, the Mumbai attacks, the Aurora theater attack, the Forsyth County courthouse attack, the Nice attack, and the Paris attacks. The purpose is not to memorize incident histories. It is to identify the operational decisions, assumptions, and vulnerabilities that affect counter-assault performance.
Counter-assault decision-making
ACAT examines counter-assault tactics across the response spectrum, from patrol officers and first-line supervisors to specialized tactical teams. Participants consider how to recognize the attack method, protect responding personnel, organize information, make access and movement decisions, manage secondary hazards, and coordinate with other law-enforcement resources. The emphasis is on disciplined adaptation within the agency’s authority, training, equipment, and policy rather than on a single universal tactic.
Operational judgment under pressure
The practical option uses controlled, scenario-based application to test recognition, prioritization, communication, movement, and adaptation. Practical activities are selected with the host and may be limited by facility conditions, equipment, instructor qualifications, and agency policy. The course does not authorize live operations, expand a participant’s law-enforcement authority, or replace agency qualification programs.
Delivery options:
ACAT can be scheduled as an eight-hour lecture or as a sixteen-hour lecture-and-practical program. Both options use the same core framework. The longer program gives participants additional time to apply the concepts to approved scenarios, evaluate decision points, and identify agency-specific gaps in policy, training, equipment, communications, and coordination.
Eight-hour lecture program
The lecture program establishes a shared understanding of asymmetric attack methods, historical case studies, perpetrator behavior, response vulnerabilities, and counter-assault priorities. It is appropriate when the host wants a common operating framework for a broad law-enforcement audience or when practical facilities and equipment are not available. The host receives the instruction specified in the formal scope and quote.
Sixteen-hour lecture and practical program
The sixteen-hour option adds controlled practical application. Participants work through approved scenarios that require them to recognize the attack method, make time-sensitive decisions, communicate changing information, protect responders, and adapt as conditions change. The practical component is not a live-fire qualification and does not replace an agency’s firearms, tactical, hazardous-materials, medical, or other certification requirements.
Agency application and sustainment
The course is intended to inform agency planning after delivery. Leaders should use the material to review response plans, identify training and equipment gaps, examine communications and command relationships, and determine how asymmetric attack considerations fit within existing policy. Threat Suppression can discuss customized scenarios, additional practical stations, and follow-on exercises through a separate scope and quote.
REQUEST A QUOTE | DOWNLOAD COURSE DETAILS
To schedule this course for your agency, discuss customization options, or learn more about instructor qualifications and delivery format, please contact us.
Email: info@ThreatSuppression.com
Phone: 800.231.9106
Download the full course description (PDF) with detailed learning objectives, topic breakdown, and host requirements.
