Frontline
Hostile vehicle attacks
Smart city planning for Transparent Security
T By Stephen Rachow
14 | Australian Security Magazine
errorism in the 1970s was predominated by airline hijackings, the 1980s fell victim to suicide bombings, the 1990s and 2000s involved an abundance of improvised explosive devices, and now vehicular terrorism to ram down pedestrians in public places is at the forefront. Notable in the last 10 years is the global rise of hostile vehicle attacks (HVAs) in western countries. For such attacks, resources are plentiful and target choice random. The use of readily available vehicles disguises an otherwise obvious weapon choice at places of mass gatherings (PMGs) in densely populated cities. Low cost technological advancements also enable low-skilled coordinated simultaneous attacks on exposed targets poorly protected from the design nature of city planning. The recent horrifying attacks in 2017 on La Rambla in Barcelona and Westminster Bridge in London, as well as the 2016 Bastille Day promenade attack in France and the Christmas market place ramming in Berlin, highlight the current nature of terrorism which now focuses on converting common vehicles into readily available weapons for inflicting harm to pedestrians in PMGs. Collectively these attacks, albeit only a few of many others, have killed over 100 innocent civilians and injured over 700 more. Common to HVAs is the perpetrator’s motivation. Individuals driven by ideological or religious beliefs, particularly those subscribing to Al-Qaeda and ISIS extremism, will use common vehicles as weapons against pedestrian targets for mass terrorism. Car ramming incidents in Melbourne and Heidelberg in 2017 also highlight that even mentally disturbed persons are also using vehicles as hostile weapons. The aim, regardless of
the motivation, is to cause mass injuries, death and destruction. From a theoretical standpoint, the success of HVAs is in accordant with the traditional security risk triangle. That is, their motivation plus vehicular capability plus environmental opportunity enables a perpetrator to carry out an attack of this nature. The low-tech, low-skill requirement makes vehicular violence significantly easier to execute than other forms of terrorism and the propagation of intent through the internet has assisted recruitment of perpetrators to follow such motivators on a global level. An analysis of historical events supports that PMGs, accordant with high volume periods, represent the highest likelihood targets with innocent civilians as the most likely targets in danger rather than VIPs, government officials, military targets or critical infrastructure. As such, we can foresee HVAs typically occurring at parades, festivals, concerts, international sporting events, protests, and crowded city streets. The societal outrage in communities caused by successful target execution further amplifies a perpetrator’s satisfaction and intrinsic motivation. Current limitations and in some cases the complete absence of integrated security barrier designs to protect pedestrian and physical asset zones further enables threat groups, increasing their likelihood of success and reinforcing their intrinsic rewards. Current security measures are not enough There have been over 40 HVAs worldwide since the year 2000, predominately terrorism driven against innocent civilians, which has given rise to cities introducing ‘add-on’ measures to mitigate attacks. However, a significant aesthetic limitation