EOD teams upend training for threats from IEDs on the ground to drones in the air


The job of ordnance disposal technicians is rapidly changing. After decades of handling prevasive ground-level threats of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, disposal techs are reinventing their jobs for a new threat: drones with explosives. As they adjust, they are adding drones to their own arsenals for dealing with explosives.

Over the last two decades, Army ordnance disposal technicians were tasked with rendering more than 100,000 improvised explosive devices “safe” in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the face of warfare changes, the threat of one-way attack unmanned aerial systems and drones strapped with munitions and explosives are becoming a topic that ordnance disposal technicians are being increasingly trained on.

Read more…
Source: Task & Purpose


Sign up for our Newsletter


Related:

  • Tunisian Counter-IED team tests skills at Raven’s Challenge

    March 12, 2022

    U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa and Tunisian Armed Forces Engineers participated in a counter-IED exercise in Camp Blanding, Florida this week. A member of SETAF-AF C-IED/EOD branch traveled with two Tunisian explosive ordnance disposal specialists to participate in the Raven’s Challenge Interoperability Exercise. “Working with the Tunisians has been a pleasure,” said Rocco Covello, SETAF-AF ...

  • Cambodia: CMAC launches bomb clearing at Stung Sen River

    March 10, 2022

    The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) underwater clearance team has begun an operation to clear bombs that were dropped from airplanes into the Stung Sen River. The operation began after a fisherman reported that he had discovered a bomb along the Stung Sen River. Experts believe that the bomb discovered is a MK-82 bomb dropped from ...

  • Alaska: Navy EOD and Juneau Police to team up on exercise at Capital Building

    March 9, 2022

    The Juneau Police Department and Alaska State Capitol Security along with Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) technicians are conducting a scheduled vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) drill outside the capitol building from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m Thursday. Police say no real explosives will be used in the drill, which will involve an inert training aid ...

  • Vietnam: Quảng Bình deactivates 230kg wartime bomb discovered near market

    March 8, 2022

    The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) on Monday said its team in the central province of Quảng Bình has deactivated a nearly-230-kg wartime bomb found right next to the Đồng Hới City market, which houses hundreds of small businesses and sees thousands of people passing by every day. The MK82 bomb, used by the US Army during ...

  • Italy: Second World War bomb defused in Campania

    March 6, 2022

    After setting up 475 meters a safety perimeter and evacuating local residents, the EOD technicians of 21st Engineer Regiment of the Bersaglieri Garibaldi Brigade have safely defused the 200-pound Second World War bomb in Sapri, Campania. The soldiers were assisted by the Municipal Civil Protection RFI, CONSAC, Gas Network and Campania Region, Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza, ...

  • Washington: Bomb squad in Tacoma responds to explosive device found near suspicious car fire

    March 4, 2022

    A homemade bomb was found near a suspicious car fire Thursday in Tacoma, police said. A bomb squad responded and rendered the explosive device safe. No one was injured in the fire, which burned a Chevy SUV and a Chevy pickup at an encampment in the 1900 block of East D Street, near the Foss ...

  • Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad, Air National Guard dispose of multiple explosive devices

    March 2, 2022

    Troopers with the Nebraska State Patrol Bomb Squad, assisted by an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from the Nebraska Air National Guard’s 155th Air Refueling Wing, have safely destroyed three old military ordnances located in personal property recently. Last Thursday, February 24, a resident of Fremont located a grenade in the belongings of a deceased relative. That ...

  • U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician profession marks 80th anniversary

    March 2, 2022

    ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Maryland – The U.S. Army is marking the 80th anniversary of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal profession this year. The U.S. Army’s first enlisted EOD technicians began training at the Bomb Disposal School on Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, in April 1942. Based in the science, security and technology corridor of northeast Maryland, Aberdeen Proving Ground ...

  • Colombian Army and National Police seized and destroyed two IEDs in Arauca province

    March 1, 2022

    Colombian Army in coordination with the National Police managed to locate and destroy two cylinder-type explosive devices found fifteen meters from a house located in the San Jorge neighborhood, in the municipality of Saravena, Arauca. The EOD techs from Equipo de Explosivos y Demoliciones EXDE DELTA carried out inspection of the site with all the security ...

  • Philippines: Stray dogs of Quezon City to be trained as explosive detection dogs

    March 1, 2022

    The Quezon City government through its veterinary bureau has begun training rescued stray dogs to become community service and bomb-sniffing dogs, Mayor Maria Josefina “Joy” Belmonte said on Tuesday. She said the rescued animals will undergo comprehensive assessment, as well as health check and temperament tests before they could qualify for training to become community service ...

  • Explosive Ordnance Disposal Soldiers destroy more than 250 cannon balls in Pennsylvania

    February 28, 2022

    CHAMBERSBURG, Pennsylvania – U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Soldiers destroyed more than 250 Civil War-era cannon balls during a domestic explosive mitigation mission on Letterkenny Army Depot in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. EOD technicians from the Fort Belvoir, Virginia-based 55th Ordnance Company (EOD) used shape charges to render the munitions safe. More than 157 years old, the cannon balls ...

  • Philippines: Sulu roadside bombing foiled

    February 28, 2022

    Government troops have prevented a roadside bombing as they safely defused an improvised explosive device (IED) in the province of Sulu, military officials announced Monday. Lt. Col. Domingo Robles Jr., 35th Infantry Battalion commander, said the IED was disarmed around 1:10 p.m. Sunday in Sitio Daan Putih, Barangay Anuling, Patikul. Robles said the IED was located through ...

  • Ukrainian forces attempt to remove unexploded missile in Kharkiv street

    February 26, 2022

    Ukrainian forces worked to remove an unexploded missile on Friday from a residential area in the country’s northeast following a Russian attack. The images, from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) correspondent Maryan Kushnir, show an unexploded piece of ordinance in the “Horse Market” area of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city. Members of Ukraine’s civil defence forces are ...

  • LAPD bomb technician’s warnings were ignored before ill-fated fireworks detonation, report finds

    February 25, 2022

    Before members of the LAPD bomb squad destroyed part of a South L.A. neighborhood by exploding a stash of illegal fireworks last summer, they repeatedly ignored warnings from one of their most experienced technicians that the plan was not safe, according to a new report by the LAPD’s inspector general. The member who raised concerns, identified ...

  • Cambodia: Residents find explosive remnants of war in a plot of land in Pailin province

    February 25, 2022

    Following a recent spate of torrential rains and landslides, residents in O’Snguot village, Bor Yakha commune in Pailin city were surprised when they stumbled onto unexploded ordnances sticking out from the ground in a plot of land on Wednesday. Sam Kour Lin told the local media yesterday that he was walking near the plot of land ...

  • Oregon: Police Detonate Homemade Bomb Left Outside Middle School

    February 24, 2022

    Police successfully detonated a homemade bomb found outside a middle school in Sherwood, Oregon, on Wednesday night, according to Sherwood School District. At approximately 6:11 p.m., a “suspicious item” was found by a civilian on the athletic field outside Sherwood Middle School, after a person and a dog were playing in the field, according to a ...

  • 8th CES Fire Department and EOD Train Together

    February 24, 2022

    KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea — Tech. Sgt. Ryan Faulk, 8th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department Assistant Chief of Operations, and Airman First Class Matthew Maier, 8th CES Fire Department Firefighter, walk to establish decontamination zones during routine training at Kunsan Air Base, Republic of Korea, Feb. 17, 2022. The fire department and the explosive ...

  • Japan: Suspected WWII US bomb defused in Ōita Prefecture

    February 23, 2022

    A Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) team was deployed to a work site here on Feb. 21 to defuse and remove a suspected U.S. bomb from World War II. The Usa city government cordoned off an area within a radius of roughly 400 meters from where the bomb had been unearthed at a sewage system work ...

  • India: Over 200 artillery shells found near Ambala

    February 23, 2022

    Over 200 artillery shells were found stuffed in several unattended sacks in Manglore’s forest area in Ambala on Friday. Superintendent of police Jashandeep Singh Randhawa informed that they got information of some suspicious bomb-like objects in the Manglore forest area near Shahzadpur in Ambala. “Police reached the spot and on examination, it was found that these are ...

  • Rescue Board defuses World War Two-era bomb found in Kakumäe

    February 22, 2022

    The Rescue Board (Päästeamet) closed off the residential district of Kakumäe, just west of Tallinn, on Monday, in order to defuse an unexploded wartime aerial bomb found there the day before. “Defusing work is taking place on the Kakumäe shore in Haabersti today from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.,” the board announced on its Twitter page ...

  • Trigger Point ‘doesn’t tell full story’, says Met’s top bomb disposal expert

    February 21, 2022

    he UK’s top police bomb disposal expert says ITV’s Trigger Point is “a wonderful drama” but doesn’t tell the real story of his job. Matthew Middleditch MBE, Scotland Yard’s senior explosives officer, added he is thankful to Jed Mercurio’s six-part thriller starring Vicky McClure for throwing a spotlight on the counter-terrorism unit. Mr Middleditch’s team examined the ...

  • Cambodia sends 8th batch of peacekeepers to Central African Republic

    February 20, 2022

    Cambodia on Sunday dispatched the eighth batch of 219 peacekeepers, including 28 women, to join a United Nations peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic (CAR). Speaking at the departure ceremony held at the Phnom Penh International Airport, Gen. Sem Sovanny, director-general of the National Center for Peacekeeping Forces, said the troops would substitute the seventh ...