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
Related:
- Pakistan: Bomb disposal squad defused a bomb in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber district
February 19, 2022
A bomb disposal squad defused a bomb in Jamrud tehsil of Khyber district on Friday. Residents of the Ghundi area informed the authorities that a suspicious pressure cooker pot was lying in a dry canal. The squad personnel rushed to the spot and when they came to know it was a bomb, they took it to ...
- Pakistan: Security Forces Defused Magnetically Attached IED Planted In Vehicle At Balochistan University
February 18, 2022
A major terror bid has been foiled by the timely action of the law enforcement agencies in Quetta as they defused an improvised explosive device (IED) planted in a vehicle parked at Balochistan University, ARY News reported on Thursday. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) spokesperson said in a statement foiled a major terror bid in Quetta’s Balochistan ...
- Cambodia: Deminers remove 50-year-old bomb in K Chhnang
February 18, 2022
CMAC deminers today removed an unexploded bomb, dropped by American warplanes during the civil war era, weighing more than 200 kilogrammes and which was buried underground for nearly 50 years in Kampong Chhnang province’s Kampong Tralach district. District police Deputy Chief Lieutenant Colonel Chuon Sitha told Khmer Times that at about 2pm yesterday, a construction worker, ...
- 759th Ordnance Company (EOD) technicians clear more than 700 rounds from Air Force range
February 17, 2022
FORT IRWIN, California – A team of U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians cleared 723 rounds from a U.S. Air Force training range in California’s Mojave Desert. Three EOD Soldiers from the Fort Irwin, California-based 759th Ordnance Company (EOD) disposed of a wide variety of explosive items during the 13-hour range clearance mission at the Leach ...
- Hamburg: 500-kilo unexploded ordnance successfully defused
February 17, 2022
During exploratory work in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg on Rotenhäuser Damm, workers came across a 500-kilogram (1,000 lbs) unexploded Second World War bomb. The unexploded ordnance was discovered under water at a depth of ten meters. After establishing a safety zone and evacuating the area the bomb was examined by divers and successfully defused by the explosive ordnance clearance ...
- Washington: Police investigating after IED found near WWU, Sehome High School
February 15, 2022
Bellingham Police are investigating after an improvised explosive device was found near Sehome High School and WWU. Lt. Claudia Murphy says a maintenance worker found the device on the 3000 block of Ferry Avenue on Sunday, February 13th, around noon. BPD’s Hazardous Devices Unit was able to safely dispose of the device. Read more… Source: KGMI News
- UK: Hereford police station shut after hand grenade brought in
February 14, 2022
A police station was closed after a hand grenade was handed in by a member of the public. Bomb disposal experts were sent to the site in Hereford to assess the device and ensure its safe disposal, the West Mercia force said. The station was cordoned off for investigations, with police reassuring people there was not believed ...
- UK: Dstl ‘briefcase bomb’ donated to Royal Logistic Corps Museum
February 14, 2022
The dummy device, constructed by 2 Dstl apprentices, will support educational outreach activity at the recently-opened museum at Worthy Down near Winchester. The Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) incorporates the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal regiments whose bomb disposal experts are called upon to assist the police when suspected explosives are discovered, such as unexploded bombs dropped from ...
- Colombia: Military Engineers making progress in antipersonnel mines clearance
February 12, 2022
Colombian Military Engineers made progress in the decontamination of 9,728 square meters in Marquetalia Tolima that were suspected of having antipersonnel mines. The work of the soldiers of the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion No. 2 continues in the region. https://twitter.com/Ingenieros_EJC/status/1492170162157596675 The municipality of El Doncello Caquetá is free from antipersonnel mines thanks to the work of the ...
- Philippines: RCIED discovered, destroyed at Maguindanao power cooperative grounds
February 11, 2022
Ordnance experts on Thursday destroyed a home-made bomb found on the premises of the office of a power utility cooperative. The improvised explosive device left in the compound of the Maguindanao Electric Cooperative (Magelco) in Barangay Upper Capiton was fashioned from a 60-mm mortar projectile rigged with a blasting mechanism that could be triggered by mobile ...
- US Air Force to Field MRAPs Fitted With Laser, Robotic Arm to Blow Up Unexploded Bombs
February 11, 2022
The Air Force will begin fielding reconditioned armored vehicles this fall that are equipped with lasers to detonate unexploded ordnance on airfields following a $40 million development program. If the 13 planned bomb disposal vehicles are a success, the Air Force could order another 21 of them, the service’s Life Cycle Management Center said. The Recovery ...
- UK: Man arrested after bomb disposal squad called to residential street in Llanelli
February 10, 2022
A man has been arrested on suspicion of offences under The Explosive Substances Act after a bomb disposal team was called to a residential street in Llanelli. Police, fire, ambulance and bomb disposal experts were called to the scene on Alban Road, between James Street and Glanella Road, on Thursday (February 10). Dyfed Powys Police said a ...
- China donates military, construction equipment to Philippine Department of Defense
February 10, 2022
China has agreed to donate millions of dollars in military and construction equipment to the Philippine government despite a bitter dispute over the South China Sea, officials said Wednesday. Much of the donation worth around 1 billion Philippine pesos will be used for equipment to rebuild the southern town of Marawi, which was destroyed in a ...
- Iraq: Attack against a Global Coalition’s convoy thwarted in al-Diwaniyah
February 9, 2022
Iraqi Security Forces thwarted a roadside bomb attack against a Global Coalition’s convoy in al-Iskan area, al-Diwaniyah Governorate. The Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency in the Ministry of Interior discovered and defused two explosive devices planted alongside the highway in the Al-Iskan area. The devices were rendered safe on site by an EOD expert. https://twitter.com/SecMedCell/status/1491470283848441858 Source: Security Media ...
- EXU-1, FBI Host Maritime Post-Blast Investigation Course at NAS Key West
February 8, 2022
Expeditionary Exploitation Unit 1 (EXU-1) and the FBI’s Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) Section conducted a maritime post-blast investigation course at Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West, Florida, Jan. 19-28. The U.K. Royal Navy Diving and Threat Exploitation Group (DTXG) and three U.S. Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) teams, including technicians from EXU-1 and EOD Mobile Unit ...
- Vermont State Police Bomb Squad disposes of degraded dynamite in Georgia
February 8, 2022
The Vermont State Police Bomb Squad removed 30 sticks of nitroglycerin-based dynamite from a home in Georgia on Tuesday. The team was called to safely remove the legally owned and licensed explosives at a property on Oakland Station Road with a controlled burn. A routine inspection found degraded explosives that required professional disposal for the safety of ...
- Thailand: Three injured including two bomb squad officers injured in Songkhla’s bomb blast
February 5, 2022
While investigating the scene in Songkhla’s Chana district where a fisherman lost his leg when he stepped on a bomb buried underground, two explosive ordnance disposal personnel at the investigation site sustained serious injuries when another bomb exploded. They were working near a railway bridge near Ban Na subdistrict under the surveillance of police and soldiers ...
- Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company trains with Special Forces during Sage Eagle
February 3, 2022
WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, New Mexico – A U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company trained with Special Operations Forces at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, during Exercise Sage Eagle, Jan. 24 – 31. Army EOD technicians from the Fort Bliss, Texas-based 734th Ordnance Company (EOD) integrated with Fort Bragg, North Carolina-based 3rd Special Forces Group ...
- California: Man Found Dead Near San Francisco Schools With Possible IED
February 3, 2022
A man found dead from a possible improvised explosive device in Antioch, California, sent neighborhoods into lockdown and bomb squads scrambling on Monday. Police responding to a call at around 7:30 a.m. found a white male in his mid 50s lying in the street, department spokesman Darryl Saffold told East County Today. The unresponsive man had ...
- Alberta: Police find bomb, guns, stolen first-responder uniforms after standoff at Edmonton home
February 3, 2022
Police say they found stolen first responder uniforms, high-calibre firearms and a homemade bomb at a home in southeast Edmonton after a standoff last weekend. It started early Saturday in the Jackson Heights neighbourhood in Mill Woods. Just before 4 a.m., Edmonton police said officers spotted three men loading suspicious items into a taxi at a home ...
- Ireland: Bomb disposal team deployed after suspected hand grenade found in Dublin
February 2, 2022
A number of residents in south Co Dublin were forced to leave their homes on Wednesday morning after an explosive device was discovered at one property. A scene was sealed off on Sallynoggin Road as gardaí and then Army bomb disposal experts worked to make the area safe. The Irish Times understands the incident arose when ...
- Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician selected for command sergeant major
February 2, 2022
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Maryland – A Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician was selected for the U.S. Army command sergeant major program. Sgt. Maj. Stephen P. Cunningham will become the senior enlisted leader for the Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington-headquartered 3rd Ordnance Battalion (EOD), which commands six Army EOD companies stationed in Washington State, California and West Texas. A ...