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:

  • Myanmar: Landmines to be cleared in Arakan State

    January 18, 2021

    Col Min Than, Arakan, State Minister for Security and Border Affairs announced the Tatmadaw will carry out mine clearance after the Tatmadaw and the AA signed an agreement on the deployment of troops in Arakan State. The State Minister added “The deployment of troops will materialize, after both sides withdraw their troops. This is the part ...

  • Afghanistan: Afghan National Army discovered Taliban’s tunnel in Kunduz province, defused 20 IEDs in Saheb district

    January 18, 2021

    Afghan National Army discovered and defused a Taliban’s tunnel in Imam Saheb district of Kundoz province, last night. The tunnel was excavated under civilians houses for terrorists activities by Taliban. Additionally, 6 villages were cleared off from TB and 20 IEDs were defused in the district. https://twitter.com/MoDAfghanistan/status/1351040009957203971 56 IEDs which were placed by Taliban on public roads ...

  • Afghanistan: Afghan National Police seize and defuse IEDs in Paktika, Baghlan and Kandahar provinces

    January 18, 2021

    As a result of search operation, GCPSU discovered & seized one missile launcher, seven mortar rounds, four RPG-7 rockets, four IEDs & six hand grenades in Urgon district of Paktika province. Meanwhile, ANP seized an ammunition-laden vehicle in PD#5, Pul-e-Khumri City of Baghlan province. The vehicle was carrying 19 heavy rounds of ammunition & 1,500 rounds ...

  • Iraq: IED explosion kills at least three soldiers near Sinjar

    January 17, 2021

    An improvised explosive device (IED) blew up on a group of Iraqi soldiers in the Yezidi-majority Sinjar district of Nineveh province, local media reported. The bombing killed at least nine people, one official claimed. The explosion took place as a team of Iraqi soldiers attempted to defuse an IED in the Sharia area, which administratively belongs ...

  • Russian de-miners defuse over 200 explosive devices in Laos

    January 14, 2021

    Russian military engineers have defused over 200 explosive devices in Laos since November 2020, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. “Military servicemen from the International Anti-Mine Center of the Russian Armed Forces found over 200 explosive devices as part of a humanitarian demining mission in the Xiangkhouang province, Laos. More than one ...

  • Meet Bonny, the first British military search dog deployed to Mali

    January 14, 2021

    Lance Corporal Grant Stevens and his companion Bonny are part of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal team newly deployed to Mali A three-hundred strong task group of British soldiers has arrived in Mali as part of the UN Peacekeeping Mission (MINUSMA). Their mission is about building peace, stability and security in the region. Amongst those 300 men and ...

  • Northern Challenge 2020

    January 14, 2021

    In September 2020, the Icelandic Coast Guard hosted Northern Challenge, an annual Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) training for NATO nations and their allies. This multinational exercise aims to sharpen EOD technicians’ technical skills through Improvised Explosive Device Defeat (IEDD) training scenarios that become increasingly complex as the challenge progresses. During these trainings, EOD teams compete ...

  • Pakistan: Explosive device defused in Washuk District, Balochistan

    January 13, 2021

    Members of security forces defused an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by the roadside in Basima area of Washuk district, sources said on Tuesday. According to the official sources, after receiving information in this regard personnel of the Frontier Corps and Levies Force cordoned off the area concerned, after which a bomb disposal squad defused the ...

  • Royal Navy blow up World War Two mortar bomb found on beach in Cornwall

    January 13, 2021

    A bomb dating back to the Second World War which was found on a Cornish beach has been detonated safely. Members of the Royal Navy’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) attended Hayle beach at around 8.30am today (January 12) to carry out the operation on the spigot mortar round, which had been found the previous day. Officers had ...

  • California: Bomb making materials found during search of Stockton home

    January 12, 2021

    Materials used to build explosives were found on Monday during the search of the Stockton home of a man who was arrested Sunday in connection with igniting an explosive device on Saturday. Authorities on Monday evacuated the 2400 block of W. Sonoma Avenue as the home was searched by both the San Joaquin Explosive Ordnance Disposal ...

  • Jammu and Kashmir: Government forces destroy IED planted in Poonch

    January 10, 2021

    Government forces on Sunday destroyed an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) that was recovered on Gohlad-Mendhar road in this border sub-division. An unnamed official told a local news agency, Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that the device was recovered during night patrol by a team of police headed by Station House Officer (SHO) Mendhar Manzoor Kohli under the ...

  • Somalia: AMISOM troops conclude counter IED training in Arbiska

    January 9, 2021

    Forty Ugandan soldiers serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) based in Arbiska, 30 km north west of Mogadishu have completed a five-weeks training aimed at enhancing their capacity to counter the threat posed by Improvised Explosive Devices ( IEDs). Col. Jimmy Nabiyu Musoke, the Commander of Uganda’s Battle Group (BG) XXX, presided over ...

  • South Australia: Man charged after police allegedly found drugs and explosive device at Osborne property

    January 9, 2021

    A property in a normally quiet South Australian neighbourhood was stormed by heavily armed police today, where they allegedly uncovered prohibited drugs, stashes of money and an explosive device. A man and woman who live at the Modlavia Walk property in Osborne, about 21 kilometres north-west of the Adelaide city centre, were quickly arrested. Neighbours say they ...

  • Washington, DC: An explosive device is found at the R.N.C., and the D.N.C. is evacuated.

    January 6, 2021

    An explosive device was found at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee in Washington and the nearby headquarters of the Democratic National Committee was evacuated after the discovery of a suspicious package on Wednesday, according to three people briefed on the discoveries. The device that was found at the R.N.C. was a pipe bomb that ...

  • Afghan Security Forces prevented a car bomb attack in Faryab province, defused 7 IEDs in Kabul, Maidan Wardak and Nangarhar provinces

    January 5, 2021

    Afghan National Army prevented a car bomb attack in Shireen-Tagab district of Faryab province today. Taliban wanted to blow up a car which had been loaded with explosives in the Shireen-Tab market. The car was identified by ANA and it was targeted and destroyed. https://twitter.com/MoDAfghanistan/status/1346495320260227073 The engineering teams of Afghan National Police following point-to-point search operations, managed ...

  • Northern Ireland: Army bomb disposal call-outs highest in three years

    January 3, 2021

    Ammunition Technical Officers (ATO) based in the region can be requested to assist police where it is believed there may be explosives. Officers from explosive ordnance disposal and search regiments were called out 229 times between August 1 2018 and July 31 2019 according to the most recent available government figures. MI5 continued to categorise the threat ...

  • UK: Man ‘lucky to be alive’ after digging up hand grenade on Mawgan Porth beach

    January 1, 2021

    Police say a man is ‘lucky not to have been killed’ after stumbling across a live hand grenade on Mawgan Porth beach this afternoon. The Royal Navy EOD team along with Falmouth Coastguard and police officers were all called to the beach near Newquay today after a 999 call. Regie Butler-Card, police inspector for Bodmin and Wagebridge, ...

  • Royal Navy bomb disposal expert made MBE

    December 30, 2020

    A Royal Navy expert who oversaw the safe disposal of a 500lb Luftwaffe bomb found at London’s King George V Docks has been made an MBE in the New Year Honours list. Under Lieutenant Commander Sean “Central” Heaton’s leadership, specialist divers from Portsmouth and Plymouth-based bomb disposal units have rendered safe or disposed of nearly 16,000 ...

  • EOD Mobile Unit and Croatian Navy Conduct Humanitarian Mine Action Training

    December 29, 2020

    SPLIT, Croatia – Sailors from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit (EODMU) Eight, subordinate command of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 68, facilitated Department of Defense (DoD) Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) EOD Level 2 training to the Croatian Navy’s underwater EOD team at Lora Naval Base in Split, Croatia, Dec. 1-21, 2020. The training was the second of ...

  • Russia: Over 5,000 explosive devices defused in Caucasus in 2020

    December 29, 2020

    Over 5,000 explosive devices were defused in the North and South Caucasus in 2020, the press service of Russia’s South Military District said in a statement on Tuesday. “The South Military District’s mobile demining units found and deactivated more than 5,000 explosive devices in 2020. They processed over 230 requests filed by draft offices based in ...

  • Afghan Air Force targeted and destroyed a large cache of Taliban’s explosives in Helmand province

    December 28, 2020

    Afghan Air Force targeted and destroyed a large cache of Taliban’s explosives in Sangin district of Helmand province today. The explosives were being used in making IEDs and bombs. https://twitter.com/MoDAfghanistan/status/1343505624307556353 Afghan National Army discovered and defused 11 IEDs in Sangin district of Helmand, today. The IEDs were planted on public roads by Taliban to kill innocent civilians. https://twitter.com/MoDAfghanistan/status/1343499046607085568 12 ...