Western governments’ rapidly growing defense spending sounds like a straightforward equation: More spending equals more weapons.
But skilled weapons workers are in short supply, especially explosives experts, and without a sufficiently big bang behind them, even the most sophisticated weaponry is pointless. But blowing things up is not learned in a quick crash course. We need more explosives professors.
Read more…
Source: Foreign policy
Related:
- Pakistan: 8 people killed after a rocket launcher shell explodes at a home in southern Sindh province
September 27, 2023
A shell of a rocket launcher apparently accidentally exploded at a home in a remote village in southern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least eight people, including women and children, police said. At least two people were also wounded in the blast in southern Sindh province, said regional police chief Rahil Khoso. Investigators believe that family ...
- Ukraine Getting ATACMS Cluster Variant Would Be A Big Problem For Russia
September 27, 2023
In the course of the discussions about what Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) ballistic missiles could offer Ukraine, much of the focus has been on variants of these weapons equipped with unitary (single high-explosive) warheads. However, versions loaded with cluster munitions could introduce a whole other set of dire complications to Russian forces. ATACMS, a late ...
- Afghanistan: Two shepherds killed in landmine explosion in Faryab
September 26, 2023
Provincial authorities in Faryab report that two young shepherds lost their lives due to the explosion of a landmine in the Grizwan district of this province. The incident occurred Monday in the Grizwan district when the two shepherds, a 12-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were playing with a landmine. Unexploded landmines from past wars continue to detonate ...
- Mozambique: Police Collect 33 Explosive Devices in Sofala
September 26, 2023
The Mozambican Police (PRM) has collected 33 military explosive devices in Beira city and the neighbouring district of Dondo, in the central province of Sofala, following the death last week of one person and injury of two others as the result of a detonation. According to the PRM spokesperson in Sofala, Dércio Chacate, cited in Tuesday’s ...
- Singapore: 100kg WWII aerial bomb to be detonated in Bukit Timah
September 25, 2023
It’s not every day that a bomb is unearthed in Singapore, but a massive one just turned up at a construction site in Bukit Timah. Coming in at a whopping 100kg, the World War II aerial bomb will be detonated on September 26 (Tuesday). The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team has deemed ...
- IAEA Director General Statement on Situation in Ukraine – Update 184
September 22, 2023
IAEA experts continued to conduct walkdowns of the ZNPP this week. The team visited the main control rooms of units 2, 5 and 6 where they observed that units 2 and 5 remain in cold shutdown and unit 6 in hot shutdown. In addition, the team visited the emergency diesel generators for units 4 and ...
- Georgia: Cobb County police find unexploded grenades in home of dead veteran
September 20, 2023
While inside the home of a dead veteran on Tuesday, Cobb County police had to deal with a rare situation. Officers were made aware of several unexploded grenades dating back more than 50 years. The Cobb bomb squad then responded to the scene to ensure the explosives were not a potential danger. Read more… Source: MSN News
- Ukraine: Car explodes on explosives in Kyiv region, driver killed
September 20, 2023
A man was killed in the Kyiv region as a result of a car exploding an explosive device. The State Emergency Service reported on Telegram. On September 20, rescuers received a report of a forest fire between two settlements of the Ivankiv territorial community. At the scene, firefighters found out that the car ran over a ...
- Afghanistan: 120 killed in due to mine explosions last year
September 18, 2023
The Head of Coordination and Mine Clearance reported a grim statistic for 2023, revealing that 120 people have died, while another 250 individuals have injuries due to mine explosions and unexploded ordnance in the country. This alarming toll underscores the urgent need for continued efforts in mine clearance and public awareness campaigns to mitigate the devastating ...
- Bulgarian Navy destroys drone with mortar attached found near coastal village
September 18, 2023
A Bulgarian Navy specialist team destroyed a drone that had an 82mm high-explosive mortar attached to it, found near the village of Tyulenovo on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast, according to a Defence Ministry statement on September 18. The find was reported to the Navy on the night of September 17 and a Navy team departed ...
- Pakistan: Suspicious bag containing grenade, Red Zone map seized in Islamabad
September 17, 2023
A suspicious bag containing hand grenades, pistol, bullets and a map of Red Zone buildings was seized by Islamabad police. The ICT spokesperson said that the teams are inspecting the recovered arms and ammunition. The recovered arms include three hand grenades, two magazines, 50 bullets and a pistol. Additionally, a map of Red Zone building was ...
- Iraq: Three shepherds killed in landmine explosion in Salahudin province
September 17, 2023
Three shepherds from one family were killed Saturday in a landmine explosion in Iraq’s central province of Salahudin, a provincial police source said. The incident occurred when the shepherds took their sheep in a rugged area near the town of al-Eith in the northern part of the province, Col. Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua. Iraqi security forces ...
- Top UN official calls for immediate halt to cluster bomb use
September 16, 2023
A top official of the United Nations Mine Action Service has appealed to the world to stop using cluster munitions. UNMAS director Ilene Cohn spoke to NHK on Friday while visiting Tokyo. Both Russia and Ukraine have been using cluster bombs since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, with the United States supplying them to Ukraine’s military. ...
- Taiwan: Police station evacuated after man walks in with unexploded wartime bomb
September 16, 2023
Police evacuated their station and called army bomb disposal experts after a man walked in with an unexploded bomb unearthed on a nearby worksite in Changhua County Wednesday, September 13. According to reports, workers clearing a site for a landscape improvement project in Hemei Township dug up an unexploded military bomb on Wednesday afternoon. As the ...
- Libya’s Storm Daniel could see unexploded WWII bombs emerge from Derna waters
September 15, 2023
Aid workers warned on Wednesday that Libya’s brutal and violent floods may unearth unexploded bombs and landmines from past conflicts in the wake of Storm Daniel and the collapse of two dams near the city of Derna. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that its teams were evaluating the risk posed to civilians ...
- Australia’s Defence Force leads multinational team to support Nauru
September 14, 2023
As part of Operation Render Safe, the Australian Defence Force (ADF) led a multinational team to safely dispose of dangerous explosive remnants of war on the Pacific island of Nauru. A team of explosive ordnance disposal experts was deployed to Nauru to do a survey of reported World War II explosive remnants of war (ERW) for ...
- Malaysia: Grenade found at waste diposal site in Bukit Mertajam
September 11, 2023
The Bomb Disposal Unit (UPB) from the Penang police headquarters (IPK) safely disposed of a hand grenade found by workers at a waste disposal site in Ampang Jajar, here, this afternoon. Seberang Perai Tengah police chief, Assistant Commsissioner Tan Cheng San said police received a report at 1.30pm informing them of the discovery of the hand ...
- Yemen’s explosives contamination ‘among world’s worst’
September 11, 2023
Yemen has one of the world’s highest rates of contamination with landmines and other deadly explosives, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned, nine years after the start of the brutal civil war. The impoverished Arab nation, plunged into conflict when Iran-backed Huthi rebels seized the capital in September 2014, is among the three ...
- UNICEF decries increased deaths of children from landmines in Somalia
September 11, 2023
The UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has expressed concern about increased deaths and serious injuries to children involved in landmine explosions which have claimed at least 30 lives since June in Somalia. Nejmudin Kedir Bilal, acting UNICEF representative in Somalia, said several children have been victims in three separate incidents that involved discharges of unexploded ordnances ...
- Romania and US to conduct exercises with Ukraine in Black Sea and Danube Delta
September 8, 2023
The Romanian and US navies are organising Sea Breeze 23.3, a multinational exercise that will take place from 11 to 15 September in the Black Sea and Danube Delta. Military personnel from Bulgaria, France, the United Kingdom, Türkiye and Ukraine will also take part in the exercise. The main purpose of the exercise is to develop ...
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: The completion of the process of cleaning BiH from cluster munitions was solemnly marked
September 8, 2023
The Center for Demining in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Demining Commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the non-governmental organization Norwegian People’s Aid, marked today in Sarajevo the completion of the process of clearing Bosnia and Herzegovina of cluster munitions. The director of the Center ...
- DR Congo: Few worse places to be a child warns UNICEF as twins found boobytrapped
September 8, 2023
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the country, Grant Leaity, issued the alert on Tuesday, revealing that youngsters in eastern DRC face daily atrocities, including rape, abduction and recruitment by armed groups. “I visited a centre in Beni and North Kivu for children released from armed groups where I met a couple of one-year-old twins. They ...
