Chief of Transformation Workshop

From Wednesday 18th till Friday 20th of September the 2nd Chief of Transportation Workshop convened in The Netherlands. This ACT event was hosted by Command & Control Centre of Excellence which is located in Utrecht. In this workshop the National Chiefs of Transformation representatives as well as 7NNN, COE, ACT and other NATO representatives were informed about the agenda and content of the Chief of Transformation Conference, which will be held in Norfolk, 10-12 December. This Conference is the opportunity for National COTs to discuss and talk with SACT and other National COTs about their own topics and the topics which are prepared by the ACT COTC team and refined by this workshop. The results of this workshop will be briefed to SACT, who will decide of implementing the suggestions to the next COTC.

This years’ COTC will be the last one of its kind. Most likely this event will return in another format and with another name in 2020. The WS emphasized it will be of value to give some clarity about this in December.

4th C-IED Technology Workshop, Madrid, SPAIN, 01-03 Oct 2019

During three days, from 1st to 3rd October 2019, the 4th C-IED Technology Workshop 2019 (TWS19) organized by the C-IED COE has gather together more than 180 delegates coming from several national and international organizations, MoDs, Law Enforcement institutions, Research Centers, Industry and Academia in an open forum in order to provide an in-depth overview of the latest technologies supporting the C-IED fight, and to facilitate communication among participants trying to match current and potential operational needs with technological solutions.

The event provided a set of panels, based on presentations by 29 speakers from NATO Science and technology Organization, NATO Emerging Security and Challenges Division (ESCD was also the most important sponsor for the event), the European Defence Agency, United Nations Mine Action Service, US DoD, ESP and NLD MoDs, German Army Technical Centre for Weapons and Ammunition, French Military Explosives and Ammunition Centre, some national research centers as Romanian CCSA, Dutch TNO, Australia DS and Spanish INTA.

From Academia, universities of Oviedo, Burgos, Minho presented cutting-edge projects on C-IED and companies as INDRA and General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) added a valuable point of view on implementing R&D solutions. SMEs from EOD and C-IED COEs briefed on R&D projects and others topics of panels. Briefings were followed by active discussions with audience. Panels have dealt with international and nationals initiatives of research and development in C-IED, Technical Exploitation for Operational Needs, Advanced Standoff Detection Technologies, Future C-UAS Solutions for IED Incidents and the last on IED Threat Mitigation-Current and Emerging Technologies.

Attendees have had also the opportunity to receive direct information from companies about current and future proposals to facilitate C-IED capability enhancing and to do an intensive networking for potential collaborations. An exhibition area with more than 15 companies (LEONARDO, NUANCE, SCANNA, Centum, IBATECH, INDRA, GDELS and others) was visited actively along workshop. On the second day live demos of some C-IED products and solutions were showed by TUBITAK BILGEM, EVERIS AND THERMO FISHER companies.

It´s to be pointed out that the C-IED Technology Workshops are always an opportunity for the C-IED Community of Interest to identify possible effective application of Research and Development in the C-IED field.

Hungarian Senior Leadership Seminar

In accordance with the Program of Work 2019 of the C-IED COE, a Senior Leadership Seminar (SLS) was conducted in Budapest, Hungary 17 October 2019. The delegation of three provided a series of presentations for the audience, that had been selected from the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF) Headquarters J2 Department, HDF Non Commissioned Officer Academy (NCOA) C-IED Training Branch and also the Chief EOD officer of HDF was present. The content of seminar showed the audience that the threat caused by the use of improvised explosive devices, is still there. Moreover the delegation expressed the fact the threat has not been exclusively in distant places, it can “come to our streets”. At the end of the session, the participants agreed on maintaining close connections within this area as well, in order to build the necessary capability to address the threat.

59th NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal Working Group

The C-IED COE participated in the 59th NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Inter-service Working Group in Kiel, Germany from 21-25 October 2019. The Working Group began with National Heads of Delegation introductions, followed by outstanding action items from the previous meeting, multiple liaison reports from the participating organizations, and concluded with separate panel discussions.

The four main panels for the working group included the Doctrine, Policy, and Philosophy (DPP) Panel, the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedure (TTP) Panel, Information Panel, and the EOD in the Maritime Environment (EME) Panel. The C-IED COE participated in the DPP panel for two days and provided input to the Terms of Reference (TOR), and the way forward for AEODP-10 and AEODP-13.

The conclusion of the working group focused on panel chairs discussing their panel outcomes and way ahead. The 60th NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Inter-service Working Group will take place in Oslo, Norway from 4-8 May 2020.