7th Spanish Symposium on "Resarch and Development in Defense and Security "

The National Armaments Directorate of the Spanish Ministry of Defence has organized the 7th National Symposium on Research and Development (R&D) in Defense and Security 2019 (DESEI+D 2019). DESEI+D 2019 was held in the SP Naval NCOs School sited in San Fernando –Cádiz- (Spain). This Congress has been an excellent forum where all main ESP military and civilian stakeholders related with R&D issues in the Defence and Security field have had opportunities to present and discuss the latest research made in some of the seven (7) areas related with defence and security as focused on: (1) Weapon systems and Ammunition; (2) Sensors and Electronic Systems –radar, electromagnetic warfare, optronics; (3) Platforms (ground, naval, aerial, satellites); (4) Future Soldier Systems; (5) C-IED and CBRN; (6) Information systems and C4I; and (7) Society, Economics, Geopolitics, Psychology, Medical Support and Energy.

 164 speakers came from military, R&D centers, Centers for Technological and Industrial Development, high technology laboratories, Academia, specialized Centers (C-IED COE) and ESP Ministries as Defence; Science, Innovation and Universities; Internal Affairs and Industry & Commerce. Almost 600 delegates attended DESEI+D 2019 and the C-IED COE presented its two R&D ongoing projects: (1) “Protection of Infrastructures and Systems Against Explosions– Advanced Protective Coatings (PRINSE - APC)” and (2) “SAFEDRONE project: UAV mounted GPR imaging system for IEDs detection”. DESEI+D has become a mature Symposium for Defence & Security.

EXERTER End-User Workshop 2020

The C-IED CoE supported the annual end-user Workshop held the in the Fraunhofer Ernst Mach Institute (EMI) facilities, in Freiburg (Germany) on 19th and 20th November. The workshop was organized by the EXERTER project network and the aim was the discussion of experiences, sharing knowledge and identifying research and capability gaps in a group consisting of selected end-users and consortium members.

As a framework for the discussion, the topic for this end-user workshop was 'Attacks on Public Transportation, aligned to historical events such as the Madrid train station bombing in 2004.

It was an excellent opportunity to improve as expertise in the explosives field the knowledge and the military and C-IED perspective to the researches and academia.

Initial Planning Conference Bison Counter 2020

Further to previous Bison Counter Exercises in 2013 and 2016, Italy will host the EDA Counter Improvised Explosive Devices Joint and Combined Multinational Live Exercise (LIVEX) “Bison Counter (BC20)”. The exercise will take place in Sardinia Island’s Training Areas from 8 to 25 May 2020

The aim of BC20 will be to apply the C-IED concept and C-IED enablers with a deployed multinational C-IED Task Force in a constantly evolving operational environment. Among other objectives, BC20 will cover aspects of the full C-IED cycle and threats, trends and related functions including military search, technical exploitation, EOD and IED Disposal, etc., as well as the intelligence and operations interface in a real, multi-dimension land/maritime & air scenario.

An Initial Planning Conference was held in Italy, to set up the basis of the exercise where one C-IED COE delegated subject matter expert assisted and advised the planning process. 

III Secudrone Workshop

The C-IED CoE attended to the 3rd Technology Workshop SECUDRONE in Madrid from 11th-12th November 2019, held by the Association for the Promotion of Strategic Technologies and Industries (APTIE). The aim was to promote the UAS & C-UAS knowledge and approach in the Spanish CoI, including Military, Law Enforcement, Industry and final users. The workshop was mainly based on briefings but also a round table about legal issues and local police perspectives was discussed. It was an excellent opportunity to achieve a more in-depth knowledge about the different solutions to defeat the UAS threat and to know the current regulations in the EU that must be applied for the next year.