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Homemade explosives are an ever-present threat in the modern world. Despite all the effort done by governments, precursors for their manufacture are still available and often accessible in public. They are relatively inexpensive, easy to conceal and powerful weapon in the hands of the perpetrators.
The most effective way, how to counter their use is to attack the network of homemade explosives production facilities. The homemade explosives laboratory may resemble a "do it yourself" garage, but it can also look like a dirty kitchen with common kitchen ingredients and utensils for cooking or baking.
Therefore, each first responder needs to have a basic knowledge of equipment, precursors and, of course, final homemade explosives products to be able to identify and confirm any illicit activity.
To support NATO common C-IED effort in the pillar - prepare the force, the NATO EOD COE organized two iterations of the HME-B level of course. Both course iterations were performed within the premises of the Ammunition Testing Centre in Novaky, Slovakia. The first iteration was conducted from 13 MAR to 15 MAR 2019 and the second one from 18 MAR to 20 MAR 2019.
Author: CPT Ján TARNOCI (SVK-A)
Photo: SFC Peter BULKO (SVK-A)
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During the course, the students were taught by the team of Subject Matter Experts (SME) how to recognize a homemade explosives laboratory; how to recognize different groups of homemade explosives; understand homemade explosives sensitivity, including their performance; what are the appropriate actions and safety precautions after finding an illicit HMEs laboratory.
Altogether 32 participants were trained in two iterations. The participants were from the following countries: Belgium (1), the Czech Republic (2), Estonia (2), Finland (1), France (1), Germany (3), Hungary (3), Lithuania (1), Poland (11), Romania (1), Slovakia (2) and Slovenia (4).
Beside of the experienced NATO EOD COE internal SMEs and logistic support, the high quality of the course was guaranteed by the assistance of selected pool of experts from the Ammunition Testing Centre Novaky, the Institute of Energetic Materials (University of Pardubice, the Czech Republic) and the National Centre for EOD and CBRN Novaky, Slovakia.
After evaluation of a written test and scenario based exam, all trainees successfully fulfilled the course criteria, and finally became the HME-B course graduates.
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