Home-Made Explosives Courses - Advanced at the Military Training Area Lešť, Slovakia

During first two weeks of July 2017 the EOD COE organized two runs of the Homemade Explosives Course – Advanced. The courses were performed with the assistance of Subject Matter Experts from US Department of Justice Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF),  Thermo Fischer Scientific(USA), Quinetiq(USA), Alluviam(USA), Institute of Energetic Materials (University of Pardubice, CZE), 15th Engineering Regiment(CZE) and National Centre of EOD and CBRN(SVK). The courses were held on the premises of Military training area Lešť. The courses were performed from July 3 to July 7, 2017 and from July 10 to July 14, 2017 respectively. A total of 32 participants from 13 NATO and PfP countries were trained: Austria (2), Czech Republic (4), Estonia (2), France (4), Germany (3), Greece (1), Hungary (4), Italy (2), Norway (1), Portugal (1), Romania (1), Slovakia (2), Slovenia (2), Spain(3). The course consisted of theoretical lectures and practical training scenarios. Theoretical lectures were conducted predominantly by the ATF and University of Pardubice chemists. The rest of the lectures were given by the representatives of contracted companies (Alluviam, Thermo Fisher Scientific, QinetiQ) and EOD COE members. Vast majority of theoretical lectures took place every morning. The primary aim was to introduce students to various Homemade explosives (HME) families and to make them more familiar with their properties, availability and processes of manufacture. The practical part took place every afternoon and evening and included improvised detonators class, HME laboratories demonstration, HME explosives (effects) demonstration, mixing HME by students and processing clandestine laboratories in permissive and non-permissive enviroments. During the entire practical phase (except for HME explosives demonstration) all trainees were divided into two syndicates in which they acted either as Team Leaders or Team Members with plenty of various duties to perform. All participants successfully passed the written test and practical examination which concluded their training effort. After meeting all the required criteria the participants received certificates of the course completion during the graduation ceremony. In their evaluation forms, the trainees expressed satisfaction with the contents of the course as well as high regard for the course execution.