Home-Made Explosives Courses-Basic in Nováky, SEP 2015

Both iterations of the course were held on the ACT´s premises at the Novaky military base from September 8 to September 10, 2015 and from September 14 to September 16, 2015. A total of 27 participants were from 5 NATO countries, specifically Netherlands, Slovakia, Greece, Belgium and Czech Republic.

The first two days of each course consisted of theoretical lessons on basic chemistry of explosives, precursor chemicals for home made explosives(HME) manufacture and processes involved in illicit manufacture of HME as well as basic properties of the most common HME. At the end of the second day a laboratory demonstration of several processes was performed. On the final day, the course participants were given the role of “first responders“ tasked to verify the presence of an HME lab in a simulated scenario. Additionally, the participants were given the opportunity to make several HME mixtures that were detonated on a demolition range to demonstrate their effects.

All trainees successfully graduated, received certificates of the course completion, and expressed satisfaction with the content of Homemade Explosives Course – basic.

Author: 1LT Ján TARNOCI (SVK-A)
Photo: SSG Tomáš Kubík