HomeMade Explosive Course – Advanced 01-22 & 02-22 delivery

From the 11th to the 15th of July 2022 and from the 18th to the 22nd of July 2022, NATO EOD COE organized two iterations of Homemade Explosive Course - Advanced (HMEC-A) in Military Training Area Lest, Slovakia. The HMEC-A introduces responding personnel to the precursors used by criminals and terrorists in the manufacturing process of homemade explosives, along with the synthetized finished explosive mixtures. Students learn to identify the hazards of mixed or partially mixed precursor chemicals, identify unknown materials and related hazards, process a scene for evidentiary purposes and safely remove and dispose of these hazards.

The development and execution of HMEC-A was greatly supported by expertize of instructors from ATF National Centre for Explosives Training and Research (USA), 15th Engineer Regiment (CZE), Belgian EOD Group, Dutch EOD unit (NLD), Thermo Fisher Scientific (USA), DetectaChem (USA), University of Pardubice (CZE), 905. Centre of Specialized Combat Support (SVK), 901. Engineer Battalion (SVK), 51. Training Base of Special Forces (SVK) and 71. Service support Battalion (SVK). 

In total, 32 students from NATO countries (CZE, DEU, ESP, EST, FRA, GRC, HUN, ITA, LVA, NLD, NOR, POL, ROU, SVK) and non-NATO country (FIN) attended the courses. 30 students successfully completed the training and fulfilled the Education and Individual Training student’s assessment criteria embedded in the NATO EOD COE Quality Assurance policy.

Author: MAJ Marek VLNKA, SVK A
Photo: EOD COE