HQ SACT Chief of Staff visit in NATO EOD COE

The aim of this visit was to get informed on current and future NATO EOD COE work and activities in support of the NATO C-IED Action Plan, to discuss upcoming challenges and issues and likewise to establish a face-to-face contact with the Host Nation’s representatives. COS ACT, accompanied by the Chief of Staff for Operations, SVK GS and SVK NMR to HQ SACT, was received by the NATO EOD COE Director, Col (SVK-A) Jaroslav Bieleny, and the Deputy Director, LtCol (FRA-A) Richard Vidal.

COS ACT was briefed by the NATO EOD COE Director on the centre’s history, structure, lines of effort and deliverables currently offered by the centre to the EOD Community of Interest, focusing on training delivery and internal initiatives relevant to EOD technology and database. Subsequently, future developments of the CBRN EOD SO Training and implement FWPAC handbooks delivery were highlighted. Finally, the deputy director brought up three challenging issues related to COE - NATO cooperation which opened a frank discussion based on COE’s future role (Department Head) and implementation of cooperation with NATO (ACT & ACO).

VADM Johnson-Burt commended the NATO EOD COE efforts in support of the Alliance and acknowledged the COE’s points to improve COE and ACT/ACO cooperation. He congratulated the Director and his Deputy by providing them with ACT crest and his personal coin. Subsequently, he moved to SVK MoD in Bratislava to continue Think Tank round-table with SVK MoD/Institute for Strategic Defence Studies.

Author: Ltc R. VIDAL, EOD COE Deputy Director
Foto: LTC (Ret) Vojtech Fuček