“Multidisciplinary approach to EOD” was the leading theme of the two-day NATO EOD Demonstrations & Trials 2018 event held on 19 – 20 September 2018 at the premises of the Incheba EXPO Center in Bratislava and organized by the NATO Explosive Ordnance Disposal Centre of Excellence in cooperation with the NATO MILENG (Germany) and C-IED (Spain) Centres of Excellence.
Minister of Defense of the Slovak Republic Peter Gajdoš opened the exhibition saying: "Even today, the Slovak Republic has its irreplaceable space in this area, and we have something to offer to our Allies and partners, which is also proof of our engagement in Ukraine, where the Slovak Republic is the leading country within the NATO Trust Fund for EOD and C-IED…".
The exhibition has become a desirable periodic event, which is organized in the scope of the Defense Against Terrorism Programme of Work under the auspices of the NATO Emerging Security Challenges Division, NATO HQ. From the very beginning, these events are designed to be a platform available to academy, industry and military experts to utilize ongoing research and development, innovative thinking on emerging issues, predict what lies ahead and support advanced solutions to countering explosive ordnance threat and combating terrorism.
“To counter terrorist threat caused by IEDs, we have to permanently stimulate technical development of engineering technologies, related procedures and constantly seek better solutions in the field of detection, neutralization and disposal of all types of explosive hazards. It is not a secret, that NATO countries are not on the same level of application of these advanced technologies and this is why NATO Army Armaments Group is sponsoring this event in support of materiel standardization and cooperation on behalf of interoperability of all Allies”, Colonel Róbert CSÁSZÁR, the Director of the NATO EOD COE, emphasized in his opening speech.
The event brought together not only technological and scientific experts, but also EOD personnel with hands-on experience from current operations. This year, the NATO EOD COE included in the event programme the Senior Military Leader Seminar to address various challenges to inform decision makers and acquisition experts to highlight the importance of advanced capabilities. To reach the multidisciplinary approach, the Conference had three separate panels organized with contribution of the MILENG COE from Ingolstadt and C-IED COE from Madrid. Organization of this biennial event for experts from military and industry has become an excellent tradition that helps the entire EOD community to better understand each other through information exchange. These meetings support the definition of possible ways ahead, especially utilizing the new research, technology development and their integration/application in practice.
In this year's exhibition, the conference and the seminar more than 360 participants from 22 countries had a great opportunity to speak directly to exhibitors in their static compartments to gain technical specifics of their products and to observe the real performance of equipment during the live demonstrations.
Text: Vladimír VOŠTIAR