Diffusing real-life bomb threats
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Narrator: The remains of a car after it has been blown up by a so-called IED, an improvised explosive device. No, this is not Afghanistan. This is the rugged landscape of Iceland. Here, the former US Base in Keflavik forms the background to the multinational bomb disposal exercise ‘Northern Challenge’.
The purpose of the annual exercise is to train response to real-life terrorist incidents involving improvised and military explosive devices, similar to those found in Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon. This year the exercise focused on developments in Afghanistan.
Sigurour Asgrimsson: Lieutenant Commander Icelandic Coastguard: “We are building the devices that are similar to the devices they are dealing with there and that is the main purpose of this exercise, to equip and to skill the guys better that are dealing with these things in those areas.”
Narrator: Teams are rigorously tested during the exercise and incidents are deliberately challenging. After all, it is far better to make mistakes during training in the world of Bomb Disposal!
Guido Winning: German EOD Team Leader: “When you go forward, you have a lot of things in your head, you think about your own, what you have learned, is it the right way. You talk a lot with the team and not every IED is the same. They change so much, yeah I have to look what I see and then I have to do my work.”
Narrator: During the Second World War many areas of the Icelandic countryside were used as firing ranges and exercise areas for all types of weaponry. Since then, Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD, has been a national necessity in Iceland. Now, the Icelandic Coast Guard Bomb Disposal Unit is the main organizer of the exercise in cooperation with NATO and Partner nations.
Guido Winning: German EOD Team Leader: “I hope that I can learn here from the experience of all the nations here. We have a lot of small talk with all the guys who were in Afghanistan or Iraq and I hope I can take that experience with me to Germany to my guys.”
Narrator: Northern Challenge provides pre-training for bomb disposal teams that get deployed to international missions. But before being able to practise dismantling improvised explosives, the teams have to make some IEDs themselves to become aware of what they might face during the mission in Afghanistan or elsewhere.
Sigurour Asgrimsson: Lieutenant Commander Icelandic Coastguard: “We make it as real as we can. All the devices we have made here are made after the devices that have been discovered in the areas we are dealing with and they are all working. Of course there are no (real) explosives in it, but we have a small sound unit when the teams do something wrong, then they’ll hear it and so on and so on. So we do it as real as possible.”
Narrator: As 70% of insurgent-caused casualties are caused by Improvised Explosive Devices in Afghanistan, it is crucial for Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams to have hands on experience tackling that.
Sigurour Asgrimsson: Lieutenant Commander Icelandic Coastguard: “It is very important because this is killing most of our people like in Afghanistan and Iraq, IEDs that are placed under roadside bombs and something like that, like you hear in the news everyday. So, it is very very important.”
Narrator: After two weeks of detecting, disarming and clearing IEDs in arctic weather conditions, one thing is for sure; the lessons learned in the land of fire and ice, give the EOD teams more ammunition to combat terrorist bomb threats around the world.
