Being a part of any kind of bomb or dangerous substance
disposal effort is not for the faint hearted. Major Adam Modd GM, Officer Commanding
1st NZ EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) Squadron recently spoke to ADM about
the formation of the squadron and the nature of the work facing his team.
“We’re a small organisation but I think we have one of the
best bomb disposal capabilities in the world right now,” MAJ Modd said.
The unit, based at Trentham military camp, some 30
kilometres from Wellington, was stood up in September 2005 as a permanent EOD
capability.
“It’s a national statement, you need to have a fire service,
you need to have hospitals and today you need a EOD capability,” MAJ Modd
stated.
ADM asked how the unit compares with allied counterparts
such as the UK, US and Australia.
“We have forward operating bases in the centres of Auckland,
Christchurch and Wellington, which makes us unique militarily. In other
countries, many military EOD capabilities are in military camps, not in city
centres.
“Many similar organisations have got so many players
involved that their efficiency becomes disjointed, whereas we work directly in
support of the NZ Police. Moreover we can grow our apprentices domestically,
where it is fairly benign. In our last calendar year we had over 750 taskings,
ranging from toxic industrial chemicals to unexploded ordnance.
“When other military EOD units are not deployed then they do
not deal with the full spectrum.”
ADM asked what is required to be an effective EOD operator.
“It’s complex, so there needs to be a high level of
intelligence. Spatial awareness, knowledge of electronics, chemistry and
physics are all really important. The bomb suit itself weighs in excess of 32
kilograms, you could be wearing it for hours, so you need to be physically fit
and mentally robust.
“Munitions are quite complex systems and you need to
understand them. Probably the biggest requirement is reliability. There’s no
room in this field for micro-management, in fact it’s probably the worse thing
for us.”
It is not a male-only unit as, women have proven to be good
operators, able to multi-task well. But it is discreet as the team live in a Special
Operations environment, so the full range of their activities is not widely
advertised.
“We have a little command team and we’ve got our own
intelligence cell and our CBRE team lives here as well. We have our own stores
section. All of our personnel are urban search & rescue (USAR) qualified.
“We have our own medics and doctors trained and equipped to
work in chemical, biological and nuclear environments, so we can operate
largely autonomously. The ability to go immediately to do your job and have everything
you need makes us hugely efficient. Our training establishment lives directly
with the operational so we communicate every day.”
MAJ Modd showed ADM some of the unit’s ‘gardens,’ filled
with inert unexploded munitions rather than geraniums or sunflowers.
“This is the way the teams are going to find unexplored
ordnance (UXO’s) on real how to deal with this type of task and threat.”
ADM enquired about the chemical, bacteriological and
radiation (CBR) aspect of the squadron.
“At the lower, decontamination level, we rotate people in
the field. At the CBR neutralisation level, they are hand-picked, because you
are dealing with Pandora’s box.
“Some people would say we train at to high a level, I would
say we train to a level that exists and the fact that it hasn’t happened
doesn’t mean that it won’t - and when it does we need to be ready.
“It’s not going to be a shock to us if we have the most
complex bomb in the world come here, the guys are already trained for that
one.”
Are modern unexploded munitions safer than old ones? asked
ADM.
“Not really, no. They’re more stable [in situ], there are
stringent safety features built in to them, but because they are more complex
when they do fail the risks actually are raised.
“Some mines can even sense people walking towards them.
Although we can never make the risks go away, we can reduce the number of
people put at risk. So when we are dealing with unexploded munitions or IEDs,
usually only one person goes forward.
It takes about six years to become a competent operator as
there is a lot of education in the first couple of years. Training is then a
mixture of education and on the job training.
“It’s almost an apprenticeship,” MAJ Modd explained to ADM.
“It’s the only way; you need that base education and then you need that real
life experience.”
“I’ve disposed of a large amount of IEDs, including car
bombs and I’ve been blown up six times and I still don’t consider myself to be
an expert. Although we wear bomb suits, once you’re closer than say, 40 metres,
you haven’t got a hope in hell if there’s a big explosion.
“The trick to being a good operator is that you can make an
assessment, but then you continually re-assess it as you formulate your
procedure. We live in a very risk averse world, but I’d hate to be telling a
guy to defuse a bomb when he’s never done it before.”
But not everyone is up to the demanding nature of the job.
The fail rate for students is very high.
“They’re asked to do a lot under pressure and they make
mistakes and if, when we add up all the mistakes there are to many, then they
fail. I’ve been on courses where the failure rate has been 80-90 per cent, but
we certainly would never, ever, look to lower the bar.”
The changing face explosive technology has been a challenge
for the community. And the developments and advances make the space exciting to
say the least.
“There used to be lots of nitro-glycerine based explosives,”
MAJ Modd said. “It is fairly unstable and can become unstable over age. Modern
explosives are made from synthetic compounds, liquids, gases, foams it’s
ever-changing.”
The advent of EOD robots and other technologies has not only
been a bonus for the military but also adversaries.
“It’s actually made the job easier and harder at the same
time. Technology has given us better tools but, on the flip side, terrorists
have used that technology for their own gain. If anything it’s probably a lot
more dangerous.
“There are hundreds and thousands of different munitions.
You’d think the older stuff would get dropped off but you’ll see a lot of these
older munitions in Warsaw Pact countries such as Bulgaria and in remote places
where technology has effectively by-passed] society.”
ADM also wondered what kit would you like that you don’t
currently possess?
“Our baseline of equipment is highly capable. Sometimes you
can be over-equipped. There are hundreds of items out in the market I would
love to get my hands on, but I don’t actually need them. We would like more
advanced equipment, but we’ve got all the things that we need.”
Like any organisation, people come and people go. Private
EOD work is also a hard competitor for skilled technicians.
“There are tens of millions of unexploded munitions in
places like Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. For people with our skills
there’s a lot of work all over the world and it’s very well paid.
“People who have been in our unit are currently working in
Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon and Libya as civilian contractors. We keep in
touch with them and they keep in touch with us. When you lose them it’s a lot
more of an impact that losing a robot.”
The newest addition to the squadron is the Remotec
Wheelbarrow robot.
“At 350 kilograms, it can’t really climb stairs very well,
it doesn’t like muddy ground and if there’s a gap to wide, a step to high or an
aperture to narrow, then it’s not going to get there,” MAJ Modd explained. “Its
got four very capable cameras, it can read a number plate from 300 metres; it
has got a speaker on it so we can talk to people, we’ve used it in hostage
negotiations. It can carry 50 kilograms and has an arm that can extend out
three metres.’
“We use it until it’s not practical anymore and then we
stop. Eventually you have to go there yourself. In some places I think the
robot is over-used.”
MAJ Modd, awarded the George Medal for his gallantry in
Northern Ireland, showed ADM around the unit’s technical library, or ‘museum’,
which has an astonishing array of munitions from Italian, German, British and
US grenades, to a 16-inch naval shell, an SA-7 missile, an RPG-7 (‘quite a
fantastic design. It can penetrate 300mm of armour’) and all sorts and sizes of
mines, mortar shells and airdropped munitions.
“It’s here for education purposes, it is meant to look good
and it does look good, but we do use it on a daily basis. Most of them were
live when we found them.”