Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden signed today a Letter of Intent expressing their interest in pooling resources and expertise for the setting up of a shared C-IED Manual Neutralisation Techniques courses and exercises capacity. Improvised Explosive Devices continue to pose significant threat to military and civilian personnel. In some cases complex explosive devices have to be neutralised manually.
Member States (MS) earlier this year expressed their wish to increase efforts on Manual Neutralisation Techniques (MNT) due to an urgent but limited requirement which does not justify separate, national training programmes in this cost-intensive area. Austria as lead nation proposed and developed a four year MNT project under the umbrella of the Pooling & Sharing Countering IED Training initiative with the intention to conduct one MNT course and exercise a year. The training of Manual Neutralisers is highly cost-intensive due to equipment and specialist’s advisory role. The role of Manual Neutralisers is life saving and is a priority for participating Member States.
With today’s letter of intent, the signatory countries express their interest to cooperate in the development of a project arrangement and to participate in the project.
More information