Twenty-five experts in Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) matters participated in a workshop held in Soesterberg (The Netherlands) from 24-26 May 2016.
The workshop - the first of its kind organised under the Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL) framework - attracted participants from across Europe (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden), from the United States as well as from the Centre of Excellence for C-IED. Discussions focused on JDEAL and on current and future trends in exploitation.
Attendees agreed that the JDEAL was crucial for the technical exploitation of IED incidents (analysis of events, scenes, components and materials) in order to gain valuable technical and tactical information on such threats and identify supply chains.
The briefings and discussions covered diverse but inter-linked topics, ranging from hybrid warfare through JDEAL potential support to common terminology and deployable capability concepts. Presentations were notably delivered by representatives from the Centre of Excellence C-IED, the EDA, NATO Headquarters, the Netherlands Forensic Institute, French munitions and explosive specialists, the Dutch Armed Forces as well as by US experts. Participants also had the opportunity to visit the 1st JDEAL deployable capability (which is now fully operational) and to follow a guided tour of the JDEAL training facility in Soesterberg.
The main takeaways of the workshop were summarized by JDEAL Commander, Major Geert Jan Verkoeijen, as follows:
- now that JDEAL has been delivered and the first deployable capability is operational, it should be used to a maximum for the benefit of the community. Given that the impact of IEDs on missions and operations continues to be significant, Member States are encouraged to deploy JDEAL in operations and to continue to prioritize joint training capabilities;
- JDEAL should become as visible as possible and be considered both a strategic and rapid reaction asset for decision-makers;
- there is an urgent need for agreeing on a common C-IED terminology to be used by all stakeholders.
Francisco Cifuentes, the European Defence Agency (EDA) Project Officer for C-IED, welcomed the fact that the event had allowed to open new lines of communication and networking among experts which will certainly prove useful for the further development of the JDEAL project.
2016 promises to be a particularly busy year for the JDEAL deployable capability. In July, the laboratory will be sent to Spain to take part in multinational exercise "Interdict", followed, in August, by exercise Bison Counter 2016 in Sweden. The laboratory will be staffed by experts from all its contributing Member States as well as by observers from other stakeholders.
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