Land: Into harm’s way | ADM March 2013

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.”