Counter-IED training facility opens in the Netherlands

A new facility to help in the fight against Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) has officially opened in Soesterberg, the Netherlands. The Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL), facilitated by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and lead nation the Netherlands, focuses on training across the entire scope of IED exploitation. This includes detailed visual examination and high quality image capture; technical exploitation reporting; biometric analysis (latent finger print recovery); electrical circuitry (primarily radio parts); document and media recovery (focused on the mobile phones often used as IED triggering devices); chemical analysis; mechanical exploitation as well as other material exploitation. This will be undertaken in close cooperation with intelligence services that can use the results to attack the networks involved in manufacturing the IEDs.

The project makes use of equipment and knowledge gained from the EDA developed multinational counter-IED Exploitation Laboratory (MNTEL), which was deployed in Kabul under French management. During the laboratory’s three year deployment in Afghanistan more than 6,000 IEDs were forensically examined, providing invaluable support to law enforcement and leading to numerous terrorist prosecutions.

Alongside the Netherlands, 10 other EDA Member States – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden – plus Norway have joined the project. Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States and the NATO Counter-IED Centre of Excellence have sent observers.

Warrant Officer Bert Westers, from the Dutch armed forces, and a trainer at JDEAL commented: “This new facility allows us to maintain and build on the skills and experiences that we gained in Kabul. It also helps to improve our forces’ ability to deal with threats from IEDs in the future.”

The training facility will host both national and multinational training events tailored to the needs of the Member States involved. In addition to training, JDEAL is intended as a platform for research and development and is specifically designed for sub-projects that could be launched under its aegis. It will also work closely with other actors and cooperative bodies in the counter-IED field.

In a second step the establishment of two deployable laboratories is planned, in order to have at least one available for upcoming operations/missions by the second half of 2015.