Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are disabled or otherwise rendered safe. Bomb disposal is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the military fields of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and improvised explosive device disposal (IEDD), and the public safety roles of public safety bomb disposal (PSBD) and the bomb squad.
Unexploded ordnance, unexploded bombs (UXBs), and explosive remnants of war are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, sometimes many decades after they were used or discarded. When unwanted munitions are found, they are sometimes destroyed in controlled explosions, but accidental detonation of even very old explosives also occurs, sometimes with fatal results. A dud is an unexploded projectile fired in anger against an enemy, but which has failed to explode. A projectile not fired in anger but which has failed to explode is called a 'blind'.
Camp Schwab is a United States Marine Corps camp located in northeastern Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, that is currently home to the 4th Marine Regiment and other elements of the 28,000 American servicemen based on the island. The Camp was dedicated in 1959 in honor of Medal of Honor recipient Albert E. Schwab who was killed in action during the Battle of Okinawa.
The Explosive Ordnance Disposal Badge is a military badge of the United States Armed Forces which recognizes those service members, qualified as explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians, who are specially trained to deal with the construction, deployment, disarmament, and disposal of high explosive munitions including other types of ordnance such as nuclear, biological and chemical weapons along with improvised explosive devices (IED) and improvised nuclear devices (IND). Also known as the “EOD Badge” or "Crab", the decoration is issued by the United States Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The EOD Badge is the only occupational badge awarded to all four services under the United States Department of Defense.
A clearance diver was originally a specialist naval diver who used explosives underwater to remove obstructions to make harbours and shipping channels safe to navigate, but the term "clearance diver" was later used to include other naval underwater work. Units of clearance divers were first formed during and after World War II to clear ports and harbours in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe of unexploded ordnance and shipwrecks and booby traps laid by the Germans.
United States Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians render safe all types of ordnance, including improvised, chemical, biological, and nuclear. They perform land and underwater location, identification, render-safe, and recovery of foreign and domestic ordnance. They conduct demolition of hazardous munitions, pyrotechnics, and retrograde explosives using detonation and burning techniques. They forward deploy and fully integrate with the various Combatant Commanders, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and various warfare units within the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army. They are also called upon to support military and civilian law enforcement agencies, as well as the Secret Service.
The iron harvest is the annual collection of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, bullets and congruent trench supports collected by Belgian and French farmers after ploughing their fields. The harvest generally consists of material from the First World War, which is still found in large quantities across the former Western Front.
The United States Army Ordnance Corps, formerly the United States Army Ordnance Department, is a sustainment branch of the United States Army, headquartered at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia. The broad mission of the Ordnance Corps is to supply Army combat units with weapons and ammunition, including at times their procurement and maintenance. Along with the Quartermaster Corps and Transportation Corps, it forms a critical component of the U.S. Army logistics system.
An ammunition technical officer (ATO) is an officer involved in all aspects of the army, air force, and navy's use of ammunition. This includes: bomb disposal, clearance of ERW, explosives accident investigation, procurement, in service management, storage, and inspection and repair.
Explosives safety originated as a formal program in the United States in the aftermath of World War I when several ammunition storage areas were destroyed in a series of mishaps. The most serious occurred at Picatinny Arsenal Ammunition Storage Depot, New Jersey, in July, 1926 when an electrical storm led to fires that caused explosions and widespread destruction. The severe property damage and 19 fatalities led Congress to empower a board of Army and Naval officers to investigate the Picatinny Arsenal disaster and determine if similar conditions existed at other ammunition depots. The board reported in its findings that this mishap could recur, prompting Congress to establish a permanent board of colonels to develop explosives safety standards and ensure compliance beginning in 1928. This organization evolved into the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB) and is chartered in Title 10 of the US Code. The DDESB authors Defense Explosives Safety Regulation (DESR) 6055.9 which establishes the explosives safety standards for the Department of Defense. The DDESB also evaluates scientific data which may adjust those standards, reviews and approves all explosives site plans for new construction, and conducts worldwide visits to locations containing US title munitions. The cardinal principle of explosives safety is expose the minimum number of people for the minimum time to the minimum amount of explosives.
The HLONS (HMMWV Laser Ordnance Neutralization System), commonly known as ZEUS, is a solid-state laser weapon which is used by the U.S. military in order to neutralize surface land mines and unexploded ordnance. The ZEUS-HLONS system was a co-operative effort between Sparta Inc and NAVEODTECHDIV (Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division) to demonstrate that a moderate-power commercial solid state laser (SSL) and beam control system could be integrated onto a Humvee (HMMWV) and used to clear surface mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), or unexploded ordnance from supply routes and minefields.
A mine clearance organization, or demining organization, is an organization involved in the removal of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) for military, humanitarian, or commercial reasons. Demining includes mine clearance, as well as surveying, mapping and marking of hazardous areas.
11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search Regiment RLC is a specialist regiment of the British Army's Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) responsible for counter terrorist Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), the safe recovery or disposal of conventional munitions. The regiment also has an ammunition inspectorate role supporting the Inspector Explosives (Army). With headquarters in Didcot, the regiment has sub units geographically based throughout the UK to provide a nationwide high readiness response capability in support of the police.
The Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Munitions and Search Training Regiment is an element of the Royal School of Military Engineering responsible for the provision of training to British Army Ammunition Technicians, Ammunition Technical Officers and Search Operators. The Regiment provides training from two locations: Marlborough Barracks, MoD Kineton near Kineton, Warwickshire and St George's Barracks, MoD Bicester, near Bicester, Oxfordshire.
An anti-handling device is an attachment to or an integral part of a landmine or other munition such as some fuze types found in general-purpose air-dropped bombs, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is designed to prevent tampering or disabling, or to target bomb disposal personnel. When the protected device is disturbed, it detonates, killing or injuring anyone within the blast area. There is a strong functional overlap of booby traps and anti-handling devices.
A bomb suit, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) suit or a blast suit is a heavy suit of body armor designed to withstand the pressure generated by a bomb and any fragments the bomb may produce. It is usually worn by trained personnel attempting bomb disposal. In contrast to ballistic body armors, which usually focus on protecting the torso and head, a bomb suit must protect all parts of the body, since the dangers posed by a bomb's explosion affect the entire body.
The T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion, sometimes called the Morgan Munitions Depot explosion or similar titles, began at 7:36 pm EDT on Friday, October 4, 1918, at a World War I ammunition plant in the Morgan area of Sayreville in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The initial explosion, generally believed to be accidental, triggered a fire and subsequent series of explosions that continued for three days, totaling approximately six kilotons, killing about 100 people and injuring hundreds more. The facility, one of the largest in the world at the time, was destroyed along with more than 300 surrounding buildings, forcing the evacuation and reconstruction of Sayreville, South Amboy, and Laurence Harbor. Over a century later, explosive debris continues to surface regularly across a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) radius.
Ammunition is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons and the component parts of other weapons that create the effect on a target.
The Ordnance Corps (ORD) is a combat support corps of the Irish Army, a branch of the Defence Forces, that has logistical and operational responsibility for military ordnance in Ireland. The logistical role of the Army Ordnance Corps is to provide technical support to the Defence Forces for the procurement, storage, distribution, inspection, maintenance, repair and disposal of all items of ordnance equipment. The operational role of the Ordnance Corps is to train personnel for and provide the state's bomb disposal capability.
The Catterick Bridge Explosion occurred on 4 February 1944 in the railway sidings at Catterick Bridge station, on the Richmond Branch Line/Catterick Camp Railway in North Yorkshire, England. It killed twelve people and injured more than a hundred. The incorrect loading of explosives into railway wagons is believed to have been the cause, but because of wartime restrictions, reporting of the event was not as widespread as it would have been had the explosion occurred in peacetime.
