EDA C-IED training facility opens in the Netherlands

A European Defence Agency (EDA)-facilitated initiative to develop joint counter-improvised explosive device (C-IED) capabilities has opened the Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL) facility in the Netherlands.

Based in Soesterberg, JDEAL provides a permanent technical exploitation training capability that will enable EDA member states to collectively build on lessons learned in Afghanistan and develop new ways to tackle the IED threat.

This will involve the recording and analysing of information related to events, scenes, technical components, and material used in IED attacks. The project makes use of equipment and knowledge gained from the EDA developed Counter-IED Technical Exploitation Laboratory previously deployed with ISAF in Kabul. 

Led by the Netherlands, ten other EDA member states – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden – and Norway have joined the project. Denmark, the UK, the US and the NATO Counter-IED Centre of Excellence have also sent observers.

The training facility will host both national and multinational training events, tailored to the needs of the member states involved. Alongside the training aspect, JDEAL is intended to be a platform for research and development and is specifically designed for subprojects to be launched under its framework. It will also work closely with other actors and cooperative bodies working in the counter-IED field.

Work will cover 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 is done in close cooperation with intelligence services, which can use the results to attack the networks involved in manufacturing the IEDs.

Under the project, a further two deployable laboratories could be procured for use in future operations, in order to have at least one available for upcoming operations/missions by the second half of 2015.

Warrant Officer Bert Westers, from the Dutch armed forces, was previously stationed at the laboratory in Afghanistan and will now act as a trainer at JDEAL. He 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.’