INDIAN HEAD, Md. – Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technology Center Marine Detachment (MarDet), alongside personnel and equipment support from Expeditionary Exploitation Unit One (EXU-1), conducted a safe for shipment evaluation of foreign ordnance housed in the magazines aboard Naval Support Facility, Indian Head, Maryland, recently.
Ordnance items are stored aboard the installation in secure magazines maintained by the NSWC IHD Energetics Manufacturing Department to support ordnance exploitation and other activities. Each ordnance item is visually screened to ensure there are no external cracks, deformations or other apparent damage. Additionally, a percentage of the ordnance items undergo radiographic imagery to ensure internal components are intact and safe for transportation over the road, or via aircraft or ship.
“In this particular case the MarDet was tasked with screening several hundred foreign ordnance items that were acquired for training purposes. Due to the sheer volume of items, they reached out to EXU-1 Operations Department and requested available EOD technicians to support the safe to ship screening process,” said EXU-1 EODC Iain Omeara.
EOD Technicians within the Department of Defense undergo rigorous training at Naval School EOD at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, to diagnose, render safe and dispose of explosive ordnance and other explosive hazards to ensure the safety of personnel and protection of property.
“EXU-1’s Technical Exploitation Platoon 4 and Advanced Exploitation Company, working in support of MarDet, provided the manpower and radiographic equipment needed to determine that all explosives items could be safely transported and stored until used for future training by a wide variety of U.S. military EOD commands,” said Omeara.
This effort is one of many ventures the MarDet and EXU-1 have undertook to support ordnance operations around the world to maintain the edge over our adversaries, support our allies and partners, and to ensure the capabilities of Joint Service EOD Technicians.
“Partnership between the Marine Detachment and EXU-1 to support this safe for shipment screening aptly displays true Navy-Marine Corps integration as a Naval Force,” said NSWC IHD MarDet Officer in Charge Capt. Steve Tamm. “Common training enabled this event with seamless efforts, ensured items were safe for travel, and further build the trust between the services for future events and operations.”
EXU-1 is an operationally deployable Type II, Echelon V command aligned under NSWC IHD. The unit hosts a variety of platoons designed to collect, process, exploit and analyze conventional and improvised threats in support of Fleet and Joint commanders, the Intelligence Community, interagency, allied and partner nations to prevent technical surprise, develop countermeasures and enable attribution. EXU-1 was commissioned in June 2018 as an Echelon V afloat command and reports to NSWC IHD Commanding Officer CAPT Steve Duba, who serves as the Immediate Superior in Command to EXU-1.
NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.
