Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden have signed a letter of intent expressing their interest in pooling resources and expertise for the setting up of a shared C-IED manual neutralisation techniques (MNT) courses and exercises capacity.

Improvised explosive devices continue to pose significant threat to military and civilian personnel. In some cases complex explosive devices have to be neutralised manually.

Member States earlier this year expressed their wish to increase efforts on MNT due to an urgent but limited requirement which does not justify separate, national training programmes in this costintensive area.

Austria as a lead nation proposed and developed a four-year MNT project under the umbrella of the pooling and sharing countering IED training initiative with the intention to conduct one MNT course and an exercise annually. The training of manual neutralisers is highly cost-intensive due to equipment and specialist’s advisory role. The role of manual neutralisers is life saving and is a priority for participating member states.