Defence`s Feeds

The Russian Central Military District's (CMD's) 41st Combined Arms Army has begun withdrawing equipment from the Pogonovo training ground south of Voronezh city and...

Russia's Ataka-Shorokh acoustic detector of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has completed factory trials, state corporation Rostec announced in October.

Chinese military helicopters have for the first time entered Taiwan's southwestern air-defence identification zone (ADIZ), according to data provided by the Ministry of...

The Reshef-class vessel that will replace the Israeli Navy's Sa'ar 4.5 (Nirit) missile ships will be equipped with Rafael's C-Dome air-defence system, Captain Y (full...

BISON COUNTER, the periodic EDA-supported multinational live exercise bringing together Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) teams from Europe and the US, kicked off today in Sardinia, Italy, with some 650 staff participating. The exercise’s objectives are to exchange and train technical skills, integrate and use available technical enablers at a tactical level and implement the full C-IED operational cycle with a view to improving interoperability and resilience among European and allied C-IED capabilities in their fight against evolving IED threats, both in military and counter-terrorism operations. 

BISON COUNTER is today the largest and most relevant EU exercise of the C-IED community. After 2013 (The Netherlands) and 2016 (Sweden), it is the third time this exercise is organised under the auspices of EDA. A total of 650 military staff from 10 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden), as well as Norway and the United States participate in this year’s event hosted by the Italian Armed Forces.

As in previous editions, EDA is closely involved in the organisation and running of BISON COUNTER 21 which integrates EDA projects such as the Joint Deployable Exploitation and Analysis Laboratory (JDEAL), the European Centre for Manual Neutralisation Capabilities (ECMAN) and the Military Search Capability Building (MSCB). It can also count on the support of NATO’s C-IED Centre of Excellence.

BISON COUNTER 21 gathers dedicated teams specialised in the following enabler capabilities:

• Military Search
• Military Working Dogs
• Combat Engineering
• Route Clearance
• Explosive Ordnance Disposal/Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (EOD/IEDD)
• EOD Divers
• EOD Manual Neutralization Techniques (MNT) Teams
• Weapons Intelligence Teams (WIT)
• Level 2 Technical Exploitation, fully manned and operational Laboratory
• Combined Joint Task Force Headquarters.

The aim is to develop common processes, techniques, procedures and interoperability requirements. Lessons learned from previous BISON COUNTER editions will also be raised and included in the operational part. In the same vein, the exercise will also serve as an experimentation and testing ground for IED related assets, equipment and technologies.

Exercise scenario

As one of the key objectives is to increase responsiveness and operational readiness for EU crises management, the exercise scenario is built up on a Crisis Management Operation (CMO) and spread around different locations in order to meet the specific requirements of the different technical domains. The geographical dispersion also allows to replicate the real-life challenges that operations have to face in terms of Command and Control and Reporting, the handling and transportation of evidence collected from IED incidents, as well as their exploitation.

More information

• Bison Counter 21 factsheet
• Bison Counter 16 successfully closed (Aug 2016)
• EDA project page C-IED activities

 

Length of video : 36'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Several members of the Swiss cantonal police perused the stands at the Milipol trade fair, held from 19 to 22 October in Paris. They were especially interested in geolocation specialists, such as Quebec-based Octasic, and interception capabilities.Switzerland updates interception capabilitiesSince

The Milipol security and law-and-order trade fair in Paris on 19-22 October provided cyber-intelligence industry veteran Tal Dilian with an

Although it withdrew one complaint it filed with a Virginia Eastern District court on 18 October, aircraft services company Flight

Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan praised the system of promotion in the security services on the occasion of a public

Igor Dodon, Moldova's pro-Russian former president, leapt at the opportunity to head the new Russian-Moldovan business union, a position offered

Several members of the Swiss cantonal police perused the stands at the Milipol trade fair, held from 19 to 22 October in Paris. They were especially interested in geolocation specialists, such as Quebec-based Octasic, and interception capabilities.Switzerland updates interception capabilitiesSince

The Milipol security and law-and-order trade fair in Paris on 19-22 October provided cyber-intelligence industry veteran Tal Dilian with an

Although it withdrew one complaint it filed with a Virginia Eastern District court on 18 October, aircraft services company Flight

Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan praised the system of promotion in the security services on the occasion of a public

Igor Dodon, Moldova's pro-Russian former president, leapt at the opportunity to head the new Russian-Moldovan business union, a position offered

6 Tips to Help You Protect Your Online Business

The Subcommittee on Security and Defence discusses gender and disarmament: engaging women in disarmament and arms control with Izumi NAKAMITSU, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, on 27 October 2021. The discussion takes place within the framework of the second European Gender Equality Week.
Meeting agenda and documents
Live streaming
European Gender Equality Week
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Length of video : 112'

Disclaimer : The interpretation of debates serves to facilitate communication and does not constitute an authentic record of proceedings. Only the original speech or the revised written translation is authentic.
Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Two major collaborative defence research (R&T) projects, launched under the European Commission’s Preparatory Acton on Defence Research (PADR) and implemented by the European Defence Agency (EDA), came to a close end of October. The results of both projects - OCEAN 2020 and VESTLIFE – will contribute significantly to enhancing European Member States’ defence capabilities in two important domains: maritime situational awareness and soldier protection.

OCEAN 2020

The OCEAN 2020 (Open Cooperation for European mAritime awareNess) project, launched in 2018 and co-funded by the EU with €35.48 million, achieved its main objective which was to demonstrate enhanced situational awareness in a maritime environment through the integration of legacy and new technologies for unmanned systems, ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, reconnaissance) payloads and effectors, by pulling together the technical specialists in the maritime domain covering the ‘observing, orienting, deciding and acting’ operational tasks.  As the biggest of all PADR projects with no less than 43 entities from 15 European countries involved, OCEAN 2020 also successfully addressed the problems of integrating EU systems and individual organisations into a coherent framework to increase cost effectiveness and interoperability for joint missions. The variety of assets involved in the project highlighted how a global integration of multi-domain unmanned systems in an operational task force can provide a force multiplier.

The project implementation culminated in two major demonstrations in the Mediterranean (November 2019) and Baltic seas (2021). All in all, the OCEAN 2020 confirmed the EU’s ability to lead innovation in support of Europe’s strategic autonomy in the maritime domain.

Information on the OCEAN 2020 consortium (led by Leonardo) and its 43 members can be found on the dedicated OCEAN2020 website.

VESTLIFE

The second project now accomplished, called VESTLIFE, was signed in April 2018 and granted an EU grant of €2.43 million to develop an ultralight modular bullet proof integral solution for dismounted soldier protection, including a CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear) detection system. The new protective gear provides an increased coverage area whilst maintaining comfort, plus a weight reduction of the ballistic panels. It therefore ensures an optimum balance between protection and comfort, tailoring such a protective surface to the forecasted mission risk. The protection system developed in this project consists of soft panels and hard plates.

 

 

The VESTLIFE consortium Led by AITEX (Spain), also encompassed 5 other participants from 5 countries: CITEVE (Portugal), Brapa Consultancy (the Netherlands), TECNALIA (Spain), Petroceramics (Italy) and FYComposites (Finland).