The Director of the Centre of Excellence against Improvised Explosive Devices makes a working trip to Romania

• The colonel visited different facilities related to the fight against IEDs to learn about their operation and explore new ways of cooperation.

The director of the Centre of Excellence against Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED COE), Colonel Javier Corbacho Margallo, visited some centers related to the fight against IEDs in Romania. During the visit, he was accompanied by the country's representative at the Centre, Lieutenant Colonel Iustin-Antonio Anghelescu.

On the first day, several working meetings were held at the Romanian Land Forces Headquarters, where they were received by Colonel Adrian Popescu, Deputy Chief of Operations. Colonel Corbacho also received the ¨Partner for Defence¨ Medal Third Class in recognition of the work of all EOC staff in promoting and developing the C-IED domain and the support provided to the Romanian Ground Forces in improving IED incident analysis and management capabilities.

On the second day, they visited the Engineer Academy and EOD Training Centre in Ramnicu-Valcea, where they were welcomed by Chief Colonel Marius Gaju. The main event of the visit was the official opening of the Weapons Intelligence Team (WIT) 24.1 course, which is coordinated and led by C-IED COE staff. The course brings together 20 students of 11 NATO nationalities and its outsourced location is in line with the Centre's commitment to the NATO-sponsored WIT training program, which is included in the 2024 Work Program approved by the Centre's Steering Committee

On the third and last day, a visit was made to the headquarters and training centre of the Romanian Authorities Protection Service in Bucharest. There they were received by the Director of the Service, Army General Liviu-Silvian Pahontu, with whom they had the opportunity to exchange impressions and explore possible ways of cooperation.   

As a result of this visit, the already strong ties of cooperation between the C-IED COE and the Romanian Armed Forces have been strengthened. Romania is part of the initial core of eight NATO nations that, on June 24, 2010, signed the Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of the C-IED COE in Hoyo de Manzanares and its functional relationship with the Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT). Since then, Romania has had an officer permanently stationed at the Center whose functions are part of the ¨Defeat the Device¨ Group, Mitigation Section.

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE AGAINST IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES

The Center of Excellence against Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED COE) is one of the 29 NATO Accredited Centers of Excellence, and is located in the town of Hoyo de Manzanares, Madrid. It has an international staff composed of military personnel of twelve nationalities, including members of the Armed Forces who serve both in the international staff of experts and in its support and administration element. In addition to its accreditation as a COE, it meets the quality standards (QA-Quality Assurance) required and certified by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) to be considered a NATO Education and Training Facility.

Its mission is to provide expert support to NATO, NATO partners and the International Community in the fight against the IED System in order to increase the security of deployed troops by reducing or eliminating the IED threat, especially from terrorist and insurgent networks and from any type of emerging threat resulting from rapidly changing global scenarios.

The C-IED CoE was offered by Spain to NATO as part of its network of Centers of Excellence and accredited for the first time by the Alliance in November 2010. In April 2023 it underwent a new accreditation process, with an “extremely satisfactory” result for the interests of the Alliance.