Trying To Understand: A Transportable IED laboratory

Trying To Understand: A Transportable IED laboratory

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The European Defense Agency (EDA) has hired the services of the Spanish company Indra to develop new forensic analysis laboratories for Counter-Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) used in terrorist attacks. Research will focus on gathering information about the techniques and tactics used by terror organizations in their attacks. Researching IED is crucial as they are the leading cause of death of civilians and soldiers in international military operations.

The total sum that the EDA is planning to invest in this project is around 4 million euro, when at first 2.2 million were dedicated to form the first laboratory. Each laboratory will include 13 transportable modular containers that may be configured differently, depending on a mission’s requirements. The mobility of these laboratories would allow the researchers the option of arriving at the scene with all of the equipment needed for research of the event, and to collect samples of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear leftovers, as well as conventional means the terrorists used in the attack. Furthermore, each container could also gather information on-site about electronic devices, if any were used. The laboratories allow the attack scene researchers to do a computerized analysis while comparing it to data collected in other scenes, thus maybe recognize a pattern and produce insights for dealing with such threats in the future.

This is not the first time Indra has won a tener to produce IED’s scenes research laboratories. A previous version of this project has been used frequently between the years 2011 – 2014 by the International Forces who fought in Afghanistan. In that time frame, the laboratory and its researchers have analysed more then 300 different attack scenes every month.

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