"Until the end" is the motto that dominates under the coat of arms of the 32esimo regiment of genius warriors of Turin and it is precisely in this way that they carry out their mission, "to the end".
With the advent of increasingly complex operating scenarios characterized by a level of asymmetry and very high levels of conflict, the guilting regiment of the city of Piedmont was faced with a threat like that of explosive devices that knew well but that was changing shape and it was evolving into complex artifices, devoid of fixed patterns and out of any conventional form hitherto known, this new threat will be sadly made known to the chronicles with the acronym of IED - improvised explosive devices.
On the subject of IED, I meet the commander of the 32esimo regiment of sappers - Colonel Ovidio Esposito - in his office in Turin at the Cavour Barracks, which lends itself willingly to answer some questions: firstly, how these weapons have become one of the focal points of their work outside the area and central pivot of the training in the Homeland.The Arm of the Genius of our Army has been fighting against the IED since the beginning, has carefully studied the preparation and the uses and "every day our men find themselves in front of always new uses of these devices of circumstance "- specifies the colonel -" ours is a work in continuous evolution, from years we study the use and the employment of the IED and every year we find some news, of the evolutions. our role in the theater has changed considerably, we are being used to allow the mobility of our troops and to guarantee them the necessary protection from these explosive agents, at the base of everything there is a great theoretical preparation but above all I think that an important role is played by the experience of the Team Leaders of the various EOD groups and of all the personnel who are part of it. "
It is the experience that makes the 32esimo sappers a leading Army Counter-IED regiment, the commander is keen to explain to me that "experience is a fundamental aspect of preparation and preparation. Without experience we will face the modern scenarios in a static way while what we need is versatility and flexibility, if the IEDs are versatile and easy to use we must adapt to their use and we must adapt to the situation, this does not mean that on the field we they improvise remediation actions, anything else means being able to allow our conventional capacities to adapt to ever new and ever-changing scenarios. "
It is important to remember that one of the most underestimated effects of "non-experts" in the C-IED area is the psychological effect, the unknown of the threat and the absence of a visible and identifiable enemy makes stress one of the main companions of travel of these nuclei of excellence, I ask the commander how they relate in training and in the field with this aspect of their work and the answer is a surprise for me "certainly it is not easy to live with this aspect of our work, mental training and stress management is taken into wide consideration but what many people are unaware of is that there are few EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal, ed.) nuclei that are part of it.They are like a family, in the various teams we know each other and relate to each other every day: having people around you who can give you the support you ask for and who can support you in times of difficulty is almost as important as the addestramen and the experience "It is therefore not only the preparation due to the training on the national territory that form these men but it is also and above all the concept of buddy company," company of friends ". The support of the companions allows to limit the rising of stress levels, a silent and always present support of which the benefits are often neglected. For the moment, there are no valid tools to make these devices completely ineffective, the continuous evolution and the unpredictability of use and construction makes them complex artifices to be contrasted, so I ask the commander if he considers it correct to call them "the perfect weapon" as many have nicknamed them.
"I think the perfect word is at least overrated, the perfect weapon in my opinion cannot be countered, while IEDs are a arguable and manageable phenomenon even if not in their totality. Procedures and training, study and research are all aimed at limiting its effects, if this did not result in any sort then we could also start talking about a perfect weapon "I emphasize to the commander that the only limit to the use of IED is the human imagination, while the means and protections in endowed to our men they have the insurmountable limit of the natural physical laws, a means able to resist to a bomb loaded with hundreds of kilograms of explosives will certainly not have such mobility characteristics to be employed for military purposes. The commander emphasizes that "in most cases only one aspect is evaluated, ie that on an IED the vehicle must necessarily explode. Our work is mainly aimed at preventing that vehicle above the IED from ending, prevention and research only at the base of everything in the theater: operating on levels that are not only those of the defense of the medium is as important as the defense of the medium itself, that is only a surplus - to which I personally would never give up - the final phase of a long process of reclamation and field research. Thinking about damage is right, but we also give prevention a chance "
I believe, however, that precisely by virtue of the fact that these are unconventional artifices of circumstance, one could easily run into unexplored stratagems, therefore prevention yes, but prevention derives from a knowledge of the sometimes unknown threat.
Let us not forget that the evolution - even technological - of the IEDs moves in the anarchic world of the internet where globalization has now also affected the "international terrorism" sector of any matrix. Many devices used against NATO troops in Afghanistan have been borrowed in Mali against French troops or in Somalia against the contingent of the European SSR (security sector reform) mission in the country. On the web you can find any news to build bombs, there are even sites that are meticulously detailed in which it is quite easy to come across. I wonder if there is no need to stem the free circulation of sources - the so-called open-source - to prevent the The globalized aspect of modern terrorist matrices creates an exchange of information of global significance.
Explained these my perplexities the colonel answers me that "in reality I do not think it is possible to stem the phenomenon of open sources in this world so globalized, the internet sites - if they can be closed without incurring the accusation of censorship of some kind - are just a drop in the sea, rather we should start thinking about using the same means to combat the expansion of notions of construction, the internet is also a useful tool for us who are on the other side of the fence, the exchange of information is essential. Then reasoning, even if a badly intentioned subject really intended to build and use these bombs and take inspiration from the internet, it does not necessarily mean that he has the practical and material skills to use that device or even to build it. In reality, everything is possible, hypothetically. "
Taking up the sentence of the commander "hypothetically everything is possible" I ask for opinion on the training of the Afghan Security Forces in relation to the C-IED: many analysts believe that in a country still as unstable as Afghanistan it is from the political point of view that social, revealing aspects of the C-IED could be counterproductive and even dangerous for the coalition forces that operate and will continue to operate in the country. Knowing the techniques used by the Allies could consequently intensify the work of the insurgents to modify and improve the devices. "Objectively speaking, Afghanistan is a very complex country with many wounds to curb and there could be a case where one of our techniques is turned against the allies. However, we must take into account the binding commitments that the West has taken on the burden of maintaining with the Afghan government, first of all to train the Afghan armed forces to manage the internal security issue in total autonomy.The IEDs are the most widespread weapon and the main threat to our contingent and to the security of the country, if we did not train these men to defuse a bomb or not to adopt the right procedures when they find one in the field, we would fail in our commitment and above all we would never allow the country to become autonomous.The benefit we get from training the troops Afghan is far greater than any negative aspect, I would like to underline an aspect that many people do not know about the training they do in Afghanistan to the future troops of the country and that has brought us many times to an open clash between the Western mentality and theirs. Afghan men have this warlike nature, not showing fear and facing danger with their consequences is essential for them to continue to maintain that aura of importance they hold in society. If they know that a bomb is under a chair, they go to their death because it is the will of Allah. Our main task was to graft the "fear of the threat" and consequently study it and stem it. It took years to achieve concrete results, but today those who return to the country after some time find professional and trained troops that actively contribute to maintaining internal security. I think it's one of the best results we've achieved. "
Afghanistan for years has been at the center of a very hot geopolitical area, rich in new actors fighting each other for the conquest of power, an area that is constantly evolving and has been seeking peace for decades. On the international political scene, new crises and new requests for help have appeared; the so-called "Arab Spring countries" use civil resistance techniques that range from strikes to marches and often intersect with the massive use of violence, where the IEDs find a privileged place. Not only Arab countries but also cities like Kiev and Venezuela itself could be involved in the use of IEDs against the population in the degeration of popular uprisings. The use of high potential IEDs in close collaboration with those that are the main features of these bombs used in urban environments would have a great repercussion both in terms of victims and damage to infrastructures not to mention the media impact. I ask the commander if specific methodologies exist to stem the problem of the use of these weapons in urban and densely populated areas "To start we must distinguish two situations: the first is the presence of unconventional explosive devices on national territory that is not the responsibility of the Army but of the police and Carabinieri bomb squads - trained at the Center of Excellence for the C-IED of Rome at Cecchignola.Outside in operational theaters the approach to the urban environment is increasingly complex but in the end the procedures are the same as there is only a greater attention to preserving the infrastructures and a particular attention to the evacuation of the area a civilian personnel is always the first aspect to think about as well as the safety of the contingent that operates. There is no doubt that the use of these devices in an urban environment is definitely dangerous and difficult to manage, but even here the experience we were talking about comes into play, the flexibility of use allows men to stem the threat or at least the damage if we were in a static overview there would be no way to operate correctly "
In the historical moment in which we find ourselves, we can certainly define the IED as the great revolution or evolution in the military world that has appeared in the new millennium with a renewed presence but with the same devastating consequences. Versatile and economical weapon system, always ready to adapt to the most inaccessible circumstances and scenarios. It is not wrong to think that the threat described so far is a real threat and that over time it will continue to be the protagonist of asymmetrical armed struggles in the various theaters of operation. Globalization does not play in favor of Western countries, the Internet and the possibility of movement easier than in past decades allows the capillary networks of terrorist militias to exchange information and know-how learned over the years.
Nothing allows us to foresee that FDI will be set aside, on the contrary it is likely a massive increase in their use in areas that are not necessarily disadvantaged like Afghanistan or unstable like Egypt and Syria. Every feature of these devices is a point in favor of the insurgents, in a world that is constantly changing and evolving it is taken for granted that even terrorists and weapons systems keep up with the times.
Denise Serangelo
(in the images above: a "vintage IED" kept at the museum of OMAR mines in Kabul)
