Threat and Protection for Personnel and Equipment in Out of Area Operations

Abstract : For the MOD's in Europe the participation in UN and NATO- Out of Area Operations has become a totally new mission in the last five years. The consequences for the organization are enormous. Instead of operating in a static, well known and prepared infrastructure, the missions must be organized and fulfilled in a mobile infrastructure. In the peace-keeping and peace-enforcing mission the priorities are set different from war time. Safety of own personnel is paramount, while equipment is of minor importance. This new situation leads to new demands and requires new solutions. Thinking about the tasks of the Corps of Engineers (CoE), new experience has to be built up about aspects like the threat level, the demanded level of protection, munition storage, hastily constructed protective structures, available materials, logistics and standardization. TNO-PML is one of the laboratories for the technical and scientific support of the Dutch MOD. In this paper we want to indicate our experience and ideas on the support and research dedicated to the tasks of the Corps of Engineers (CoE).