Military & Police Terrorize Victoria with Bomb Disposal Training

Military & Police Terrorize Victoria with Bomb Disposal Training

Video: Soldiers on improvised explosive exercises prepare for Olympic
terrorism and Afghan war.

Capital Region hosts military bomb disposal exercise
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(Video)

Two vehicles met mangled ends after the Canadian Navy’s Fleet Diving Unit (Pacific) demonstrated explosive techniques to deal with car bombs Thursday.

Containers holding water and plastic explosives were used to punch holes in a car and a van rigged with simulated bombs, or in military talk, improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

“The water is the actual projectile,” Fleet Diving Unit Master Seaman Mark Essertaize said shortly before detonation at the Rocky Point Ammunition Depot in Metchosin. “The directional force will create a jet. It’s going to pierce the car and take care of the IED.”

It was an energetic beginning to exercise Desert Fox, where the Fleet Dive Unit, the RCMP IED disposal team, Canadian military members from across Canada and members of a US Navy bomb disposal unit are training in locations around Greater Victoria.

Save-on-Foods Centre, Royal Athletic Park, Ogden Point, Langford Fire Rescue’s training facility will under go simulated terrorist IED attacks throughout the week, with the exercise ending April 26.

“We obviously won’t be doing large scale disposals downtown. We’ll be using small disruptors,” said Lt.-Cmdr. Richard Watt, of the Fleet Dive Unit. “But it’s not often we get to to do the large-scale shots.”

Watt said for the military, the exercise isn’t specifically for operations Afghanistan or security measures for the 2010 Olympics, although it is for the RCMP.

“It’s quite a different type of IED that’s done in Afghanistan. Operating in a tactical environment there is obviously very different from here,” Watt said. “It’s one of the reasons we are doing this exercise is to practice that domestic type bomb disposal.”

Lieut. (Navy) Clay Cochrane said people downtown and around the city will probably see members in bomb disposal suits, using robots and x-ray photography to analyze and dispose of simulated suspect packages. Cochrane stressed no actual explosives will be placed in civilian areas.

”This is the first time we’ve ever been able to used downtown facilities before. We really are breaking new ground here,” he said. “This is realistic in a way that cannot be simulated.”

U.S. Navy Cmdr. Joe DiGuardo Jr., explosive ordinance disposal unit, said exercises like Desert Rat helps the U.S. military become familiar with tactics and techniques of the Canadian military, which helps both side work together in overseas hotspots such as Afghanistan.

“IEDs are our enemy’s weapon of choice ... a weapon which is indiscriminate and kills civilians and combatants alike,” DiGuardo said. “We relish the opportunity to work together so we can be more effective protecting civilians and our fellow warriors overseas.”