Indian Head, Maryland –
Three employees from Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division’s (NSWC IHD) Explosive Ordnance Disposal Department received the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in Innovation at the FBI Critical Incident Response Group’s (CIRG) ceremony last month.
The FBI Director’s Awards for Excellence offer the Director and other FBI officials the opportunity to recognize Bureau employees and others who make positive contributions to the community for their outstanding contributions and exceptional service to the FBI and its mission.
The NSWC IHD personnel were recognized for their assistance in the Research and Prototype for IED Defeat (RAPID) program. The RAPID program develops tools and techniques for countering improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and transfers that capability via specialized technical seminars, licensing of tools developed for easy National Stock Number procurement, Special Technical Bulletins, and EOD publications. Since 2012, the command’s EOD Department personnel have collaborated with the FBI’s Counter-IED Unit in order to develop tools and techniques for both Joint Service EOD as well as the Public Safety Bomb Disposal community. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security, the program is a collaboration between the command’s EOD Department, the FBI and Cherry Engineering. The RAPID program has significantly augmented the access and disrupt capability to defeat improvised threats.
In support of the program, NSWC IHD’s EOD Department and the FBI collaborated on the “Suggested Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures; IED Hand Entry Access,” the publication that conveys tested methods for interrogating an IED when a remote operation is not possible. The team also collaborated on multiple EOD disrupter improvements that modernized prior defeat procedures and enhanced tools and techniques for IED defeat.
NSWC IHD — a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy’s Science and Engineering Establishment — is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.
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