In the United Kingdom, EOD Operators are held within all three Services, the most well known being the Ammunition Technicians of the Royal Logistic Corps. Each Service deals has differing responsibilities for UXO, however they will often work closely on operations. Ammunition Technicians deal with the more complicated areas of bomb disposal namely improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Ammunition Technicians are also experts in chemical, biological, incendiary, radiological ("dirty...
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In the United Kingdom, EOD Operators are held within all three Services, the most well known being the Ammunition Technicians of the Royal Logistic Corps. Each Service deals has differing responsibilities for UXO, however they will often work closely on operations. Ammunition Technicians deal with the more complicated areas of bomb disposal namely improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Ammunition Technicians are also experts in chemical, biological, incendiary, radiological ("dirty bombs"), and nuclear weapons. They provide support to VIPs, help civilian authorities with bomb problems, teach personnel from all three services about bomb safety, and a variety of other tasks. The Royal Engineers of 33 Engineer Regiment (EOD) provide EOD support for conventional munitions on operations. Sometimes, people confuse Engineers or Sappers with Ammunition Technicians. However, while complimentary, and often working closely, they have differing skill sets with Royal Navy, RAF or RE Bomb Disposal Operators handling conventional munitions, Royal Engineers dealing providing search advice and assets and the Royal Logistic Corps providing Improvised Explosive Device Disposal. All prospective Ammunition Technicians attend a grueling course of instruction at The Army School of Ammunition and the Felix Centre, UK. The timeframe for an Ammunition Technician to complete all necessary courses prior to finally be placed on an EOD team is around 36 months. Whereas the Engineer EOD training period is 8 weeks...Ammunition Technicians, having completed their training will be posted to a variety of units involved in IEDD, EOD or plain conventional ammunition duties. Until recent times the most prestigious EOD unit in the world was 321 EOD, that has now been surpassed by 11 EOD Regiment RLC , who not only provides all the mainland IEDD capabilities, but also provides detachments for Op TELIC Iraq and Afghanistan..
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