News 2016

New Director Operations Support Department has Taken over Responsibilities

Today, 11th July 2016, the Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence can welcome Colonel Olivier Lion as the new Director of the Operations Support Department. “It will be an interesting challenge”, Colonel Lion said during the handover period. “After all, I have been Commander of a Regiment until last week, and working in a Centre of Excellence will be a completely different environment now.” But the member of the French Armed Forces is optimistically looking forward to spend three challenging years in the CoE in Vyškov, being responsible for many different field of activities. Just to mention the most important: His Department is providing the CBRN Reachback Support to the Alliance and our Sponsoring Nations.

Czech CBRN Expert Visited COE

February 2, 2016: The JCBRN Defence Centre of Excellence was honored to host Dr. Jozef SABOL, CBRN defence expert, Czech Police Academy.

The main aim was to share information with a view toward possible future cooperation in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence.
The JCBRN Defence Centre of Excellence Director, COL Jiri GAJDOS, presented a briefing about the Centre’s history, achievements and current projects, followed by a tour of the training and education facilities, CBRN Reachback operation room, the Information Knowledge Management and Modelling and Simulation sections.
Dr. Jozef SABOL was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit the Centre.

Visit by Czech Republic Member of Parliament

On 16 May 2016 Mr. Jaroslav KLASKA,member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and his team visited the JCBRN Defence COE in Vyskov.

The COE’s Chief of Staff, Colonel Willie Joe FLUCKER, welcomed Mr. KLASKA and pointed out the importance and the value of his visit.

Colonel Jaroslav BOREK, Deputy Director of the COE’s Training, Exercise and Education Department, led the delegation through briefings on the organization’s main mission, tasks, achievements, current projects and visions of the Centre.

As part of the visit, Mr. KLASKA and his team toured the training and education facilities, CBRN Reachback Operations Room, and the Information Knowledge Management and Modelling and Simulation Sections.

Mr. KLASKA was very pleased to have the opportunity to visit the Centre.

Commander, U.S. Army 20th CBRNE Command Visits JCBRN Defence CoE

Vyskov, 27 May 2016: Brigadier General William E. King IV, Commander of the U.S. Army’s 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) Command visited the JCBRN Defence CoE to exchange information and to assess the potential for future training, planning and support coordination. Colonel Will Flucker, the CoE’s Chief of Staff, welcomed BG King and hosted joint briefings and discussion followed by tours of the CoE’s CBRN Reachback Element, Modelling and Simulation Section and the Czech Republic’s Military Research Institute for Field Live Agent Training.

The 20th CBRNE Command is the United States’ only military formation with specialized capabilities and expertise to operate effectively across the fullspectrum of CBRNE Hazards. The highly-technical, special purpose, expeditionary formation of approximately 5,000 soldiers routinely engages and operates with and in support of U.S. joint, special operations, interagency and international CBRNE organizations and entities, maintaining a 24/7 focus on countering CBRNE threats at home and abroad.

BG King is the first commander of the venerable unit to visit the CoE. He greatly appreciated this first official engagement, and he personally identified several areas for continued dialog, stating “This won’t be the [20th CBRNE Command’s] last visit.”

OPS-NC-2008 International Radiological Assistance Program Training for Emergency Response (I-RAPTER) Basic Course

Another iteration of the OPS-NC-2008 International Radiological Assistance Program Training for Emergency Response (I-RAPTER) Basic Course was organized by the Joint CBRN Defence Centre of Excellence and US Department of Energy National (DOE) Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) (find more at https://nnsa.energy.gov/) from 30 May to 2 June 2016.

The aim of the course was to provide practical information to effectively respond to radiological incidents and accidents. The course provided instruction through briefings, equipment demonstrations and field exercises employing a wide variety of radiation detection instruments, radiation sources, and personal protective equipment.

Seventeen course participants (from CZE, ESP, HRV, POL, SVN, and USA) were members of armed forces, fire brigade units, civilian medical service and JCBRND COE.

The performance of NNSA instructors (Mr. Richard MAURER, Mr. Michael MAZUR, Mr. James BUTLER and Mr. Kevin ROLFE) was very professional and highly appreciated by all students. They shared their experience with students, conducted well prepared activities and were engaged in interesting discussions.

During theoretical lessons students have become familiar not only with variety of radioactivity detectors but also procedures related to this issue. The activities were culminating during the field exercise training day (Day 3). Students had to conduct search operation in a building, mobile search operation in the garrison and surroundings and a recovery operation.

Search operation was conducted in cooperation with Institute of CBRN Defence – Radiological Laboratory (CZE University of Defence) and with Vyskov Air Museum. The premises of Vyskov Air Museum also created inspiring outdoors background for training the detection procedures and the safe transport of discovered radioactive sources to secure environment.

The course was evaluated by the students as very useful with great added value for their carrier’s development.

Next iteration is planned for 5-8 June 2017. Moreover, the I-RAPTER Basic is just one of four courses offered by NNSA and JCBRND COE, the three other courses are:

OPS-NC-3009 I – RAPTER Advanced Course
OPS-NC-3012 International Radiological Consequence Management Training Course
OPS-NC-2011 International Medical Management of Radiation Injuries (I-MED) Course

Find more at our Training Portal: http://www.jcbrncoe.cz/tp/course/index.php?categoryid=7 !

Author: CPT Gorazd STERGAR (SVN-A).
Photo: WO Petr MOHNACS (CZE-A).