As part of its continual modernisation programme the Austrian Armed Forces have selected Argon Electronics as the provider of the CBRN Defence Centre’snew suite of simulator training equipments.
The explosion at SL-1 U.S. Army research facility near Idaho Falls in 1961 during the early years of nuclear power development was a grim and tragic reminder of the power and danger of nuclear fission. The accident resulted from a range of factors, including inadequate design, inadequate materials testing, and poor procedures and training.
The US response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster provided valuable lessons for the US military and its allies in creating a radiological detection and analysis capability that can offer real-time shared situational awareness.
The deadly nerve agent VX was used in the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. It is the most lethal of the nerve agents produced, more so than Sarin, and has an interesting if shadowy history.
In September 1987, a small amount of Cesium-137 was removed from an abandoned cancer-therapy machine in Brazil. This petty theft resulted in hundreds of people being eventually poisoned by radiation from the substance. The incident highlighted the danger that even relatively small amounts of radiation can pose.
Argon’s Steven Pike considers what radiation sources are and why despite their application in everyday life, the existence of radiation sources should not be taken for granted.
Argon’s Steven Pike considers the history and legacy of the Soviet Union’s search for remote energy supply.
In September 2023, a UK court convicted Mohammad Al-Bared from Coventry of committing acts of terrorism. In December of that year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. His crime? Using 3D printer technology to produce an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); he prepared the single-use weapon in a bedroom and planned to export the UAV for use by the Islamic State terror group (ISIL). Chillingly, he hoped that the weapon would be used to deliver a chemical weapon payload.
For many incidents involving specialist CBRNe or HazMat teams, standard protocol may dictate the practice of orthogonal detection, or the use of multiple pieces of equipment to rule out potential false positives.
Army hazmat training plays an important role in preparing key personnel for the safe transport of hazardous materials.
As part of its national defense mission, the US military makes use of a wide range of hazardous substances. These can include petroleum products, chemicals, explosives and solvents - all of which can pose a physical risk if handled improperly.
In this blog post we explore the process by which substances are classified as hazardous and ways in which hands-on army hazmat training scenarios can enhance theoretical understanding of safe handling.