Navy EOD Clears the Way Across the Competition Continuum
05 February 2021
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Jan. 22, 2021) -- “All clear,” a Navy explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operator calls as he completes the verification dive of a bottom mine that his teammate had neutralized minutes before he entered the water.
This cry epitomizes Navy EOD’s role within past, present, and future conflicts: clearing explosive threats and allowing the Navy and Joint Force to move at will against constantly evolving adversaries.
In this era of Great Power Competition (GPC), Navy EOD dominates in the littorals and reinforces maritime lethality by keeping commanders undeterred by even the most complex explosive and strategic weapons.
The recently released 2021 Chief of Naval Operations Navigation Plan stresses the need for a flexible force that competes and wins in a contested sea domain at the time and place of the U.S. Navy’s or Joint Force’s choosing. The Navy Expeditionary Combat Force (NECF) answers that call with scalable units that can clear, secure, build, and protect to enable execution of the 5 Rs: rearm, refuel, resupply, repair, and revive.
As a crucial part of the NECF, Navy EOD has consistently answered the call to clear obstacles of all shapes and sizes with teams that can deploy anytime and anywhere from the sea, air, or land to enable freedom of movement. In order to meet this high-demand and short notice tasking, Navy EOD operators are qualified in refined special operations air mobility insertion and extraction techniques that include parachuting, rappelling, special purpose insertion and extraction (SPIE), and fast roping, as well as a continuous forward presence.
The rich history and heritage of the US Navy’s EOD program is founded in the first days of World War II, when divers were sent forward to clear underwater hazards impeding landing operations as well as rendering safe unexploded ordnance through tested and well-honed tactics, techniques, and procedures. Navy EOD has continued to flourish and combat new and emerging threats in every conflict since. The highly trained forces were critical in removing land and sea mines covering both Korea and Vietnam, specifically those blocking Wonsan Harbor, and enabling full maneuverability for American forces. In the Arabian Gulf, Navy EOD was responsible for clearing Iranian-placed limpet and sea mines targeting naval and commercial vessels. As the threat changed, the force evolved to clear chemical, biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction through the Cold War and continues to rid the battlespace of explosive threats employed by non-state actors, violent extremist organizations and domestic threats.
Navy EOD has always been a tailored tool to get, and keep, the fleet in the fight. Today, these warriors carry on this mission by clearing the full range of explosive threats, including mines, improvised explosive devices, unexploded ordnance, weaponized chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats, and other man-made and natural hazards. In the undersea and surface maritime domains, Navy EOD integrates a fleet of increasingly autonomous unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV), remote operated vehicles and towed sensors with ever-increasing accuracy to search, identify, and dispose of threats at the speed of relevance to the fleet.
On land, Navy EOD continues to evolve human-machine teaming approaches to defeat explosive threats. Using integrated services digital network (IDSN) capabilities, EOD operators can deliver large amounts of data over long distances in excess of traditional means. The innovative use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has also enabled increased multi-dimensional surveillance and EOD functionality within the battlespace to provide information advantage for the Joint Force as well as enhanced safety and security for the warfighter. These increases in information sharing, surveillance, and functionality are made possible through capability development and innovation using key partnerships with other services, program offices, and industry. These advancements, made through a shared commitment, will provide the framework and infrastructure required to succeed across the GPC continuum.
Accustomed to operating during combat, Navy EOD enables critical fleet concepts such as expeditionary logistics. To keep the military in the fight and recover from likely damage during combat, Navy EOD plays a vital supporting role for the larger NECF network, especially during airfield damage repair and port damage repair efforts. Just as in the early days following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Navy EOD force is uniquely capable of removing explosive hazards blocking ports, runways, and critical infrastructure. This clears the way for Navy Seabees to rapidly repair runways for follow-on forces, or highly-specialized underwater construction team divers to repair and equip ports for vessel repair, rearming, refueling and provisioning.
Navy EOD’s capabilities ensure our fleet and nation can fight and win, wherever, whenever, and however it chooses. This proud team fills a vital role in the larger NECF efforts to clear the way to secure required operating areas, build infrastructure, and refuel, rearm, resupply, repair and revive the fleet.
The following people contributed to this article: Cmdr. Joseph Preston, EODGRU1 Chief Staff Officer; Lt. Cmdr. John Kennedy, EODGRU2 Operations Officer; Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Cassity, EODGRU2 Fleet Maintenance Officer; Lt. Michaela Golankiewicz, EODGRU2 Future Operations Officer