A daily struggle for security
in theatres of operation
Coronel
José Antonio
Cruz Moro
Director
del CoE C-IED
AS Director of the C-IED CoE, I find it difficult
to express in just a few lines the importan-ce
of our work, which, due to its necessary
discretionary nature in terms of publicity, runs
the risk of losing its true meaning. Our daily struggle is to
deliver security to the military and civilian staff deployed
or resident in any geographical setting where the presen-ce
of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) may represent
a threat. It is a never-ending task, which we gratefully
accept as a challenge.
As the framework nation, Spain took the right step at
the right time. In the first decade of the 21st century, a lar-ge
number of IEDs appeared and turned into a problem.
They became a real military issue in all the theatres of
operation in which NATO countries were deployed, sin-ce
the mere existence of these devices prevented any
other activity, such as providing security to unstable
areas, due to the high risk of insurgent activity. Spain
proposed the establishment of this
Centre of Excellence to NATO, a
Centre of which all its compo-nents,
both Spanish and foreign,
IEDs are the
main cause of
military and
civilian casualties
in today’s conflicts
are particularly proud. Pride that I
personally wish to share with the
rest of the Spanish people. The
Centre is not only for Spain, but it
was only Spain that saw the need
for the Centre. And we were right.
We were right because IEDs are
here to stay as a weapon of war.
A weapon that is the main cause
of military and civilian casualties
worldwide in today’s conflicts, only limited by human
imagination to do harm with explosives.
But what is the C-IED fight? In the simplest possible
way, I will define it as the integration of available informa-tion
and intelligence on explosive devices and the human
groups that use them, with the necessary actions to plan
and execute operations aiming, where possible, to perma-nently
eliminate the operational capability of these groups
and reduce the direct effects of the explosions. The threat
that is being fought against is not the device that explodes,
but rather the entire networking structure that finances,
constructs, transports, plants and activates explosive de-vices.
It cannot be understood from a defensive perspec-tive,
since the C-IED fight is substantially offensive, with
high demands on data analysis and a future perspective
determining the centre of gravity of each of the terrorist
and insurgent networks present in theatres of operation
and their possible operational evolution once attacked.
The C-IED CoE has been present for ten years as an
International Military Organisation. The first steps required
clear guidance to avoid duplication when dealing with new
activities. And it was no easy task. The experience of all
that personnel deployed in theatres of operation as diver-se
as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Mali made it difficult
to provide new input to what had already been worked on,
studied and analysed thoroughly, leaving little room for no-velty
or creativity. But that is part of “excellence”; perhaps
not seeing what others see, but at least trying to do so,
because there is always “something” to contribute.
There is no way to evaluate our work that scientifically
correlates (qualitatively and quantitatively speaking) our
efforts with results in the area of operations, nor is there a
correlation between military exercises and the concept of
global security. It is impossible to assess this, beyond the
fact that what we have placed at the disposal of Allied na-tions,
or countries we have worked in, has been used as
a reference or working tool in head-quarters
or units deployed. And those
results exist. To mention just a few:
generating the Human Networks
Analysis and Targeting concept for
NATO; Defence Capacity Building
activities in nations such as Jordan
and Iraq; open sources analysis of
incidents and tactics used by terrorist
and insurgent networks in different
areas of the world; or technological
projects such as PRINSE or BLADE
for protection against explosions.
They are our only but satisfactory
guarantee on the organizational level, but much more mo-tivating
on a personal level, since we are convinced that
these tools and projects result in greater security for the
personnel who experience IED attacks, regardless of the
country they come from or wherever they are.
The multinational nature of the military personnel that
make up the Centre, as well as the wide range of State
Security Forces and Intelligence Agencies that participate
in it, are basic to our work. In the C-IED CoE, there is no
room for complacency because absolute excellence does
not exist. However, trying to reach that level of excellence
requires accepting our shortcomings and seeing them as
an incentive to continue working and researching. When
lives are at stake, excellence ceases to be a simple quality
and becomes an attitude of service. This is the course of
action that all the members of the centre, military or civi-lian,
national or foreign, want to establish in our daily work,
as has been the case for the last decade.
32 Revista Española de Defensa December 2020