Working in the ‘real world’ at NATO’s premier IEDD exercise

Northern Challenge is NATO’s top Improvised Explosive Device Disposal (IEDD) exercise, hosted by the Icelandic Coast Guard in Keflavik.

It involves Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) forces from 17 countries coming together to practise responding to real-life terrorist incidents involving improvised and military explosive devices.

The Royal New Zealand Navy has been sending MEOD teams to Northern Challenge since 2021.

Matataua’s Commanding Officer, Commander Greg Camburn, has been to two iterations of this exercise. He says Northern Challenge brings together EOD units from across the NATO alliance and partner nations, testing their interoperability and problem-solving abilities to neutralise complex explosive threats, in a realistic operational environment.

“The exercise planners want to provide improvised devices in line with current world threats,” he says. “They look at what’s happening in the world with real devices, and they try and replicate them.”

As well as disarming, one task involves the operators attempting to build an Improvised Explosive Device, to learn more about the workings of real devices disarmed in the recent past.

Matataua’s MEOD teams are trained in land explosive ordnance disposal and are then qualified to handle sub-surface threats.

“Our taskings could be around port areas, on coastlines, on wharf or port infrastructure, or underwater anywhere. We specialise in the maritime environment and ensure we are benchmarked against the best in the world, demonstrating our ability to be a globally credible partner able to hold our own on the world stage.”

“In Iceland, we’ve shown our teams can do the job, and we’ve been observed as being on par with other nations. That shows that our training, which we conduct in New Zealand and overseas, is enabling us to remain contemporary.

“We also have directing staff at these exercises who are observing and reporting, and they learn from other teams and how they operate, and they bring that back to New Zealand.”

It’s been a busy year for the MEOD team, with personnel in Europe delivering training to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while conducting domestic work-up exercises to qualify and maintain currency.

“Our teams stand ready to deliver Maritime EOD capability anywhere in the world; whether it be disposal of Explosive Remnants of War in the South West Pacific, or Counter-IED operations in a more contemporary environment.”