NSWC IHD’s Role at National Robot Rodeo Vital to Influence Future EOD Technology

NSWC IHD's Role at National Robot Rodeo Vital to Influence Future EOD Technology

Valparaiso, Ind. - As leaders in the explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) community, Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division (NSWC IHD) attended the 2024 national Robot Rodeo (NRR) event in Valparaiso, Indiana, August 26-30. The command participated alongside military, public safety, Department of Defense (DoD) and industry stakeholders, showcasing technologies in real-world operational scenarios to determine the best tools to put in the hands of EOD operators.

"Our focus is to bring in joint service warfighters so we collaborate with our service detachments at Indian Head to find EOD teams to compete in the event so we have representatives from all four services participating," said NSWC IHD EOD Systems Division Director Mike Del Signore, who served as the command's lead for the event. "We also coordinate with our International Programs Office inside of the EOD Department to bring more international representation each year."

Del Signore said EOD teams from Belgium and the United Kingdom joined the competition this year. Throughout the year, he and his team met with representatives from other NRR vendors and participants to design scenarios that best showcase their EOD technologies at the event.

"We see this as an extremely valuable event in terms of interfacing with our warfighters as well as our partners that help support joint service EOD," Del Signore said. "It allows us to keep a pulse on EOD technology and state-of-the-art advancements we can leverage to improve the capabilities that we can field to the EOD warfighter. It also enables us to collaborate with our CONUS [contiguous United States] and OCONUS [outside contiguous U.S.] partners to support joint operations in the future."

NSWC IHD's role in NRR helps shape research and development efforts at the command. The data collected from scenarios in radiation detection, improvised explosive device identification and clearance, automated threat recognition, robotic aiming and chemical detection will help identify future developments, requirements and capabilities fielded to the EOD community.

"Our end-users really benefit from seeing all the various technologies being played out in different scenarios at the event," said NSWC IHD EOD Deputy Department Head Denice Lee. "They get hands-on experience where they actually learn and become familiar with the different technologies so they can later apply them in the field."

The DoD's EOD Technology Center at NSWC IHD provides cradle-to-grave technology support and testing and evaluation of commercial off-the-shelf and developmental systems to protect the EOD warfighter.

NSWC IHD - a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command and part of the Navy's Science and Engineering Establishment - is the leader in ordnance, energetics, and EOD solutions. The Division focuses on energetics research, development, testing, evaluation, in-service support, manufacturing and disposal; and provides warfighters solutions to detect, locate, access, identify, render safe, recover, exploit and dispose of explosive ordnance threats.