AFP flaunts unit against chemical warfare

Elements from the CBRNe Response Platoon of the Army’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal Battalion, Army Support Command demonstrate the pre-decontamination procedure during a simulated response operation to a CBRNe explosion. Photo by SSg Orlando Liwag/ AFP PAO

MANILA, Philippines – As terrorism gets more advanced, so too does the country’s defense forces.

Showing off its skills on detecting improvised explosive devices, the Armed Forces of the Philippines presented a new unit that could stop impending threat on the nuclear level.

Major General Kevin Servando said that the four-month old chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear explosive defense unit of the AFP is capable of engaging and stopping chemical attacks before these hit the targets.

“We have started it and we can improve in it,” Servando, who is the commander of the Army Support Command, said. “We will come up with a bigger unit to acquire more equipment and to improve our capability.”

“We need to have this capability to address whatever situation as far as CBRNE is concerned.”

So far, the supposed 100-member company is still on the starting grid with a 30-member platoon conducting the demonstration on Thursday at Camp Aguinaldo.

Clad in full protective gear, Lieutenant Mervin Hermoso lead the demonstration that showed how the Army would engage if a nuclear chemical attack happens using equipment the private firm Smart Technologies provided.

Servando said that the CBRNE defense unit is “sufficient” for the time-being.

According to AFP spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala, the new unit would be put under the Explosive Ordnance Disposal team.

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