IEDs are one of the main causes of casualities among troops and exact a heavy toll on local populations. With the aim of reducing the risks posed by IEDs, the Alliance helps members and partners in developing their own C-IED capabilities, with a particular emphasis on education and training, doctrine development and improving counter-measure technologies.
NATO introduced a Counter Improvised Explosive Devices (C-IED) Action Plan with two main focus areas: defeating the device itself and disrupting the network. With defeating the device, various branches within NATO look at how to detect and neutralize IEDs, prepare and train soldiers for an IED environment, develop technology to prevent IED attacks and protect soldiers and civilians.
C-IED is not just about stopping or neutralising an IED once it is already in place, but also about identifying and disrupting the networks that create and initiate IEDs. The Alliance focuses on reducing the frequency and severity of IED attacks, while also targeting the networks that facilitate them. Understanding the various threat networks at the tactical to strategic levels is vital to success in current and future operations where battle lines are no longer linear.
C-IED efforts encompass work, research, testing and training conducted at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Supreme Allied Command Transformation (SACT) in the United States, International Security Assistance Force Headquarters in Afghanistan (ISAF) and various Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and NATO Agencies. These different commands, agencies and divisions focus on training, developing technology designed to defeat IEDs, sharing information and bringing together non-NATO actors to disrupt the network before IEDs kill or injure troops, Afghan security forces and civilians.