Bomb disposal experts checked for mental stress

UK: Military doctors have found evidence suggesting that Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel are at greater risk of mental health problems than other service personnel because of their extremely dangerous work.

The standard six-month tours that EOD personnel serve in Afghanistan could also be cut to relieve the strains on them.

Last month, Captain Lisa Jade Head of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, became the latest “high threat” operator to be killed clearing explosives in Afghanistan.

In February, an inquest into the death of Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid, from the same regiment, heard that he had appeared “under pressure” and “rushed” on the day he died in an explosion in 2009.

Read more at The Telegraph

Bombs cleared from 'ghost town'

British bomb disposal experts have carried out their largest clearance of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence said.

An 80-strong team cleared a "deserted ghost town", searching and clearing 75 compounds as well as miles of tracks and alleyways.

During the painstaking eight-day fingertip search of Char Coucha in Helmand the team diffused nine bombs and discovered nine ordnance caches.

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Daddy it's time to come home...

A HERO due back from Afghanistan was killed defusing a Taliban bomb - hours after his little boy phoned to remind him: "Daddy, it's time to come home.

Read full story at The Sun

Robots on the battlefield

You may think we’re still a few years away from the point when T-800s prowl the battle field, looking for human skulls to crush underneath their robotic heels, but think again: today, right now, one in every fifty soldiers in Afghanistan is a robot, not a human. 

According to Lt. Col. Dave Thomspon, speaking to Wired, there are more than 2,000 robots on the ground fighting alongside human troops right now. These aren’t all Terminators, though: in fact, most of the robots in Afghanistan are still pretty dumb.