Ammunition Safety Management

Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining – Ammunition Safety Management tool

Aging, unstable, and excess stockpiles of ammunition pose dual hazards of illicit proliferation and accidental explosion, which have caused humanitarian disasters and destabilised individual countries and regions in the past. This GICHD app can assist states to isolate and destroy unsafe and dangerous ammunition and instigate a reliable ammunition safety management regime, thus enabling a nation to control its stocks of ammunition to ensure their safety and security.

This method develops the capacity of a state to safeguard its own ammunition. The management system allows destruction of unsafe, unusable stockpiles of ammunition, preventing explosions within Ammunition Storage Areas (ASAs), which currently occur on average 2 ½ times a month. These explosions not only kill and maim thousands but destroy the regional infrastructure, putting many more at risk from disease and starvation.

Everything in the app is compliant with IATG. Tasks are broken into small, easily achievable steps, and can be mainly carried out by local workers under AT/ATO supervision and instruction. It can be adapted to any situation, and is relatively cheap until the final steps are taken to attain RRPL 1, at which time funding is required to build standard explosive facilities and install the correct standards of electrical and protective equipment.

It can be used as a training tool and a basis for an operational plan by established organisations, both civil and military, which wish to use their own work force to carry out the ammunition safety management (ASM) part of PSSM. There is a training matrix towards the end of the app enabling lesson plans to be written for each central role. The actions can be selected for their relevance – not all tasks require all actions. Operators can carry out actions in many different sequences, depending on local conditions and continuous risk assessments.

This app enables massive safety improvements to be achieved for relatively little expenditure. It works on the basis of making safe the most potentially catastrophic situations first, allowing thousands of lives to be saved by carrying out often small, simple actions. Those parts currently available to download here cover clearance of ERW (both UXO and AXO), siting and developing a safe temporary store, inspection and destruction of unsafe ammunition, detection of faults early, stockpile destruction and instigating a good ammunition management system. It should be noted that this app is designed to assist in saving human lives and livelihoods, not assisting militaries in ammunition reliability. The only concern is safety and welfare of civilians, not ability to wage war.

The next stage, currently in development, will guide users how to attain RRPL 1 standards. As stated previously, this stage cannot be carried out on a self-help basis – it requires skills and funding which will have to be externally sourced by the state.

Any queries on the app, how the ASM method works, training and advice on ASM can be addressed to the author, John Rawson, GICHD, at j.rawson@gichd.org.