The U.S. Department of State Quick Reaction Force: Providing Rapid Response to CWD Emergencies Globally

The Quick Reaction Force (QRF) is a team of civilian EOD technical experts that serve as PM/ WRA’s first responders to CWD-related emergencies around the world, including munitions depot explosions, ammunition depots at risk of imminent explosion, and ERW that pose significant threats to civilians. These situations require immediate action to secure or dispose of poorly-secured or unstable munitions, prevent loss of life, protect critical infrastructure, and conduct needs assessments for further CWD activities. The QRF can begin to respond to these threats worldwide in as few as 48 hours.

“Too many foreign military depots, even if originally situated in uninhabited locations, have become surrounded by urban growth over the decades,” notes Stanley L. Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. “In other cases, depots were deliberately built in populated areas. Either way, the aging ammunition in these “dangerous depots” poses an imminent threat to nearby civilians. Furthermore, catastrophic depot explosions can result in political unrest, which can destabilize the country where the depot blew up. Ultimately, it is smarter and also more cost-effective to safely remove and demilitarize aging ammunition beforehand than it is to let that ammunition fester, blow up, and result in the loss of life, damage to infrastructure, economic loss, and pollution of surrounding neighborhoods with unstable ammunition spread by the explosions. But when that happens, the QRF serves as the United States’ first responders.”

Golden West Humanitarian Foundation, implementing partner for the QRF, is a U.S. NGO specializing in humanitarian demining, BAC, and PSSM. http://www.state.gov/t/pm/wra

QRF responses to date

Since 2001, the QRF and its precursor the Quick Reaction Demining Force have deployed to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Federated States of Micronesia, Guatemala, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Liberia, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Philippines, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Tuvalu, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Vietnam.

The explosion at an army depot in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in 2012 is one of the emergencies to which the QRF has responded.

Photo courtesy of Golden West.