A team of Royal Australian Navy divers and an Explosive Ordnance Disposal element of the Solomon Islands Police Force have disposed over 400 explosive projectiles and bombs.
The Australian Defence Force reports that divers from Australian Clearance Diving Team Four (AUSCDT4) have been training Solomon Islands Police Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians the past three weeks in the underwater methods used to dispose of unexploded ordnance found in the area.Five members of the Solomon Islands Police Force received diving training from AUSCDT4, which included a variety of skills and techniques used in underwater explosive disposal.
A variety of dangerous ordnance, left over from the World War Two, have been safely removed, the largest item destroyed a 45 kilogram bomb that had been exposed on a local road near a village in the Western Province.
Other items disposed by the team have ranged from discarded gas cylinders to white-phosphorous mortar rounds left over from World War Two.
The training and disposal was conducted as part of the Defence Cooperation Program between Australia and the Solomon Islands.