5th May 2011
The death of Osama bin Laden has placed the world on a `severe` security alert that threatens to stay in place for some time to come.
If counter-terrorism intelligence gathering can help prevent further atrocities around the globe, key to any intervention will be the use of leading edge Western technology that can remove, dispose of and if necessary detonate suspect packages.
Security specialist Roger Ings has just returned from China where he headed up a trade mission to demonstrate the latest bomb disposal equipment available to police forces and fire departments there.
His involvement with the Beijing Olympic Games Organising Committee (BOCOG) for the 2008 event gave him an insight into how dependant the country is on the quality and reliability of Western know-how.
He has capitalised on that experience by becoming the China agent for one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hook and line (H & L) equipment, sophisticated technology that allows bomb disposal personnel to attend to booby-trapped vehicles remotely and safely.
Visiting Shanghai and Nanjing, he displayed the latest developments in H & L equipment to local public security and fire bureaux, as well as SWAT teams and other specialist units, who gained an insight into the latest additions to the current hook and line ranges.
The equipment can remotely open doors in vehicles and in buildings using a complicated system of cables and pulleys that allow bomb disposal personnel to remove objects while positioned safely out of the blast line.
“The technology now allows virtually any door, locked or otherwise, to be opened safely,” Roger explains, who runs Strings Security, which sells counter-terrorism and bomb disposal equipment and trains security personnel at high-risk sites such as Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands.
“Although producing its own bomb disposal equipment, Chinese buyers prefer the robustness and proven reliability of Western equivalents because no-one can afford for equipment to be the weak link in the bomb disposal chain,” Roger stresses.
“The visit proved a great success, with plenty of interest from those who attended our demonstrations. I’m confident of some significant orders to be generated from my time there.”
Roger visits China as regularly as others dine out but it’s for business as well as the love of the country that draws him there so often. “It’s a magnificent place – full of spectacular country and vibrant cities – with an economy still growing at a phenomenal rate. Its thirst for raw materials and Western technology remains huge.”