Austrian Experts in the National Army

Chisinau, August 7, 2014 — A group of experts from Austrian Armed Forces have visited the National Army, within July 25 — August 8.

According to the Chief of Weapons and Ammunition Division of the Military Technical Equipment and Weapons Department within Logistics Directorate, Maj. Oleg Pulbere, the visit of the five Austrian experts, members of a multinational group consisting of Swedish, German and Canadian experts too, aims at planning the practical part of the “Ammunition and Weapons Stockpile Management” course.

The quoted source specified that, within the planning activity of the course, for the first time, the experts made the chemical assessment of some amounts of ammunition of the National Army, that will be used for the practical training of 25 Moldovan servicemembers and representatives of the Ministries of Internal Affairs and Justice, as well as the Security Intelligence Service, who have attended the theoretical part of the course in March.

Werner Kernmaier, ammunition expert, stated that the chemical analysis — one of the most important aspects of the September course planning process — is to study the safety and stability of the ammunition propelling charges. “While in the National Army, we checked the chemical condition of the ammunition to find out if they are good for storing and not dangerous for handling”, Werner Kernmaier said.

According to Wolfgang Reitschmeid, the Chief of the Multinational Training Group (MTT), the safety of the servicemembers and people living near the ammunition storehouses is a priority both, for members of the experts team and OSCE Mission in Republic of Moldova, that supports the “Ammunition and Weapons Stockpile Management” training course. Year by year, stabilization of ammunition propelling charges disappears, and storage and handling of this ammunition becomes more dangerous both, for the military and civilians. For us, it is important to know that the old ammunition from the National Army storehouses, that will be used at the practical phase of the training course is not dangerous. Therefore, our priority was to test them“, Col. Reitschmeid noted.

The “Ammunition and Weapons Stockpile Management” course consists of three stages and is part of the series of projects carried out within the Memorandum between the Ministry of Defense and OSCE regarding the implementation of the Complex Program on Small Arms and Light Weapons, signed on October 28, 2010, in Republic of Moldova.

The course started this spring and will last until 2017.