The demand for Wescom Defence’s Portable Obstacle Minefield Breaching System (POMBS) has increased by an order of magnitude over the last two years, the company announced in a release on 28 October. In response, Wescom is expanding its manufacturing facilities to cater for the significant uptick in demand.
With production and testing facilities in Germany, the UK, Australia, and Spain, the group operates over 293,000m² of energetic materials manufacturing space, focused on Class 1.1–1.4 pyrotechnics, fully supported by in-house design, engineering and NATO-compliant quality and assurance teams.
Conventional minefields, booby traps, unexploded ordnance and man-made obstacles can easily stall ground-based operations, incur delay and increase risk to exposed troops. Traditional clearing methods are slow, high-risk and require specialist training, while heavy armoured capability is often unavailable or unsuitable for the terrain in question. Wescom Defence has developed the Light and Heavy POMBS variants to quickly restore operational momentum.
POMBS is a modular backpack-carried system that launches a detonating cord carrying explosive packages using a rocket: on detonation, this clears a safe lane – 74m long with 1m interval cleared stepping zones. Heavy POMBS comprises two backpacks and clears a 55m x 0.5m path. Both systems are easy to use, require minimal training, have been operationally proven and are classed as Technical Readiness Level 9 by NATO MoD standards. Wescom Defence also supplies training variants to support the safe and effective adoption of its products by new customers.
Furthermore, the company recently unveiled a new configuration of the Milrem Robotics THeMIS UGV, integrating the H-POMBS module developed in cooperation with KNDS Deutschland. Designed to create lanes through obstacles, the solution highlights H-POMBS’ integration flexibility and reflects surging demand for uncrewed combat engineering capabilities under drone threat. “This production increase and recent UGV integrations with partners KNDS Deutschland underline our capacity to continue providing NATO forces with effective and reliable capabilities at pace,” commented Wescom Defence VP Defence Sales, David Griffiths.
Main image shows the Heavy POMBS Training Variant. (Wescom Defence)
