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EAST NEW BRITAIN, Papua New Guinea — A multinational team led by the Australian Defence Force (ADF), with support from U.S. Marines with the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF-D) 25.3 Marine Air-Ground Task Force (MAGTF) and other regional partners, conducted Operation Render Safe 25.1 in East New Britain from June 3-14, 2025. The teams carried out a reconnaissance mission to locate unexploded World War II ordnance and lay the groundwork for disposal operations next year.
Operation Render Safe is designed to reduce the long-term threat of unexploded ordnance (UXO) to local communities across the South Pacific, prioritizing the identification of high-risk areas where villagers live, farm, and fish near decades-old explosives. By mapping these danger zones and planning for future disposal, lives are already being saved.
“Every location discovered ensures the safety of children that play in these areas as well as the village elders who work there,” said Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Rogers, an explosive ordnance disposal technician with MRF-D 25.3. “Our collaboration with multinational teams here not only demonstrates that nations from around the world can work together seamlessly, but also highlights the strong relationships being built among team members and with the local communities.”
The reconnaissance effort involved ADF, U.S. Marines, Sailors, Soldiers, Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, French Army, Canadian Army, British Army, New Zealand Defence Force, Papua New Guinea Self-Defense forces, and local authorities. Together, the multinational team surveyed potential battle grounds, former Japanese cave systems, coastal regions and village areas, some of which still bear the scars of fighting from more than 80 years ago.
Instead of removing ordnance during this phase, teams focused on collecting detailed data to support a full-scale disposal operation in 2026. Local residents shared knowledge of UXO locations, helping teams catalog thousands of threat sites and UXO, making the area safer for all. The MRF-D and multinational team also provided risk awareness briefings to local schools and villages to educate the public about what to do if suspicious items are found.
“The thing I'm most excited about being here on Operation Render Safe has got to be meeting the locals. Everyone here in the community is so warm and welcoming,” said Cpl. Dylan Figaro, an ammunition technician assistant with 6th Engineer Support Battalion, ADF. “Everyone welcomes us onto their land, and they know why we're here and we're here to provide a safe environment for them and their families. So everyone's warm and welcome.”
Operation Render Safe is a long-standing regional effort to remove remnants of war across the Pacific, andnations from across the globe answer that call, unified in purpose. For those involved, the mission is about more than ordnance — it’s about ensuring a safer, more secure environment for generations to come.
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.23.2025 21:19 |
| Story ID: | 500928 |
| Location: | PG |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Operation Render Safe 25.1: Reconnaissance mission in Papua New Guinea aims to save lives, by Sgt Brian Stippey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
