RSK Ordnance Management

With extensive expertise gained from working all over the world, in at times hostile environments, on both small-scale projects and vast complex programmes, RSK OM supports RSK businesses and additional clients with a range of services.

Preliminary UXO risk assessments (PRA) are offered to ensure the safety of people and to minimise any possible impacts to the environment and the locality of a site. Desktop studies are completed and detailed documentation is provided to identify potential UXO hazards. Data is taken and examined from historical documents from WWI and WWII and other military activity, including from allied and foreign forces. In addition, detailed UXO risk assessments (DRA) are carried out for any sites that have previously been used for military purposes, where there is a higher potential risk of UXO. Additional extensive checks and evaluations are carried out to meet exacting UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) standards, with reviews of historical aerial photography to allocate likely risk and severity ratings to inform planners of the wider UXO risk.

RSK OM is able to provide both intrusive and non-intrusive on-site UXO surveys, to explore both surface and buried metallic objects. RSK OM is able to render areas safe quickly and efficiently and recover and dispose of any unexploded ordnance that may have been detected as a risk. Working to CIRIA C681 on all works and in line with RSK’s extensive SHEQ procedures, both shallow and deep buried ordnance are surveyed and cleared effectively and efficiently. RSK OM’s cone penetration testing (CPT) rig ensures availability for deep UXO surveys.

Investigating targets and supervising at-risk projects are services that often follow up activity such as intrusive or non-intrusive surveys but are sometimes stand-alone services. These investigations involve excavating modelled targets to discount any surprise UXO discoveries on-site.

For large areas such as solar and wind farms, the latest unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sensor for UXO and archaeology, the SENSYS MagDroneR4, is used. In combination with RSK’s UAV specialists, RSK OM can offer competitive, cost-efficient large area surveys over crops or where ground conditions preclude the use of other vehicles.

RSK OM offers marine services: input into marine surveys, desktop studies and reports, working alongside RSK business Hydrofix, which can deliver all aspects of multibeam echosounder (MBES), side-scan sonar (SSS) and underwater magnetometer surveys. Hydrofix has the technical competence to interpret data, select targets of interest and propose underwater explosive ordnance mitigation measures.

RSK OM currently supports UXO requirements in many sectors, such as construction, defence and energy. The company also offers explosive testing and the remediation of explosive contamination. Supported by RSK’s own testing laboratories and performing its own in-field explosive tests, RSK OM can also offer testing and certification of historic collector’s items and museum exhibits and artefacts. Certification Free From Explosives (CFFE) is offered with either x-ray inspection or explosive test results, at the client’s specification, with the added benefit of being non-destructive testing.

RSK OM’s UXO training team regularly carries out site-specific UXO risk awareness training, both in person and remotely. A UXO watching brief service includes UXO risk awareness as part of the offering. Also offered is bespoke risk management training for strategic managers, along with quality management training in line with International Mine Action Standards (IMAS).