Making ordnance identification available to everyone

SUMMARY: The continued focus on the use of mobile technology in support of humanitarian demining operations has not only highlighted how these technologies can be adapted and used but has also resulted in tangible tools that can be put to use now. Despite these advances, the cost and availability of these capabilities remains a challenge when resources are limited. Together, the U.S. Army's Unexploded Ordnance Center of Excellence, the Center for International Stabilization and Recovery at James Madison University, and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining have solved a key part of that problem by providing resources and access to make a critical set of information available to a wide audience at no cost: the Collaborative ORDnance Data Repository (CORD). CORD provides access to over 5,000 ordnance items that assist demining organizations in the proper identification of explosive remnants of war, including data on over 700 landmines. Unfortunately, until recently, this information was only available when connected to the internet or when using specific demining toolsets that included the CORD information.