Wescom Defence answers surging demand with a tenfold increase in production for its Portable Obstacle Minefield Breaching System

Wescom Defence, a trusted global manufacturer and solutions provider to the defence industry, specialising in advanced pyrotechnics, multispectral camouflage, soldier survivability, operational infrastructure and prime contracting support, surges production of its Portable Obstacle Minefield Breaching System (POMBS). In response to a tenfold increase in demand over the past two years, Wescom Defence has expanded its manufacturing facilities to deliver the upturn in customer requirements.

As part of the Wescom Group, Wescom Defence draws on over a century of technical expertise and customer trust in the design, manufacture and delivery of innovative, field proven solutions that meet mission-critical requirements worldwide. 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 often unavailable or unsuitable for the terrain needed to be breached.  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, which on detonation clears a safe lane. Heavy POMBS is two backpacks and clears a safe lane 55m long by half a metre wide. Light POMBS is one backpack that produces a safe path 74m long with 1m interval cleared stepping zones.  Both systems are easy to use, require minimal training and 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 Milrem Robotics’ THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), integrating the H-POMBS module developed in cooperation with KNDS Deutschland and Wescom Group. Designed to create lanes through obstacles while operators remain at a standoff distance, this setup highlights H-POMBS’ integration flexibility and reflects surging demand for uncrewed combat engineering capabilities under drone threat. The system was recently demonstrated to German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz during a training exercise in Munster.

David Griffiths, VP Defence Sales from Wescom Defence said, “The team at Wescom Defence, which includes in-house design, industrial engineering and manufacturing capability, is proud to have expanded our POMBS manufacturing in such short order to meet the unprecedented surge in demand for our products. This production increase and recent UGV integrations with partners KNDS Deutschland, underlines our capacity to continue providing NATO forces with effective and reliable capabilities at pace. Wescom Defence is trusted globally for the quality, reliability and performance of all our integrated survivability products, allowing NATO forces to conceal themselves, protect themselves, maintain mobility and train for the most demanding of scenarios.” 

photo courtesy Wescom Defence