Mark Bali

Captain Mark Bali is an officer of the Royal Australian Engineer Corps. He graduated from the Australian Defence Force Academy with a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Chemistry, and has published two papers in academic chemistry journals. Since his gradu- ation from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and the School of Military Engineering, Captain Bali has actively sought to apply his technical chemistry knowledge throughout combat engineer employment. He has served the majority of his career in regimental positions in the Incident Response Regiment in Special Operations Command and has also deployed as a Troop Commander to Afghanistan, where he was largely responsible for the counter-IED and forensic evidence management activities of his task force. This operational experience combined with his academic background led to the award of the CDF Fellowship in 2010 sponsoring research to find a method to rapidly and safely chemically neutralise organic peroxide explosives (OPEs). Captain Bali has continued this research as a PhD program in parallel with his career, and currently works in capability development in the ADF’s Counter IED Task Force.

CAPT Bali’s chemistry research has equipped him with a thorough understanding of the hazards inherent in handling OPEs, balanced by his experience in EOD and high risk search operations. This article aims to instigate a professional discussion of the real threat posed to the ADF by a very different terrorist resource, and to raise the Australian EOD community’s awareness of and ability to deal with OPEs.