Celebrating 10 Years of Brimstone UXO

This month, we’re celebrating 10 years of Brimstone UXO. Since we started back in 2016, the business has come a long way. We’re looking back at the progress, challenges, numbers, and highlights that have defined our first decade.

Where it all began

Brimstone was founded in June 2016 by Aaron Florence, a former British Army Captain specialising in military field engineering and explosive ordnance disposal. Having spent his career working in UXO-affected communities around the world, Aaron recognised that the civilian UXO sector presented a significant opportunity. He saw the need for a specialist UXO company to support development and construction projects in the UK from initial assessment through to final explosive demolitions.

Brimstone UXO was incorporated in June 2016. By May 2017 it was trading, and by August 2018, less than two years after the company was founded, the team was working on its first major deployment at Burntwood, finding and disposing of over 3,500 items of UXO.

The journey

From those early foundations, the growth was rapid in capability, geography, and ambition.

Between 2019 and 2021, the business hit its stride. A first CPT rig joined the fleet, a Midlands office opened in Warwick, and the subcontractor network grew to support increasingly complex work. A competitive DIO tender award at Mappleton Beach, the first time the Defence Infrastructure Organisation had contracted a commercial organisation for long-term explosive ordnance clearance on public land, marked a pivotal moment in Brimstone’s relationship with defence.

From 2022, the business began operating at both national and international scale. Deployments to Israel, Tanzania, Uganda, Lithuania, and Ukraine demonstrated what Brimstone’s UAV capability could deliver beyond UK borders, while major domestic projects including Cleve Hill and Tilbury pushed the boundaries of what large-scale UXO surveys could look like. The online UXO awareness course and the launch of EDRAs took Brimstone’s expertise into new formats and new audiences.

Through it all, the team has grown and often stayed. Long service milestones have become a regular part of life at Brimstone, a reflection of a business that people choose to build their careers in. The expertise that defines our work today has been accumulated over years, by people who were there at the beginning and are still here now.

The scale of what Brimstone delivers today is a direct reflection of the people behind it. A team that has grown in experience, capability, and ambition alongside the business itself.

How the industry has changed

Ten years ago, UXO risk was too often treated as an afterthought. It was viewed as something to deal with if it came up, rather than something to plan for from the outset. That has changed, though not as quickly or completely as it should have.

Technology has driven much of the shift. The emergence of UAV-mounted magnetometry systems has transformed what’s possible on environmentally sensitive, large-scale, or logistically complex sites. Data quality has improved. Survey timelines have shortened. The ability to detect, assess, and mitigate risk has advanced significantly, and the sector is better for it.

Awareness has grown too. Developers, contractors, and planning authorities have a clearer understanding of UXO risk than they did a decade ago, including what it means, when to act on it, and who to call. A core group of businesses in the UXO sector have worked hard to raise standards and build that trust with clients. At Brimstone, we’re proud to be part of the change and being known for giving clients an honest assessment of their risk, and never recommending work that isn’t needed.

However, there is still work to do. UXO risk remains under-considered at the early stages of too many projects, and the consequences of that can be serious. Greater integration of UXO risk into early planning stages remains an ambition the whole sector should share.

What we’ve built

The numbers tell their own story.

223,750+ items of UXO found. 298,000+ engineer hours. 92,500+ intrusive probes. 11,200+ hectares surveyed. 3,400+ risk assessments delivered. 850+ client organisations. All with zero hours lost to health and safety.

Behind every one of those numbers is a project delivered, a risk managed, and a client who could proceed with confidence. That is what ten years of Brimstone looks like.

A decade of experience. A foundation for the next ten years.

What comes next

The second decade is already taking shape. In June 2026, ten years on from our founding, we are launching Remnant, a live UXO intelligence platform that monitors incidents as they’re reported and visualises them on a single, continuously updated platform.

Ten years in, the foundations are stronger than ever. Here’s to the next ten.

Brimstone UXO has been managing UXO risk across the UK and internationally since 2016. To follow our work or get in touch about a project, visit brimstoneuxo.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.