Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Search For A Device To Stop IEDs

Marines detonate a homemade explosive device in the Helmand River valley in Afghanistan in 2009. David Gilkey/NPR

U.S. Military Searches For A Device To Stop IEDs -- NPR

Homemade remote-controlled bombs, also known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, have been one of the biggest killers of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At their peak, bombs were wounding 1,000 U.S. service members a month. Insurgents used them because they could attack from a safe distance.

The Pentagon has spent more than $17 billion to try to defeat the IEDs in a major game of cat and mouse: American engineers figure out how to jam the radio signals triggering the IEDs, insurgents then come up with a new radio signal to set off the IEDs, then the Americans find a new solution to jam the signal.

Read more ....

My Comment: An interesting summary on how the impact and effectiveness of IEDs declined over time.

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