The Science To Protect Soldiers From Bombs

A member of the U.S. Army's explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) unit scans the area around a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an improvised explosive device (IED) near Combat Outpost Nolen in the Arghandab Valley north of Kandahar July 23, 2010. REUTERS/BOB STRONG

New York Times: To Protect Soldiers From Bombs, Military Scientists Build a Better Dummy

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MARYLAND — As sometimes happens in rural America, someone has shot up a road sign. Given the gape of the hole and the fact that the road traverses Aberdeen Proving Ground, there’s a good chance it wasn’t made by a bullet.

A proving ground is a spread of high-security acreage set aside for testing weapons and the vehicles meant to withstand them. I’m headed for Aberdeen’s Building 336, where combat vehicles come to be up-armored — as the military likes to up-say — against the latest threats.

Mark Roman, my host this morning, oversees the Stryker “family” of armored combat vehicles. He’ll be using them for an impromptu tutorial in personnel vulnerability: the art and science of keeping people safe in a vehicle that other people are trying to blow up.

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WNU Editor: This will always be a work in progress.

U.S. Army And Air Force Are Working Together To Develop Lasers That Can Blast Mines Out Of The Ground.

Infrared cameras, driver vehicle enhanced capabilities and two alternators were installed to provide more than 1,100 amps of power.

Daily Mail: Army reveals armoured trucks fitted with LASERS to blast mines out of the ground and explode stray bombs

* Uses a laser to detonate bombs up to 300 meters away
* Interrogator arm and manipulator claw can move 50 pounds of debris
* Could be used instead of bomb disposal experts in body armour

The U.S. Army and Air Force are working together to develop laser weapons that can blast mines out of the ground.

The vehicles would be able to safely explode mines and other explosives from a distance.

Currently highly-trained bomb disposal specialists wore body armour, protective suits or used robots to render an area safe.

WNU Editor: You have to love American innovation.

What Is It Like To Get Hit By An IED?

A U.S. soldier with the 2nd Platoon Charlie Troop, 3rd Squadron of 61st Cavalry Regiment takes cover during the controlled detonation of an IED (Improvised Explosive Device). Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

Newsweek: Quora Question: What Is It Like to Get Hit by an IED?

Quora Questions are part of a partnership between Newsweek and Quora, through which we'll be posting relevant and interesting answers from Quora contributors throughout the week. Read more about the partnership here.

Answer from Tymon Kapelski, four years Combat Arms, four years Intel.

I did convoy security as a .50 gunner for about a year in Iraq in '05-'06. My convoy was hit with many IEDs, but close calls were few and far between. There are three events that really stand out in my mind that I'm willing to talk about, one where I was hit, one where another gun truck was hit, and one where another convoy (directly next to me) was hit. They all feel wildly different. First, some background. I deployed as a battery element, this is not the norm. We were 142 people that convoyed together, at minimum one mission a day/night. We slept in/on our trucks for days on occasion, and we were an extremely tight knit group. We only had about six or seven gunners though, and that wasn't a job everyone wanted because you were exposed all the time, so we never got nights off and we were fiercely protective of everyone.

WNU Editor: A good article on how much the IED has changed the U.S. military is the following .... How the IED changed the U.S. military (USA Today).

How The IED Changed The U.S. Military

A member of the U.S. Army's explosive ordinance disposal unit scans the area around a burning M-ATV armored vehicle after it struck an improvised explosive device (IED) near Combat Outpost Nolen. Pic by Bob Strong, Reuters

How The IED Changed The U.S. Military -- USA Today 

Homemade bombs caused death and agony for troops and prompted changes in military equipment.

ZABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Three sets of eyes peer out of a massively armored U.S. truck rolling slowly down Highway 1.

From inside their reinforced cocoon — constructed layer upon layer with ways to protect the human cargo inside — three Arizona National Guard Army engineers scan highway edges. They look for signs of digging, suspicious debris or any other anomaly in the dirt that hints at a buried explosive.

The rate of Americans dying or becoming dismembered by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), for 10 years the tormentor of U.S. forces, has dropped sharply as coalition troops withdraw from the battlefield. But lives still depend on what soldiers see or don't see. It's an enduring legacy of the homemade bomb that has created more American casualties over a decade and two wars than any other weapon.

Read more ....

My Comment: Thousands killed .... tens of thousands wounded ....yup .... the IED has certainly changed the U.S. military.

DARPA And U.S. Army Researchers Work On Building New IED-Proof Vehicles

Roadside bombs have caused the majority of US combat deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. (US Army)

DARPA, Army Researchers Working on New IED-Proof Vehicles -- Defense News

WASHINGTON — Over the next 18 months, the US Army, DARPA and Alcoa Defense are getting together to work on producing single-piece aluminum hulls for ground combat vehicles which, the thinking goes, would improve crew protection against buried roadside bombs.

Since a single-piece underbelly would obviously do away with welding seams that can break apart and endanger soldiers when an IED hits the vehicle, the structure would be lighter and more likely to stay in one piece.

IEDs have been the biggest killer of US and coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more ....

More News On ALCOA, DARPA And The U.S. Army Working On Building New IED-Proof Vehicles

Alcoa, U.S. Army to Develop World's Largest Single-Piece Aluminum Hull for Combat Vehicles to Improve Troop Protection -- Wall Street Journal
Alcoa, U.S. Army to Design Stronger Hulls to Better Withstand Bombs -- FOX News
Alcoa to Forge an Single Piece Aluminum Hull for a Tracked Armored Vehicle -- Defense Update

The IED Was The Most Lethal Weapon That Americans Had To Face In Iraq

The Most Lethal Weapon Americans Faced in Iraq -- At War/New York Times

n the first part of this series, At War explored the various conventional weapons used by insurgents in Iraq, as evidenced by reports, called “storyboards,” written by United States forces detailing the contents of captured weapons caches. Often times these weapons had been considered obsolete before 2003. But they were well known to Western intelligence services and militaries.

Today, we look at weapons that the American military could not have reasonably foreseen entering the fray, but that caused large numbers of casualties. These are the improvised weapons that were made by hand, or in small shops, and that, with one exception, were not made in industrial factories.

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My Comment: IEDs were (and are) terribly effective. The U.S. eventually got the upper hand in locating those responsible for these attacks .... but with U.S. forces now gone from Iraq, these forces are unfortunately returning with a vengeance.

The Growing Threat Of IEDs In The U.S.

Items such as pressure cookers, homemade pressure plates and other common materials are used by enemy forces to make improvised explosive devices. Marines from Marine Wing Support Squadron 373, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), learn about the different types of IED's and how they are made during a Counter IED Class held at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. MWSS-373 Marines receive the training before they can go on convoys with the unit. During the class, Marines are also taught to use a metal detector, which they use to find a low metallic pressure plate during practical application. Dvids

America’s New Bomb Threat -- Eli Lake, Daily Beast

Some of the deadliest weapons in Iraq and Afghanistan—improvised explosive devices, or IEDs—are heading to U.S. shores, warns a top general.

In Iraq and Afghanistan, homemade, low-tech bombs, often hidden along roadsides, have been some of the deadliest threats to United States soldiers. In Afghanistan alone, these improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were responsible for 1,290 of the 2,477 U.S. and coalition casualties since 2001, according to iCasualties.org, which tracks troop deaths.

Now, IEDs could be coming to U.S. shores.

According to Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, head of the military’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, some of the same terrorists who amassed the know-how on building IEDs are setting their sights on the U.S.

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More News On The Growing Threat Of IEDs In The U.S.

Experts have long warned about IEDs in U.S. -- Politico
Boston attack underscores growing threat of IEDs in America -- FOX News
Boston Bomb Blasts Awaken Veterans' IED Fears -- David Wood, Huffington Post
America the Vulnerable: IED’s Have Finally Come to the Homeland -- Timothy Dalrymple, Patheos

My Comment: The above article was posted by Eli Lake two days before the Boston marathon bombing .... talk about being prophetic. The below quote is from Lt. Gen. Barbero .... a quote that I fear is probably accurate ....

“ The greatest producer of causalities on the battlefield in the 20th century was artillery, and my assessment is the IED is the artillery of the 21st century.

                                      - Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization (Quote from NPR)

There Has Been 172 ‘IED’ Incidents In The U.S. In The Last 6 Months

Explosion at Boston Marathon (Reuters)

Bombs Frequent In U.S.; 172 ‘IED’ Incidents In Last 6 Months, By 1 Count -- McClatchy News

WASHINGTON — The two explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 170 Monday in Boston were dramatic, the deadliest bombing in the United States since April 19, 1995, when a truck loaded with fertilizer blew up outside the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168. But the method of attack wasn’t particularly surprising to anti-terrorism experts: a homemade bomb that officials refer to as an IED, or improvised explosive device.

In fact, in the last six months, there have been 172 IEDs reported in the United States, according to a government count that an official revealed Tuesday in answer to questions about U.S. preparedness. The official shared the figures, which were gathered before Monday’s explosion, only on the condition that neither the official nor the official’s office be identified.

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My Comment: This is an astounding number. The skeptic in me says "no way" .... but when I did a brief Google search I surprisingly came up with a number of such incidents .... albeit most were small IEDs that were put together in a garage taht resulted in an explosion. But what is even more frightening .... it appears that the trend for this type of activity (for the U.S.) is increasing .... and the IEDs are getting bigger.

Pressure Cooker IEDs?

Boston Marathon Bombs Were Pressure Cooker IEDs Packed With Ball-Bearings: Devices That Killed Three, Including Eight-Year-Old Boy Waiting For His Runner Dad Are Used By Terrorists In Afghanistan -- Daily Mail

* Pressure-cooker bombs were packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings
* Devices are frequently used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to Homeland Security
* An al-Qaeda magazine last year listed U.S. sporting events as one of 'the most important enemy targets'
* An eight-year-old boy and a 29-year-old woman were among the three killed in the attack
* 176 people injured, at least 17 of them in critical condition and 'a lot' of amputations have been performed
* Surgeons describe numerous severe injuries from 'pellets, shrapnel or nails from inside the bombs'
* Investigators do not know of motive for the bombs or who is behind them but are questioning 'many people'
* Obama vows to bring bombers to justice: 'The American people will not be terrorized'

The two bombs that killed three people and injured at least 176 at the Boston Marathon on Monday were made from six-liter pressure cookers crammed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings and stashed in black backpacks, police sources revealed today.

The cruelly-designed bombs have 'frequently' been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a 2010 Homeland Security Department pamphlet - hinting at the origins of the bombers behind the worst terrorist atrocity in the U.S. since 9/11.

When the devices exploded near the crowded Boston Marathon finish line around 2.50pm on Monday, victims suffered as many as 40 shrapnel wounds each and at least 10 people needed amputations. Witnesses described seeing body parts flying through the air and shoes that 'still had flesh in them'.

Read more ....

More News On Pressure Cooker IEDs

Pressure cooker bombs used in past by militants -- Houston Chronicle/AP
Homeland Security warned about pressure cooker bombs -- CBS News
Homeland Security Warned In 2010 Of Pressure Cooker Bombs Like Those In Boston Marathon Explosions -- Fast Company
Pressure cooker bombs: Backpacks concealed bombs filled with shrapnel -- Examiner
Homeland Security: Pressure-cooker bombs easy to make, often used by terrorists -- WBTV
Pressure Cookers, Nails, BBs, and Bags: What We Know About the Boston Bombs -- The Atlantic
Boston Marathon bombs made with pressure cookers: Big break in case? -- Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor

My Comment: After following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the past few years .... I know too well on how effective these IEDs can be. The fact that people are now willing to use them at public events in the U.S. .... certainly does not bode well for the future.

IED's Are Now The Biggest Killers On The Battlefield

IEDs Replace Artillery As Battlefield's Biggest Killer, JIEDDO General Says -- Aol Defense

WASHINGTON: In almost every war of the modern era, artillery has played a decisive role. But the lowly IED, cobbled together explosives ignited by cobbled together detonators, has now replaced artillery as the greatest killer on the modern battlefield, according to Lt. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, head of the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO)

The Army general in charge of the multi-billion-dollar effort said the IED was a "global and enduring threat" that the U.S. military would have to deal with long after it ends its combat involvement in Afghanistan, now slated for 2014.

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More News On The Increasing Use (And Future Use) Of IEDs On The World's Battlefields

Congress told IEDs will remain 'weapon of choice' for decades -- Army.mil
US, Pakistan to develop counter-IED framework -- The Express Tribune
IED bomb attack deaths are falling in Afghanistan... because of rising costs of components -- Mirror
Afghanistan: The Taliban’s Dangerous New Munitions -- The Daily Beast
Walking Through an IED Minefield “On a Daily Basis” -- Mark Thompson, Time
Small DoD Organization Employs Innovation To Save Lives -- Aol Government
Insurgent Bombs Spread Way Beyond Iraq and Afghanistan -- Danger Room
JIEDDO beyond Afghanistan -- DoD Buzz
IEDs continue to kill and maim U.S. troops despite multibillion dollar effort -- William R. Levesque, Tampa Bay Times
How the US Quietly Lost the IED War in Afghanistan -- Gareth Porter, Anti War

IEDs Will Remain ‘Weapon Of Choice’ For Decades Against U.S. Soldiers

Congress Told IEDs Will Remain ‘Weapon Of Choice’ For Decades -- Defence Talk

Improvised explosive devices and the networks that use these asymmetric weapons, will remain an enduring threat to U.S. forces and the nation for decades to come, the Defense Department’s top counter-IED official told lawmakers, Sept. 20.

“The IED (improvised explosive device) is the weapon of choice for threat networks because they are cheap, made from readily available off-the-shelf components, easy to construct, lethal and accurate,” said Lt. Gen. Michael D. Barbero, Joint IED Defeat Organization, or JIEDDO, director, during testimony to the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Defense Thursday.

This trend is apparent in Afghanistan, where IED events continue to rise, Barbero said.

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My Comment: The stats outlined in this post makes for some sober reading.

Scientists Are Now Beginning To Have An Understand Of The Full Impact Bomb Blasts Have On A Soldier's Brain

Safe detonation of IED, Afghanistan 2012. Wikipedia

Study Measures Impact Of Bomb Blasts On Soldiers' Brains -- ABC News (Australia)

Scientists have begun to understand the full impact bomb blasts have on the brains of those who live through them.

Over the past decade, scores have been killed and maimed by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and now new US research compares the survivors to concussed athletes.

Unfortunately the symptoms mimic and often overlap with those of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - and that is now a big problem for the Australian Defence Force.

Boston University neuroscientist Dr Lee Goldstein has replicated a typical IED blast and examined the effects on mice.

Read more ....

My Comment: More research and faster results please.

Robots That Can Be Blown Up But Keep On Working

Bombs Away Click here to get a bigger view of this amazing image. Reuters/Saad Shalash

The Robots That Can Be Blown Up and Keep On Detecting IEDs -- Popular Science

The homemade bombs known as IEDs accounted for 60 percent of all U.S. military injuries in Iraq and have killed more than 21,000 Iraqi civilians. Last November, a month before the last U.S. troops departed, Iraq’s federal bomb squad paraded with bomb-disposal robots in Baghdad. QinetiQ North America has sold 16 of the $100,000 remote-controlled Talons to the Iraqi police.

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My Comment: Better robots than our dedicated soldiers.

Pentagon Program To Limit The Threat Of IEDs Faces Budget Cut

Pentagon Program To Limit The Threat Of Roadside Bombs Faces Budget Cut -- Washington Post

Budget hawks may cut back a five-year-old Pentagon program aimed at curbing casualties from the crude roadside bombs known as IEDs, a leading threat to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The Senate Armed Services Committee has proposed trimming $265 million from the Pentagon’s $3.2 billion budget for the program. The Government Accountability Office and some think tanks have said it’s duplicative, raising questions about the long-term viability of the program.

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My Comment: I guess the Pentagon has made the assessment that IEDs are not going to be a threat in the future. Hmmmm ... talk about wishful thinking.

Worldwide IED Use Soaring: The Pentagon

Pentagon: IED Use Soaring Worldwide -- Antiwar.com

In comments which likely don’t augur well for his organization’s future, Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, the head of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, suggested there was no real way to defeat improvised explosive devices.

“If we think its going away after Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re dreaming,” Barbero said, noting that Pentagon stats show the weapons’ use soaring across the world, more than doubling in the past three years.

Read more ....

Update: IED attacks increase outside of Afghanistan, Iraq -- USA Today

My Comment: As a weapon, IEDs are terribly effective .... a fact that other insurgencies around the world have realized for a very long time. As for the present conflict in Afghanistan .... IED use is reaching an all time high.

Laser Beam Detects Roadside Bombs

Photo: Michigan State University professor Marcos Dantus works with an associate in his laboratory in the Chemistry building. Kurt Stepnitz

Laser Detects Roadside Bombs -- MSNBC

Lab scientists are pitching a new high-tech laser that is able to detect roadside bombs before they explode, potentially thwarting the deadliest weapon in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs, account for 60 percent of coalition soldiers' deaths, according to NATO figures. Finding a way to improve on — or at least replace — bomb sniffing dogs is therefore a priority abroad and at home.

Read more ....

More News On New Lasers Being Able To Detect Roadside Bombs

Laser beam 'kicks' molecules to detect roadside bombs -- BBC
New Laser Beam Detects Roadside Bombs -- IBTimes
Laser Can Detect Roadside Bombs From a Distance -- Gizmodo
A 'laser-pointer' for detecting roadside bombs -- ZDNet
Researchers Develop Laser to Help Detect Roadside Bombs -- Daily Tech
Researchers Say Laser Could Detect Roadside Bombs -- PC Mag
New laser tech could detect roadside bombs -- Gizmag

Treating Concussions In War Zones

ROAD WARRIORS - U.S. Air Force Senior Airman John Fitzgerald, left, patrols a road with many known improvised explosive devices during an operation in the Alingar district in Afghanistan's Laghman province, Aug. 21, 2011. Fitzgerald is a medic assigned to the Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Ryan Crane

Treatment for Concussions in War Zones -- At War/New York Times

Commander Earl Frantz is the officer in charge of the Concussion Restoration Care Center at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan, the first multidisciplinary concussion rehabilitation clinic set up in a war zone.

CAMP LEATHERNECK, Afghanistan — The idea of treating warriors for concussion during the acute phase in the war zone is a new concept.

During the first nine years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, if a service member was not bleeding or visibly broken on the battlefield, he shook off any cobwebs in his head from an attack and returned to the fight.

Read more ....

My Comment: The part of this post that caught my eye was the following ....

.... Concussion, often called mild traumatic brain injury, is now the most common battlefield injury, affecting more than 300,000 service members since 2001.

300,000 .... that's a lot of injuries and "close calls".

Detecting IEDs Has Not Changed Much Over The Years

Canadian soldiers from the NATO-led coalition run for cover after an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) explosion during a mission in the Taliban stronghold of Zhari district in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan, March 20, 2009. (Reuters)

As Improvised Explosive Devices Evolve, Soldiers Work to Find New Methods to Detect Them -- Wall Street Journal

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DWYER, Afghanistan—U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, visiting troops in southern Afghanistan, saw how the art of detecting buried explosive devices has changed little, in some ways, since his Army days despite the billions of dollars spent by the Pentagon to improve bomb detection.

During a visit to Forward Operating Base Dwyer in Helmand province, Mr. Panetta, 73 years old, witnessed a group of Afghan soldiers training with long, crudely constructed bamboo poles with hooks at one end, scraping through a dirt field to find and destroy improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

The sight reminded Mr. Panetta of when he served as an Army intelligence officer from 1964 to 1966. "When I was in the Army, you used to do that by bayonet," he said.

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My Comment: After spending billions on new technologies to find ieds, we get stuck with a bamboo stick and a hook. Read it all.

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.

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

Trying To Stop IED Attacks

First Lieutenant Ungaro and Second Lieutenant Tilly standby as EOD preps a robot at an IED site in Iraq. (U.S. Army)

Pentagon Team Seeks New Ways To Foil Buried Explosives -- Washington Times

Robots, sensors needed for Afghanistan war.

A Pentagon agency has set up a team of experts to find ways to foil buried homemade explosives that increasingly are killing and maiming troops in Afghanistan.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) said the new working group is looking at several counter-IED devices, including a “sacrificial robot” that could clear a footpath for “dismounted” Marines and Army soldiers.

Read more ....

Update #1: No 'silver bullet' yet found to stop IED attacks -- Stars and Stripes
Update #2: How to protect troops against IEDs? The brass wants your help! -- DoD Buzz

My Comment: Here are some Marines who survived 6 .... I repeat .... 6 IED attacks, and all on one deployment.