Posted 06.07.2010 at 10:58 am
15 Comments
The U.S. Army Clears an IED
IEDs are the leading cause of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, but a new high-tech beam countermeasure could clear roadways of threats from a safe distance.
The U.S. military has been searching high and low for a technological answer to the relatively simple but extremely deadly improvised explosive device – the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan – and a relatively vague but interesting article in USA Today suggests they may have found it. According to the article, the military has been testing a secret high-tech beam that bypasses the explosive triggers of IEDs to detonate their payloads prematurely in Iraq since 2005, but researchers still have a ways to go to make the device battlefield-ready.
There are few details available about the highly classified technology, about which the Pentagon is remaining silent. USA Today describes it as a beam which “bypasses the triggering device of an IED and detonates its explosive.” As such, it can not only be used to detonate explosives on the ground, but explosives that are still being built and transported by insurgents.
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Technology, Clay Dillow, countermeasures, energy beams, ieds, improvised explosive devices, laser weapons, militaryWhich brings military researchers to yet another problem – the countermeasure is reportedly huge, big enough in fact that a tractor trailer is needed to haul the thing around. It’s allegedly been tested at checkpoints in Iraq in both 2005 and 2008, but it’s highly cumbersome for mobile, outside-the-wire operations. In rugged terrain like that of Afghanistan, this presents a major logistical problem.
One U.S. Joint Forces Command official has suggested using the device from airborne platforms that could clear roadways ahead of convoys. In the meantime the Office of Naval Research, which developed the device, is looking to create a smaller, more mobile IED hunter.
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just mount this thing on a heavy lift helicopter and cruise it at low altitude to blow these things up.
Wouldn’t an incendiary slug from a sniper rifle do the same thing? It’s a lot cheaper and lighter weight, or so I have heard.
After thinking about it, I suppose the benefit of this beam is that you could do a wide sweep of an area and detonate an IED without knowing its location. Not so easy to shoot a target if you don’t know where it is…
"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
@ Brainstorm101's first comment...
That would require the sniper to see the IED (in order to shoot at it). But if we are aware of it it is usually disarmed and disposed of by a technician.
If it can bypass the triggers and detonate a payload what are the effects on the people around it? And as the article says it cannot determine if an IED is being put into place by a insurgent or being found by an innocent farmer boy.
@ lawsonrw...
You are correct... But wrong for not reading my 2nd comment before commenting on my first comment, any comments ;)...
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
I wonder how many varieties of explosives this thing will set off? For instance, will it set off all the powder in someone's rifle magazine if they walk into the beam? Or will it set off grenades and RPGs in its path? There could be all sorts of terrifying uses for this beam if it can be made portable enough.
@trireme - exactly. Imagine firing this at an incoming fighter jet or bomber or attaching this to a team of UAV's and just have them fly into a country to cook off the stores of explosives. Could it fire off bullets in a holster or clip?
Wild...seriously wild.
@ trireme. This "beam" triggers the the trigger in the IEd, it will not ignite gunpower in guns, grenades and such.
I would beg to differ hatandboots the article states, " the military has been testing a secret high-tech beam that BYPASSES THE EXPLOSIVE TRIGGERS of IEDs to detonate their payloads prematurely" accomplished how?, Is indeed serious tech you would not want your enemies getting ahold of.... cool stuff. USA pwns all.............
welllllllllllll....
u guys have a good point, but i have figured it out (sort of)
If they are going to use this thing they first have to insert four wheel drive (of course)
I think that it would be tooooo bulky to put on an airplane/helecopter so the ground is where it should go.
oh and one more thing, how many are they going to produce, if it took them this long to test it and make it than how much will be deployed in time for less death amoung our troops,
so how bout them apples
By the one and only.........
HatisBig
How can a beam activate a pressure sensitive trigger? or sound activated trigger , etc ?
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the fact that nuclear warheads are detonated by a conventional explosive that compresses a plutonium core, achieving critical mass and thus triggering a nuclear explosion. Do you see the possibilities?
It's all radio, people. if you are emitting the proper wavelengths, it's the same as starting your car with a remote control. Virtually any electrical device can be remote triggered, just takes wavelength and waveform control across the desired frequencies, and enough power. Nothing new here except the application.
I knew we could set these things off using a form of sound waves