Page 15 of 15 FirstFirst ... 5131415
Results 281 to 291 of 291

Thread: Roadside Bombs & IEDs (catch all)

  1. #281
    Council Member Johannes U's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Hopefully somewhere in the Alps
    Posts
    25

    Default Clarifications and ideas

    OK gents, thanks so far for the feed-back.
    Now some clarifications:
    I am a firm believer in the idea, that only an offensive mindset brings you further toward success. Insofar i totally agree with Fuchs, Bill and Bob in your Statements, especially this one:
    We never would have defeated any adversary in history if we focused on defeating their rifles, their artillery, their planes, etc.
    I do not want to fight the IED, I want to fight its "user", its "financier", ... simply said: THE ENEMY.

    Still, one fact remains: during the 1st world war, some armies still attacked an entrenched enemy using upright marching blocks of infantry ... and were cut down by the "new" machine gun. (When was the MG developed? ...)
    My point is, that if your doctrine, tactics and battle drills are founded on a battlefield 60 years ago, they might not function any more on a modern battlefield (or at least without fault). So you have to adapt. Otherwise you will loose. And it's better to adapt before you fight than during or afterwards.

    OK, so much for clarification. Now some ideas from my side:
    When your forces conduct an offensive first-entry mission, the enemy might try to block your advance by using IEDs at choke points, culverts, bridges ...
    If your advance guard conducts C-IED battle drills at each of those points, you might not get anywhere.
    Thus your recce elements should cover, search and maybe observe most of those points in advance. But since those elements also have other missions and are (at least in Austria) in short supply, they will not be able to cover all.
    My solution for this problem is the following:
    • responsibility for "clearing" those points is divided among the different recce elements on the different levels
    • the advance guard conducts C-IED drills only when its lead elements (the first vehicle) recognize an IED in front of it which cannot be bypassed or when ordered
    • if you still are hit by an IED (maybe in combination with a complex attack) you use the usual counter-ambush drills

    Do you see the solution along the same lines?

    One more thing:
    In 2010 I attended a NATO-sponsored C-IED Train The Trainer Course in Croatia.
    I realized that if you don't include those C-IED drills into your other battle drills, your mindset will become defensive and thus you begin to see the IED as the enemy.
    L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace. (Napoleon)

    It's always easier to ask for forgiveness than permisson.

  2. #282
    Council Member Fuchs's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Posts
    3,189

    Default

    Mines in small groups instead of used en masse are really only good for harassment and a little attrition.

    You cannot defend anything with such means, but your can demoralise and it takes resolute leaders and some urgency to avoid a major mine-driven impact on operations.

    Such mines aren't even serious obstacles, much less defended ones.


    As an Austrian I would have a close look at a very, very different kind of mines; proper engineer demolition work for avalanches, collapsing bridges, closed-off tunnels and bursting dams. The isolated conspicuous object next to the road would be relatively insignificant and inefficient in your terrain.
    Of course Austrians won't fight at home any time soon, but once the EU is under attack they would be expected to be among the few mountain warfare experts available to the EU.

    (I'm the guy who thinks almost only about wars between great powers as scenarios because those are the problem; small wars are despicable games by politicians.)

  3. #283
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default The problem with Biometrics at War

    An excerpt from a forthcoming book, All the Ways We Kill and Die, by Brian Castner tells the story of the hunt for the bomb-makers of Iraq and Afghanistan:http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the...metrics-at-war

    It ends with a telling point:
    Because that’s the funny thing about using biometrics. The only way to find one person is to find everyone.
    From the author's website:
    This is the story of an American family at war, and the men and women who fight this new technology-heavy and intelligence-based conflict. I interviewed intel analysts, biometrics engineers, drone pilots, special operations aircrew, amputees who lost their legs, and the contractors hired to finish the job. They are all hunting a man known as al-Muhandis, The Engineer, the brains behind the devices that have killed so many soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    davidbfpo

  4. #284
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default

    From WoTR and from a different angle:http://warontherocks.com/2016/03/tra...-than-answers/

    The author's bio:
    Sarah Soliman led U.S. Special Operations Command’s first Identity Operations team in Afghanistan, as chronicled in the book “All the Ways We Kill and Die.” She is an Emerging Technology Trends Project Associate at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and is pursuing her doctorate through King’s College London’s Department of War Studies. She can be reached @BiometricsNerd.
    davidbfpo

  5. #285
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default Castner’s writing is as horrifying as it is illuminating.

    The previous two posts were copied here from the Biometrics thread, they refer to this book subject of a review of Brian Castner's new book All The Ways We Kill and Die

    See:http://taskandpurpose.com/ied-rocked...-battlefield/?

    I am slightly puzzled this thread has had no updates since 2010, even if it was closed approx. a year ago. Anyway it is open for now!
    davidbfpo

  6. #286
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default IS and the car bomb IED / VBIED

    A comprehensive explanation of the use, construction and more of IS VBIEDs from an unheard blogsite, but recommended today via Twitter. The history and adaptability of the Islamic State car bomb. I say comprehensive from my "armchair".

    Link: https://zaytunarjuwani.wordpress.com...tate-car-bomb/

    The author is Swedish. There are numerous photos and stats.

    From the conclusion, the first paragraph:
    The VBIED is not something that anyone is ever going to be able to eliminate from the battlefield, and IS have mastered the art of its usage. VBIEDs are the most central and core tenet in their philosophy of war, and has allowed them to project a military power far more sizable than their actual military force.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-02-2017 at 06:57 PM. Reason: Edited before merging into main thread with 4,558v
    davidbfpo

  7. #287
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default The IED won: how can we respond now?

    Hat tip to WoTR for this article by a veteran EOD officer, who seeks to review the challenges posed by IED use and the counter-response:https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/ho...nd-innovation/
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 05-02-2017 at 06:50 PM. Reason: 118,148v
    davidbfpo

  8. #288
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Posts
    849

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    Hat tip to WoTR for this article by a veteran EOD officer, who seeks to review the challenges posed by IED use and the counter-response:https://warontherocks.com/2017/05/ho...nd-innovation/
    Just read the article David, thanks for posting.

    My response would be that the lessons of Northern Ireland were overlooked. The Catholic population there resented the trappings of occupation and the seeming imposition of martial law, which benefited the adversary Protestant population and its paramilitaries. The sight of armored cars and helicopters would infuriate Catholics and draw the attention of the PIRA which sought to attrite British forces. The British were successful when they used a special forces/intelligence combination. Instead of a visibly heavy presence, plainclothes military and police intelligence officers would spy on the PIRA, whose members would find themselves suddenly arrested or ambushed.

    Returning to Afghanistan, it would have been better for Coalition forces to traverse mined areas in helicopters, to barrack themselves securely and counter Taliban subversion with a network of plainclothes intelligence officers and special forces operators, backed by conventional reinforcements if necessary. Moreover, the Pashtuns were marginalized to a degree, with other ethnic and sectarian groups comprising the majority or disproportionately large shares of the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-11-2017 at 01:13 PM. Reason: 155,729v

  9. #289
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    11,074

    Default Sustainable UN Peacekeeping Offensive Operations: UXOs, ERW and IEDs

    Sustainable UN Peacekeeping Offensive Operations: UXOs, ERW and IEDs

    Entry Excerpt:



    --------
    Read the full post and make any comments at the SWJ Blog.
    This forum is a feed only and is closed to user comments.

  10. #290
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    13,366

    Default Coming to a 'small war' soon - thanks to ISIS

    A NYT report 'How ISIS Produced Its Cruel Arsenal on an Industrial Scale' is a must read and sits better here then elsewhere IMHO -as this technology will migrate. The content is very dependent on international NGO input.
    Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/10/w...sis-bombs.html
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 12-11-2017 at 01:27 PM. Reason: 185,174v after four threads merged today
    davidbfpo

  11. #291
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Posts
    11,074
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 01-13-2018 at 11:21 AM. Reason: Copied to here

Similar Threads

  1. IEDs: the home-made bombs that changed modern war
    By Jedburgh in forum Intelligence
    Replies: 13
    Last Post: 04-06-2013, 10:10 PM
  2. The role of IEDs: Taliban interview
    By reload223 in forum OEF - Afghanistan
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 09-02-2010, 08:17 AM
  3. The Economics of Roadside Bombs
    By Shek in forum Social Sciences, Moral, and Religious
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 02-11-2008, 11:24 PM
  4. 'Aerial IEDs' Target U.S. Copters
    By SWJED in forum Intelligence
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 02-28-2006, 02:51 PM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •