EFPs; the new AK-47?

[Stan]

Hey Bourbon !

There is a quote in a Time article by Bob Baer regarding EFP's worth sharing:

I cannot debate the veracity of it, so I don't know. Thank you Adam L. and J.C. for your insight on this matter, the migration of EFP's is something I have been wondering about, and I'm confined to public sources only.

Back here in the former East Bloc, we'd call it little more than a game of cat and mouse. However, we outnumber the criminals (well, we feel certain we do), and, we gather them up one at a time. This is not a combat zone, and the criminals do not have free access to sufficient explosives. Trying to figure out what the IEDs are intended for here is difficult (vs Iraq and Afghanistan), so we concentrate on where the raw materials are most likely to come from, and what or who is the likely client, and follow leads in conjunction with LE.

One question I have for ordnance guys:
How different are EFPs seen today, compared to the device used by Badder-Meinhof (suspected) to kill the Chairman of Deutsche Bank in '89? A device which I believe was an EFP or shaped charge. In terms of technological advances, skill needed to manufacture, sophistication...

If you mean the infrared trigger device used to kill Alfred Herrhausen, then nothing new in this part of the world. We've seen far more complicated devices assembled by disgruntled security personnel as early as 1987 and as late as 1991. Ours were in apartment buildings bringing down 7 stories with no apparent target nor advanced warning or threat.

You barely need 9 VDC even for most crude detonators from WWII. How you get the juice to the detonator is little more than reading the owners manual from a remote controlled car to a home security system.

BTW, we don't really care what color the wires are when employing a water canon