humvee vs. IED

[Mercury]

unfortunately in the last 2 years we have often heard in the news about IEDs and VBIEDs against coalition forces, and know - too late the DOD tries to research a protecting system against the devices.

That's such a f*** **** - commong guys the planned the attacks against irak and afganistan several years ago, and didn't mention that a urban war could occour.

-not well protect humvees
-not enought body armor for ground troops and late arrival
-not enough ground troops at all

In the first iraq war (90s) the coalition forces had over 300 000 ground troops, and that was a fight in wide open desert terrain - where the techonlogy advantage of the coalition forces was enourmous.
But now with only 125 000 ground troops they try to control the whole county, that's impossible - of course the technological advantage is amazing but it urban terrain the advantage is no there.


Former prime minister of lebanon, Rafiq Hariri, was killed in a attack at his convoy - the attack was planned and implemented from foreign agencies. Hariri had an jammer system installed in his car - that system could not protect his and his bodyguards life - but that's because the extremly heavy bomb or the agencie was sucessfully in disabling his protecting system.

The situation in iraq is, we have IED which are not so powerfull like the one in beiruth, and the terrorist are relly not well trained.

And now my final question. why dont use the coalition force the same protecing system as Hariri had, of course it cost alot of mony but and that the most important argument - it saves lives !

[ShotOver]

They have signal jammers to stop the IED's that are set off by radio-signals. but some IED's are set off by switch and cables or are simply mines or some crap.
Those signal jammers also stop car-to-car radio and troop radio's working, if i remember correctly.

[2RHPZ]

Those signal jammers also stop car-to-car radio and troop radio's working, if i remember correctly.

It depends on set up. We didn´t experience any problem with commo car2car or car2base (VHF). Sorry, I can not write more technical details. p-)

[colonel]

It's such a pity the US/coalition have not placed orders with SA for our Caspir armoured vehicle. It's tried and tested against mines and small arms fire, a perfect patrolling vehicle with plenty of space for troops, good all round visibility and rugged enough for all terrains that present themselves in Iraq's urban enviroment.

[Argyll]

They have signal jammers to stop the IED's that are set off by radio-signals. but some IED's are set off by switch and cables or are simply mines or some crap.
Those signal jammers also stop car-to-car radio and troop radio's working, if i remember correctly.

Yeah we had a detail in the IZ one night,we went to collect the client from a BBQ,the driver couldn't open the vehicle because the MP's had their transmitters on,it was hilarious,we thought the battereis were dead in the key fob,it wasn't until a Sgt came over looking a little sheepish and said "try now buddy",sure enough it worked,he said they forgot to turn the transmitter of when they got to the venue!!

[shrek]

Our jammer fried two of our Icoms the first time out, Woops!

[Shadow]

k let's use a different frequency. Voilá the current jammers a useless.
I expect that the jammers use the mid 800 MHz band to jam cellphones.

[szr]

k let's use a different frequency. Voilá the current jammers a useless.Ya that sounds really easy. Just call up Nokia and Samsung and tell them that the cell phones you're using to detonate bombs in Iraq are being jammed and you'd like them to make new cell phones on a new frequency that can't be jammed. Then ask the cell phone companies in Iraq to change all their transmitter equipment to the new frequency standards for the new phones and voilá! The jammers are useless!

It would be easier to make working triggers out of string, duct tape, tampons and used chewing gum than it would be to try to out-tech the US.

[Deuterium]

k let's use a different frequency. Voilá the current jammers a useless.
I expect that the jammers use the mid 800 MHz band to jam cellphones.

You certainly don't know much about this subject.

[GothicSnake]

It would be easier to make working triggers out of string, duct tape, tampons and used chewing gum than it would be to try to out-tech the US. rofl

[ArmedPacifist]

It's such a pity the US/coalition have not placed orders with SA for our Caspir armoured vehicle. It's tried and tested against mines and small arms fire, a perfect patrolling vehicle with plenty of space for troops, good all round visibility and rugged enough for all terrains that present themselves in Iraq's urban enviroment.

They are pretty ****ty to maintain....

[Shadow]

k let's use a different frequency. Voilá the current jammers a useless.Ya that sounds really easy. Just call up Nokia and Samsung and tell them that the cell phones you're using to detonate bombs in Iraq are being jammed and you'd like them to make new cell phones on a new frequency that can't be jammed. Then ask the cell phone companies in Iraq to change all their transmitter equipment to the new frequency standards for the new phones and voilá! The jammers are useless!

It would be easier to make working triggers out of string, duct tape, tampons and used chewing gum than it would be to try to out-tech the US.

No build your own emitter.

[ex1cdo]

They have signal jammers to stop the IED's that are set off by radio-signals. but some IED's are set off by switch and cables or are simply mines or some crap.
Those signal jammers also stop car-to-car radio and troop radio's working, if i remember correctly.

Yeah we had a detail in the IZ one night,we went to collect the client from a BBQ,the driver couldn't open the vehicle because the MP's had their transmitters on,it was hilarious,we thought the battereis were dead in the key fob,it wasn't until a Sgt came over looking a little sheepish and said "try now buddy",sure enough it worked,he said they forgot to turn the transmitter of when they got to the venue!!

Uh, what's wrong with using the key?

I sometimes think that, here in the west, we're stunned by technology :D

[Russ.Dill]

BTW, why are the constant finger pointing about body armor? Every soldier went into combat with kevlar afaik, just as they did in desert storm. The ceramic plates are something new. How many other armies in Iraq even have these plates?

[2RHPZ]

BTW, why are the constant finger pointing about body armor? Every soldier went into combat with kevlar afaik, just as they did in desert storm. The ceramic plates are something new. How many other armies in Iraq even have these plates?

Czechs use ceramic plates since 2000 for missions abroad.

[Marmot1]

k let's use a different frequency. Voilá the current jammers a useless.
I expect that the jammers use the mid 800 MHz band to jam cellphones.

You certainly don't know much about this subject.

x2

Iraqi cell companies operate in GSM standard not DCS (1900) or analog NMT (800?) so they use 900 and 1800 Mhz ;-)

(AFAIK)

[Marmot1]

BTW, why are the constant finger pointing about body armor? Every soldier went into combat with kevlar afaik, just as they did in desert storm. The ceramic plates are something new. How many other armies in Iraq even have these plates?

Czechs use ceramic plates since 2000 for missions abroad.

Same here, althroug our army was short of them at begining and not all soldiers had them...

[JTAR7242]

But now with only 125 000 ground troops they try to control the whole county, that's impossible - of course the technological advantage is amazing but it urban terrain the advantage is no there
There are far more than 125,000 troops on the ground in Iraq.

[JTAR7242]

BTW, why are the constant finger pointing about body armor? Every soldier went into combat with kevlar afaik, just as they did in desert storm. The ceramic plates are something new. How many other armies in Iraq even have these plates?

Czechs use ceramic plates since 2000 for missions abroad.

Yeah, but it's far easier to outfit the five Czechs that deploy abroad with the plates than 500,000 Americans. ;)

[2RHPZ]

BTW, why are the constant finger pointing about body armor? Every soldier went into combat with kevlar afaik, just as they did in desert storm. The ceramic plates are something new. How many other armies in Iraq even have these plates?

Czechs use ceramic plates since 2000 for missions abroad.

Yeah, but it's far easier to outfit the five Czechs that deploy abroad with the plates than 500,000 Americans. ;)

rofl rofl rofl Good point! Sometimes I feel it like that! Well, seriously, we are small nation with small military. But we have more than 900 soldiers abroad what means in percentage towards population the 6th nation in NATO as regards to the contribution to operations around the globe. Plus worse economy ... But I don´t mind your comment, big nations have such a opinion ...

[JTAR7242]

It wasn't intended as an insult, if every nation on Earth had a gigantic military it would be a scary place indeed.


It's more of a wake-up call to all those, mostly in my own country, who don't realize how big an undertaking it is getting these plates to the troops, not even taking into account losses in battle.

[2RHPZ]

It wasn't intended as an insult, if every nation on Earth had a gigantic military it would be a scary place indeed.


Good point again! BTW, I am not offended ... ;)