Do you read the latest roadside bombing story from Iraq or Afghanistan and wonder why, six years into these wars, we’re still losing so many people to the terrorists’ crude weapons?
The Commander in Chief does too. Last week, speaking to a veterans’ group, President Obama blasted the defense industry and a spendthrift Congress for wasting tax dollars on “weapons better suited to fight the Soviets on the plains of Europe than insurgents in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan.”
Here in New Mexico, our roster of defense contractors reads like a Who’s Who of the industry. Look at their Web sites and you’ll see plenty of big, sleek aircraft and high-tech weaponry with eye-popping price tags.
What’s happening?
I got an inkling last year during a talk by an Air Force engineer whose PowerPoint presentation glittered with fancy devices. Somebody asked if any of it would be useful in Iraq.
“Technology wins wars,” she said. “That’s not necessarily the war we’re fighting today because of the terrorists, but it was true in the past and could be again.”
So, to the military and the defense industry, our present wars are oddities – not quite real wars. They’re preparing for the real war we “could be” fighting in the future.
Oh, the Army formed an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Task Force in 2003 – under a retired, one-star general with too little clout to get anything done. It was supposed to be the Manhattan Project of IED detection, but it had more money than expertise, or sense. Field commanders grumbled that the Task Force didn’t have the juice or the broad support of other government agencies, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The task force threw money at the problem.
One of the more novel approaches was Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Stealthy Insect Sensor Project, which trained bees in little harnesses to detect the explosives used in IEDs, at a cost of more than $2 million. But harnessed bees don’t live long, and it wasn’t clear how a platoon would manage its bees.
Too many of the IED detection schemes haven’t involved testing by troops on the ground – or any testing at all. Meanwhile, the enemy has continued improving his technology, with help from Pakistan and Iran. And the IED death count keeps growing.
In 2006 the task force morphed into the Joint IED Defeat Organization, which now included the intelligence and defense communities.
The previous president assured us, “We are putting the best minds in America to work on this effort.” Behind the scenes, he questioned the size of the budget ($4 billion).
Most of the effort, it seems, is fairly recent. Not until 2007, when IED casualties spiked, did the Army Research Lab ask vendors for a mobile or handheld detector to identify IEDs from 10 meters away at a speed of 8 mph or faster. Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin (all have operations here) are dabbling in IED detection.
One of the shining stars isn’t a household name, unless you live in Raton.
In 2004 Stolar Research Corp. and a Tucson company joined to detect command detonation wires in IEDs using Stolar’s technology in an unmanned aerial vehicle. Stolar’s device helps mining companies see subsurface structures. The IED technology, which is still being evaluated, is also being considered for border defense.
But, in general, progress is slow.
A few portable detection systems are starting to be deployed. But in April the Army announced a study of soldiers who have a sixth sense about spotting IEDs. Researchers would like to identify these people, so they could be placed strategically in a convoy.
A sixth sense? That’s the best we can do? If your son or daughter is serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, do you find that comforting?
© New Mexico News Services 2009