Has the improved explosive device impacted our ability to develop a reasonably priced tactical vehicle - Essay Example

The aim of selecting these sites is for them to explode underneath or beside a vehicle causing maximum damage2. The improvement of the vehicle armor on the military vehicle has made the insurgents to place IEDs on raised positions like utility poles, road signs or trees so as to be able to hit the less protected areas. In Afghanistan, it was reported by military experts in January 2010 that Taliban fighters had already developed a new, almost undetectable generation of the IEDs. This new generation has no metallic or electronic parts compared to the previous IEDs that were triggered by two blades of hack-saw separated by a spacer.

The most recent and lethal means of exploding the IEDs is the trigger mechanism which incorporates either the use of the radio, cell phone, is victim-operated or infrared device which makes it difficult to detect or disarm them. Impacts of Improved Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan on US Army’s Ability to Develop a Reasonably Priced Tactical Vehicle Due to the new inventions and improvements in the use of IEDs, law enforcement and military forces personnel have come up with several RSP (render safe procedures) to curb the threat of IEDs.

These RSP may be developed from direct experience with the devices or research applied which is designed to counter the threat. Among countermeasures put in place include the application of the underbelly armor applique’ on the EFV (Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle) as it comes ashore and before their encounter with the IEDs following the June 2007 letter from the Subcommittee of House Armed Services on Expeditionary Forces and Sea Power to the marine corps commandant3. The January and February 2010 tests at the centre of Aberdeen showed that the EFV offers protection on blast equal to 2nd category protected vehicle of the mine resistant ambush, including two IEDs which are simulated on its tracks and under its belly4.

Improved explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan have also impacted the US army’s ability to develop a reasonably priced tactical vehicle. This is because it has since helped in the development of improvised vehicle armor. This is an armor that is added or centrally planned in the field, which was originally part of the design. In the recent US-Iraq and US-Afghanistan wars, US troops armored their Humvees in their war against Iraq. Their transport vehicles were also armored with scrap materials.

The Americans came to know this as “hillbilly armor or hajji armor” when Iraqi contractors installed it5. In Afghanistan, the US troops lined their vehicles’ floor with sandbags to provide them with extra protection against improvised explosive devices. Sometimes, US tanks had tracks of spare strips welded on the hulls6. However, this was to provide them short lived protection, as the Iraqis and Afghanistan’s learnt about it and devised the devices in a way that they could destroy them by use of new trigger mechanisms.

This was a loss to the US army because despite the investment, the impact was not to last for long, and they had to find another means of dealing with the trigger mechanism. When Baghdad was captured by US troops, vehicles of military police were fully installed with required machinery. However, road side bombs, snipers, RPG teams and small alarms were deployed by insurgent forces to attack US military vehicles on known routes and supply conveys. American troops protected themselves from such threats by