New Zealand to send light armored vehicles to Afghanistan

Pak Tribune ^ | 2009 Nov 14

[Wiz]

WELLINGTON : The New Zealand government said the army vehicles would provide increased protection for 71 Special Air Service soldiers, especially from roadside bombs, Radio New Zealand reported on Friday.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said the light armored vehicles would stay there as long as they were needed to provide increased protection for the personnel, particularly from roadside bombs, which were one of the greatest threats.

[DieHard the Hunter]

We don’t hear too much about these vehicles. What little I have heard is that they are under-specified (Labor government) and that we ought to have purchased American vehicles instead.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> I hope they up-armor these vehicles. And equip them with the devices that suppress cell phone reception within a radius of the vehicle.

Funny you should mention cellphones, because I was thinking about IEDs and cellphones today. This will be slightly off-topic, but I wonder...

Each telephone “cell” somehow “knows” which phones are accessing it — they must do, else calls wouldn’t get thru.

Why then doesn’t some enterprising Yank write a piece of software to be installed on every phone “cell” in Afghanistan (and in Iraq for that matter) to dial every cell phone currently connected to it in series, allow it to ring twice, then disconnect — and do this series at random times?

Sure, it would be a pain in the arse for anyone with a cellphone to receive these random two-ring calls. But then, war is a pain in the arse, and it is a pain in the arse for roadside bombers to use cellphones to blow up our vehicles, so fair’s fair.

This might have the effect of prematurely detonating IEDs that use cellphones as triggers. It might also up the ante for IED manufacturers, because the random call might just come thru when they’re hooking up the cellphone trigger to the explosive.

It would also absolutely test every cellphone connected to the cellphonbe network, which means it would tend to “mine-sweep” any IEDs that have been recently buried in any given cell coverage area — just wait for the series to complete.

I’m sure somebody clever in the US has already thought of and discarded this idea. But why wouldn’t it work?

[KingLudd]

Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper to just dump them into the ocean? They can even stuff them with soldiers. I mean, why send them all the way there when the result will be the same?

[marktwain]

Nice to see you on the forum.

I suspect the problem with your idea is that it simply takes too many resources and is too easy to circumvent. The enterprising Jihadist only has to include a simple activater that requires the input of a numerical code (like a voice mail system) to activate the bomb.

I recall some feedback from the Iraq Theater on the effectiveness of active jamming measures. This was an American soldiers response:

The first time an IED exploded behind the convoy, I thought it was good luck. The second time, I thought it might be coincidence. The third time, I thought, maybe there is something to these jamming devices after all!

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper to just dump them into the ocean? They can even stuff them with soldiers. I mean, why send them all the way there when the result will be the same?

Perhaps somebody in Defense is pulling a fast one. Maybe they hope the LAVs will prove unsuitable for use in Afghanistan so that they can be replaced with more suitable equipment.

I don’t believe our Prime Minister would risk NZ SAS personnel in the LAVs if these vehicles are not suitable for the combat conditions in Afghanistan. It costs a wee fortune to train each trooper up to NZ SAS standard.

As a New Zealand taxpayer I would not mind at all our Government spending more on our military. They need and deserve the best kit available, and they must have it.