Robots and bees to beat the Taliban

The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | February 21, 2010 | Christina Lamb

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The homemade IED is the extremists’ deadliest weapon and America is spending billions on trying to combat it. We are granted access to this secret, smart and bizarre world

The soldier breathes loud and fast as he lays a timed charge on an explosive in a Baghdad street. “I want these people to know if they’re going to leave a bomb on the side of the road for us, we’re just going to blow up their f****** road,” he growls, walking away. Before he can reach safety, an Iraqi punches a code into a mobile phone. The explosion sends the soldier flying in a cloud of dust and debris.

The opening eight minutes of the Oscar-nominated movie The Hurt Locker bring to light the terrifying work of bomb disposal units. The special effects may be Hollywood, but there is no exaggerating the horror of IEDs, the improvised explosive devices that are by far the biggest killers of British and American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The IED has supplanted the Kalashnikov to become the insurgent weapon of the 21st century. It can be assembled by villagers in a back yard and it enables the Taliban to take on an enemy with far superior numbers and fire power just as Stinger surface-to-air missiles enabled the Mujaheddin to neutralise Soviet air power in the 1980s.

In Afghanistan now, in the battle for Marjah, the coalition has 15,000 soldiers ranged against an estimated 400 Taliban fighters. It sounds like no contest. Yet progress is slow and bloody because the Taliban have ringed the town with IEDs in what soldiers call the “belt of death”.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The work of the British and American soldiers who disarm these devices is heroic. But the real race to counter the threat is going on thousands of miles away in secret laboratories on America’s east coast.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

********************************EXCERPT**************************************

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organisation (Jieddo) now has more than 3,000 staff and funds of $4 billion a year.

The man in charge is General Michael Oates, a four-tour veteran of Iraq.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

“There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees in seven to nine recognized families, though many are undescribed and the actual number is probably higher.”

I would hope, with such a multitude of insect species available to them, that they are not using honey bees, as they are a very valuable, agriculturally essential insect, the damage or loss of which for any reason would be devastating.

[Dacula]

Saw the movie and found it fascinating. News here sounds interesting. Where can I point my nose to learn more?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

All I have is the article....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

i think the bees were added to help with the headline.

[Star Traveler]

Info about The Hurt Locker

[centurion316]

One of the more bizarre suggestions has been to use honeybees because of their acute sense of smell. The small hairs that bees use to detect pollen can be used to detect any scent, prompting them to stick out their tongues.

I think that the bees have been looked at several times. Back in 2004, we took the bees out to Yuma Proving Grounds. In the lab, the bees had been quite successful at identifying explosives. The desert proved to be a different matter, it turns out that bees don't perform very well when its too hot, too cold, too windy, too dusty, too bright, too dark - it has to be just right. We told the bee handlers to come back when they had a better idea. Sounds like they've made some progress, but not enough to suit the bees.

[Recon Dad]

Don’t get to talk to my son often, he’s in the wilds of Afghanistan, but last Tuesday we did for the first time since Christmas.
Asked him what he thought of The Hurt Locker, because my wife and I thought it was good enough to watch it twice.
His critique of it was.....Bullsh*t. He and his guys thought it was crap. That’s from someone on the ground dealing with IED’s every day.

Personally, I would say go see it.

[Bluebeard16]

I wonder if they can make robotic bees. They could have hundreds of them swarm into a hideout, sting the hell out of all of those smelly evil jihadi’s with a venom of our choice and be out of there before the last terrorist hit the ground. Just a thought.

[Star Traveler]

I think I’m going to see it...

[meowmeow]

I wonder if they can make robotic bees.

Sounds like the creatures in The Hunger Games

[Vince Ferrer]

It doesn't do much good now, but in a few years we will be able to replicate the organs and integrate them into machines, and leave the rest of the animal.

I think robots based on ants or termites would work as well. How about termite robots that spread themselves over a road, dig themselves down to hide, and can report if anyone is digging nearby?

[Waverunner]

Perhaps if they use the Drive B from The Stupids, after all it blew up a car.

Ask any beekeeper, transporting bee’s cross country in a hummer probably doesn’t help their disposition much.

easy test, catch a bee,put in a jar, shake it up, release bee..
He probably isn’t thinking about pollen...

[Recon Dad]

I liked it a lot. Knowing my son, not enough action for his taste.

[Marine_Uncle]

A sensible written article. Our forces sure have a big job ahead of them in clearing the population centers from the Taliban and making their places of living safe to walk about.

[mdmathis6]

Revelation describes such critters as being able to sting men for 5 months, “those who had the mark of the beast”. So such a scenario may not be so far fetched.