New vehicles allow GIs to find, remove hidden IEDs, Roadside Bombs! (GNFI)

Stars & Stripes, European Edition ^ | 4 Jan 04 | Rick Scavetta

[xzins]

By Rick Scavetta, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, January 4, 2004

Rick Scavetta / S&S
Pfc. William Stribling, 19, of Brooklyn, N.Y., operates the remote control arm on a Buffalo, the Army's latest equipment to counter the threat of roadside bombs in Iraq.


Rick Scavetta / S&S
The Meerkat, a South African-designed mine detection vehicle, is used by U.S. Army engineers in Iraq to sweep for roadside bombs along convoy routes.


Rick Scavetta / S&S
A Buffalo crew uses a remote control arm to search for improvised explosive devices on Highway 1 south of Samarra, Iraq, as a supply convoy passes by.

BALAD, Iraq — Using recently fielded mine detection vehicles, soldiers from Company C, 489th Engineer Battalion are hunting roadside bombs similar to those that have killed and maimed dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq over the past six months.

Equipped with South African-designed vehicles — the Meerkat and the Buffalo — the Arkansas-based Army Reserve troops have taken an Army side project to the forefront in the military’s efforts to counter the threat of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

Insurgents aiming to demoralize the U.S.-led coalition often stage ambushes with crude explosives hidden among debris along convoy routes or buried near roads.

The platoon of combat engineers, who had been working odd jobs in Kuwait, are now sweeping major convoy routes in central Iraq to clear highway shoulders and medians.

Cramped in the single seat Meerkat, Spc. Stephen Fowler, 22, of Fayetteville, Ark., examined a stretch of Highway 1 last week with the tractor’s powerful winglike metal detectors.

“We have certain audible tones when we find something,” Fowler said.

An ink jet marks the spot. Soldiers in the heavily armored Buffalo pry suspicious objects from the ground with a remote-controlled fork. Sappers — engineers trained in explosives — can then demolish the device.

Both vehicles are designed to protect soldiers from a blast, said Sgt. 1st Class Ed Fletcher, an Oklahoma native supervising the operation.

“It can take up to 20 pounds of TNT and everybody inside will survive,” Fletcher said. “The vehicle is down, but the passengers are all right.”

In June, civilian contractor Shon Craig, 50, of Manassas, Va., arrived in Iraq with the $1.5 million Interim Vehicle Mounted Mine Detection System, a package of several mine-detecting vehicles that the military has kept for five years, Craig said. The equipment, based on South African anti-mine technology, saw action last March at the U.S. airfield in Bagram, Afghanistan, he said.

At first, the Army in Iraq was not interested in manning or field-testing the new equipment, Craig said. The mine threat was minimal, and units were busy changing from combat to occupation duties, he said.

But for six weeks, South African trainers taught Fletcher’s platoon about the equipment from the inside out. Then soldiers translated the schooling into Army tactics. And there were no mine-clearing missions.

Meanwhile, IED attacks against U.S. troops were rising.

“They had all this multimillion-dollar equipment sitting around, so we put it to use against IEDs,” Fletcher said. “It was pretty scary at first.”

On an early mission, the crew stumbled upon an IED half-buried in a foxhole.

“It was an artillery round. You could see the blasting cap and the wire coming out the end of it,” Fletcher said.

His soldiers fanned into a security perimeter and traced the wire’s end; thankfully, no enemy was attached, Fletcher said.

Sgt. Brad Lipe, 24, of Van Buren, Ark., operated a Buffalo for two months.

During that time, he found IEDs and other unexploded munitions. Years of video games prepared him to maneuver the Buffalo’s mechanical arm using only a small display screen to watch the nine-pronged fork scrape into the dirt.

“At first you are a little nervous, but after numerous times it becomes routine,” Lipe said. “You get used to seeing certain things, and know when something’s been put there.”

The Buffalo’s long arm jabs into the crusty roadside. Watching a screen on the dashboard, the operator uses the arm’s camera to pluck out objects.

Much of the time, they find debris.

“We’ve found everything from manhole covers to mufflers,” Lipe said.

At times, locals will point out potential bomb sights, for fear that an attack could harm their children, Lipe said.

Now, the team is sharing their experiences with fellow soldiers, as the company trains other units to use the gear.

“The Army decided to train us up on this and they like how we did,” Fletcher said. “So, they bought several more systems.”

The operation caught the attention of top brass, said Lt. Col. Kent Savre, commander of the Fort Lewis Wash.-based 864th Engineer Battalion, the team’s higher headquarters.

Savre, 43, of Edina, Minn., recommended that the Army supply one system to each division in Iraq. Three weeks after filing the request, a half-dozen more sets were shipped out, Savre said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my 19 years in the Army,” Savre said. “The senior leaders saw the threat and immediately bought more [systems].”

Both the Fallujah-based 82nd Airborne Division and the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit sent troops to Balad to train for clearing missions in their sectors. Another team recently deployed to southern Iraq to begin work there.

“They’re figuring it out and morphing this equipment into something useful,” said Col. Gregg Martin, commander of the 130th Engineer Brigade, who oversees much of the Army’s engineers in Iraq. “This is cutting-edge stuff

[Eagle Eye]

Seen'em.

[xzins]

Wish I'd seen it. What the recent movie....Memphis Belle???....It was pretty good, too.

[Little Bill]

Didn't you or Travis McGee suggest using South African vehicles on another thread?

[Squantos]

Long ago.....we used em for decades. The Buffalo has been around since rhodesian fall.....

[Little Bill]

I remember doing road sweeps in Viet Nam, at least one Roller Tank a week would come back with all the road wheels blown off, I am glad someone found a solution.

[GretchenEE]

A Godsend, an answer to prayer. I rejoice to read this.

God bless and save our troops.

[MarkL]

OTOH, you're not fooling anyone. Your first videogame was Pong, admit it. The original version. And it cost you a quarter a shot...

Nope!!! Magnavox Odessey... I even had the pistol for target practice...

It was pretty much just a pong game, you could just play pong, or tennis, by putting a green "tennis court" plastic overlay on the screen, or ice hockey, with the overlay that looked like an ice rink!

Mark

[xzins]

Just a technical question, but I understand the roadside IED's in iraq are wire activated and not radio.

A radio device wouldn't blow them, would it?

[Travis McGee]

I think we have found both types.

[xzins]

A radio transmitter wouldn't detonate a wire activated mechanism would it?

[gitmo]

At times, locals will point out potential bomb sights, for fear that an attack could harm their children, Lipe said.

Don't tell the democRats. They want Iraqis to do anything to hurt Americans.

[SoCal_Republican]

That picture reminds me of "Logan's Run". LOL!

[SAMWolf]

LOL! Anyone that looks that stupid deserves to blow themselves up.

[SevenDaysInMay]

I read last month that terrorists in Iraq are using remote door bell systems.

[dsc]

"Stars and Stripes should have caught this."

They get less professional with every passing year.

If you're in the mood for a snotfight, email their ombudsman about their left-wing content.

[Elsie]

Tplant that produced these: Lucas-Harold.

Naval Ordinance Plant, Indianapolis -- NOPI was it's next name, as it was turned over to the Navy.

It then was changed to NAFI -- Naval Avionics Facility, Indianapolis

Then is was NAC -- Naval Air Center (One of about 6-7)

Then it was NAWC -- Naval Air Warfare Center

Then came Clinton and no money for war.......

"Boys, we gotta cut back. Who wants to go?"

[Methinks it's time for ME to retire!]

(Guess which center was NOT located on a body of water? -- this WAS the Navy, after all.......)

Then it turned over to HUGHS (really, it was series!)

It is now part of Raytheon.

[Elsie]

Sure!

HAven't you seen signs where road work was being performed, warning you to turn off CB's or other transmitters while driving thru area??

[xzins]

I've always assumed they were using remote activated.

[archy]

Archy's the one who taught me almost all I know about the Meerkat and related hardware.

Archy's another 'real deal' only he's on the drawing-board corps.

Well, I'm about to suffer another birthday shortly, so I'm not quite as active as I was when I was a teenager, or in my 20s and 30s. But I'm not *just* a drawing-board corps guy, I hope, and really, I first got into the mining/countermine measures like Pookie and Meerkat in the '70s as a spare parts and components guy in the logistics chain. If it can be built so it don't break, it won't need replacement parts, and accordingly, my job gets a lot easier.

But I may send you a *Wish you were here/instead of me card* in the coming year that'll suggest I'm not quite yet shy of the noisy places yet. Depending on how you count, it'll be my ninth time up at bat.

-archy-/-