Metz assesses challenge of defeating IEDs

"These are among the most dangerous weapons killing our soldiers today."

With these ominous words, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz described the work he oversees as the director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in trying to outsmart an enemy's use of homemade bombs.

"Attack the network, defeat the device, train the force" is JIEDDO's motto.

But Metz admitted that his organization has an extremely difficult task to eliminate the threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) anytime soon.

"The world will be in persistent conflict for generations, and the IED will be the weapon of choice for decades," he said, pointing out that this class of weaponry uses cheap, easily exploitable commercial technology, can be accurate and lethal with or without high-tech support and has a wide range of sophistication.

The only way to defeat them, he said, is "relentless pressure to make IEDs too costly to produce and too risky to employ."

The Department of Defense established JIEDDO in early 2006, with a mission to develop actions and activities to reduce the effects of IED detonations, while at the same time employing surveillance and forensics to locate and disrupt the insurgents' ability to manufacture and place the explosives. All of the information gathered needs to be transmitted to the battlefield immediately; it also needs to be included in the overall training of troops and command staff.

To a certain extent, the effort is paying off, at least in Iraq.

When JIEDDO was established, an average of 1,500 IED incidents was reported each month. By Spring 2007, the IED rate had risen to a peak of 2,500 per month, which takes a lot of money, supplies, bomb-makers, placers and suicide bombers.

By May of this year, the incidence of IEDs in Iraq had dropped to about 300 per month.

But the trend is reversed in Afghanistan, where the rate has increased from practically zero in early 2005 to more than 450 per month now, with projections indicating a continuing rise.

To fight back, JIEDDO has devised a wide variety of techniques to "prevent the emplacement of the IED by attacking enemy vulnerabilities at multiple points in the IED system" said Metz.

Techniques to deal with an IED after it is detected include signal jammers, remote-controlled robots, vehicle armor, personnel protection and blast trauma prevention.

One problem is that as coalition forces began devising more sophisticated and effective techniques to disarm the IEDs, such as radio equipment to jam cell phone triggering devices, the insurgents retreated to less sophisticated means of detonating their explosives, such as trip wires and trigger plates on roadways, which are far more difficult to detect.

In the aftermath of an IED explosion, Metz described how forensic analysis of a device can often be useful. Examining a cell phone that was used to detonate an IED can often reveal useful information. JIEDDO also has developed techniques for analyzing the materials that were used to build the bomb, as well as other identification techniques.

Metz said he advocates the technique of placing special social science and cultural information experts in the field to better understand tribal, national, religious and ethnic group dynamics.

"We're fighting a smart and ruthless enemy," Metz said, "and we need your help."

He said he hopes the national labs, along with private industry and academia, can assist the military in the ongoing effort to devise solutions to the problem of IEDs.

According to Metz, LLNL might be able to help with filling in some technology gaps, prediction and prevention techniques, detecting the explosive force of a projectile, neutralizing the threats and mitigating the dangers.

For more information on JIEDDO's, go to the JIEDDO Website.