Organization Leads Fight Against IEDs

http://www.army.mil/-news/2008/04/01/8233-organization-leads-fight-against-ieds/

If America allows the improvised-explosive device to control its strategic decisions, IED will become the weapon of choice for all of America's enemies, according to the director of the organization charged with its defeat.

"We need to figure out where the enemy is going to go next, because the enemy is going to remain in a very disruptive, irregular-warfare pattern," said Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization.

"He will not attack us conventionally and we've got to figure out what technology he's going to use and how he's going to employ that technology, because he will not give up anytime soon," Metz said. "I sincerely believe that if we are not successful, (IED) will become the weapon of choice and it will be far beyond just the CENTCOM area of responsibility. It won't be just in the Middle East. It will be about everywhere that people are fighting, and has the potential to come to the homeland."

JIEDDO leads the Department of Defense actions for anything related to IEDs, from developing and fielding new technologies to defeat IEDs to training servicemembers to identify dangers in the road. It has a three-part strategy for attacking IEDs - which Metz said has been partially responsible for the recent decline in incidents - Attack the Network, Defeat the Device and Train the Force.

Attacking the terrorist network is especially important, he continued, because it prevents the IED at the source. It can include disrupting movement between financiers, IED makers, trainers and their infrastructure, as well as providing surveillance and intelligence to commanders.

"Some parts of the network may not be as fruitful to attack," Metz said. "For example, the young person who goes and places the IED may just...get paid $100 a night to put in the IED and they do it to feed their family. They're not ideologically motivated, they're a laborer. The bomb maker's got to be a little bit more skilled and thoughtful about what he does and maybe the financier is a determined radical who has the wherewithal to fund the network. So that's why it's so important to understand the network and attack those vulnerabilities in the network."

If an IED does make it into the field, JIEDDO, Soldiers and commanders rely on both new and very basic technologies such as jamming systems that prevent cell-phone and other remote-control IEDs from detonating, route-clearance blowers that remove debris from roadways and robots that dismantle IEDs.

According to JIEDDO's top enlisted advisor, Sgt. Maj. Anthony Semento, many of these ideas, such as the blower, have come from servicemembers in the field who couldn't wait for the development and fielding process to combat IEDs. He tries to visit Soldiers in-theater quarterly to find out what's working and what isn't, especially as insurgents often develop new techniques overnight.

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"Soldiers need to be trained to a point where they don't believe the IED is a show-stopper for them," said Semento.