Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq, 2003-09
Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq, 2003-09

Author: Andrew Smith

Publisher: Strategic Studies Institute

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 1584874880

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Introduction -- Operational surprise and response -- The contemporary IED experience -- Data sources -- U.S. experience in Iraq -- The U.S. response -- Recognition -- Institutional response -- Organizational -- Equipment -- Vehicles -- Electronic countermeasures -- Training and doctrine -- Research and development -- Industrial -- Funding -- Policy -- Summary assessment -- The Australian experience in Iraq -- The Australian response -- Recognition -- Institutional response -- Organizational -- Equipment -- Training and doctrine -- Research and development -- Industrial -- Funding -- Policy -- Comparative analysis of responses -- Leadership changes -- National interests and equities -- Adequacy of existing capabilities -- Countervailing assessments -- Conventional thinking -- Adequate agility -- Flexible force structure -- Other considerations -- Failure to anticipate and the risk of overreaction -- The focusing power of casualties -- Subsequent experience - Afghanistan -- Conclusions.

Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals
Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2018-05-19

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0309464072

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Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a type of unconventional explosive weapon that can be deployed in a variety of ways, and can cause loss of life, injury, and property damage in both military and civilian environments. Terrorists, violent extremists, and criminals often choose IEDs because the ingredients, components, and instructions required to make IEDs are highly accessible. In many cases, precursor chemicals enable this criminal use of IEDs because they are used in the manufacture of homemade explosives (HMEs), which are often used as a component of IEDs. Many precursor chemicals are frequently used in industrial manufacturing and may be available as commercial products for personal use. Guides for making HMEs and instructions for constructing IEDs are widely available and can be easily found on the internet. Other countries restrict access to precursor chemicals in an effort to reduce the opportunity for HMEs to be used in IEDs. Although IED attacks have been less frequent in the United States than in other countries, IEDs remain a persistent domestic threat. Restricting access to precursor chemicals might contribute to reducing the threat of IED attacks and in turn prevent potentially devastating bombings, save lives, and reduce financial impacts. Reducing the Threat of Improvised Explosive Device Attacks by Restricting Access to Explosive Precursor Chemicals prioritizes precursor chemicals that can be used to make HMEs and analyzes the movement of those chemicals through United States commercial supply chains and identifies potential vulnerabilities. This report examines current United States and international regulation of the chemicals, and compares the economic, security, and other tradeoffs among potential control strategies.

U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook
U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook

Author: Department of the Army

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1510720561

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You don’t need to be a trained soldier to fully appreciate this edition of the U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook (TM 31-210). Originally created for soldiers in guerilla warfare situations, this handbook demonstrates the techniques for constructing weapons that are highly effective in the most harrowing of circumstances. Straightforward and incredibly user-friendly, it provides insightful information and step-by-step instructions on how to assemble weapons and explosives from common and readily available materials. Over 600 illustrations complement elaborate explanations of how to improvise any number of munitions from easily accessible resources. Whether you’re a highly trained solider or simply a civilian looking to be prepared, the U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook is an invaluable addition to your library.

Improvised Explosive Devices
Improvised Explosive Devices

Author: James Revill

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-07-15

Total Pages: 149

ISBN-13: 331933834X

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This book begins with an account of the evolution of improvised explosive devices using a number of micro case studies to explore how and why actors have initiated IED campaigns; how new and old technologies and expertise have been exploited and how ethical barriers to IED development and deployment have been dealt with. It proceeds to bring the evidence from the case studies together to identify themes and trends in IED development, before looking at what can realistically be done to mitigate the threat of IEDs in the new wars of the twenty first century. The book suggests that the advance and availability of a combination of technological factors, in conjunction with changes in the nature of contemporary conflicts, have led to the emergence of IEDs as the paradigmatic weapons of new wars. However their prevalence in contemporary and future conflicts is not inevitable, but rather depends on the willingness of multiple sets of actors at different levels to build a web of preventative measures to mitigate – if not eradicate – IED development and deployment.

Dodgebomb
Dodgebomb

Author: Darin Pepple

Publisher:

Published: 2021-03-15

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780578865799

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During the height of the Global War on Terrorism, Lieutenant Eddie Fitzgerald is sent straight from school to Iraq as a casualty replacement. Immediately thrown into combat, he must quickly overcome his naivety and earn the trust of his unit in order to survive. However, if hunting Al Qaeda wasn't enough, he's quickly pulled into Arab tribal politics and Army officer rivalries that threaten to spoil any work that he accomplishes.

Counterinsurgency in Iraq (2003-2006)
Counterinsurgency in Iraq (2003-2006)

Author: Bruce R. Pirnie

Publisher: Rand Corporation

Published: 2008-01-25

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 0833045849

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Examines the deleterious effects of the U.S. failure to focus on protecting the Iraqi population for most of the military campaign in Iraq and analyzes the failure of a technologically driven counterinsurgency (COIN) approach. It outlines strategic considerations relative to COIN; presents an overview of the conflict in Iraq; describes implications for future operations; and offers recommendations to improve the U.S. capability to conduct COIN.

Countering the Threat of Improvised Explosive Devices
Countering the Threat of Improvised Explosive Devices

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2007-06-28

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 0309179718

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Attacks in London, Madrid, Bali, Oklahoma City and other places indicate that improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are among the weapons of choice of terrorists throughout the world. Scientists and engineers have developed various technologies that have been used to counter individual IED attacks, but events in Iraq and elsewhere indicate that the effectiveness of IEDs as weapons of asymmetric warfare remains. The Office of Naval Research has asked The National Research Council to examine the current state of knowledge and practice in the prevention, detection, and mitigation of the effects of IEDs and make recommendations for avenues of research toward the goal of making these devices an ineffective tool of asymmetric warfare. The book includes recommendations such as identifying the most important and most vulnerable elements in the chain of events leading up to an IED attack, determining how resources can be controlled in order to prevent the construction of IEDs, new analytical methods and data modeling to predict the ever-changing behavior of insurgents/terrorists, a deeper understanding of social divisions in societies, enhanced capabilities for persistent surveillance, and improved IED detection capabilities.

Securing the MRAP
Securing the MRAP

Author: James Hasik

Publisher:

Published: 2021-07

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9781623499426

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Dwight D. Eisenhower once quipped, "You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics." Military acquisition and procurement--that is, how a nation manages investments, technologies, programs, and support--is critical to wartime success or failure. When unexpected battlefield problems arise, how do the government, the military, and industry work together to ensure effective solutions? During the American counterinsurgent campaign in Iraq, the improvised explosive device emerged as a disruptive and devastating threat. As Humvees, and their occupants, were ripped apart by IEDs, it was clear that new solutions had to be found. These solutions already existed but had not been procured, highlighting the need for more effective marketing to the military by industry. The ultimate successful response--the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, or MRAP--required years of entrepreneurial marketing by the defense industry. In Securing the MRAP: Lessons Learned in Marketing and Military Procurement, James Hasik explores how these vehicles, which the American military mostly rejected despite the great need for them, eventually came to be adopted as the Pentagon's top procurement priority. Hasik traces the story of the MRAP from the early 1970s to the future of mine-resistant vehicles on the battlefields of tomorrow. An important contribution to the seemingly disparate fields of marketing and defense policy, Securing the MRAP is an eye-opening revelation to defense industrialists, military officers, and government officials who want to understand how to avoid another IED-Humvee debacle.

The Good Soldiers
The Good Soldiers

Author: David Finkel

Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books

Published: 2009-09-15

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1429952717

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It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it the surge. "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences," he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad, and almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.

Coping with Surprise in Great Power Conflicts
Coping with Surprise in Great Power Conflicts

Author: Mark F. Cancian

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-03-23

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1442280727

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Surprise has always been an element of warfare, but the return of great power competition—and the high-level threat that it poses—gives urgency to thinking about surprise now. Because the future is highly uncertain, and great powers have not fought each other for over 70 years, surprise is highly likely in a future great power conflict. This study, therefore, examines potential surprises in a great power conflict, particularly in a conflict’s initial stages when the interaction of adversaries’ technologies, prewar plans, and military doctrines first becomes manifest. It is not an attempt to project the future. Rather, it seeks to do the opposite: explore the range of possible future conflicts to see where surprises might lurk.