improvised explosive device

improvised explosive device (IED), a homemade bomb, constructed from military or nonmilitary components, that is frequently employed by guerrillas, insurgents, and other nonstate actors as a crude but effective weapon against a conventional military force. When used as roadside bombs, IEDs can interdict lines of communication, disrupt traffic, and damage or destroy targeted vehicles. Sometimes entryways or entire structures are booby-trapped with IEDs to kill or injure anyone (such as a squad of soldiers) entering the premises. Larger vehicle-borne IEDs (car or truck bombs) have been used to destroy entire installations, such as the barracks of U.S. marines and French paratroopers in the Beirut barracks bombings of 1983. IEDs have been the predominant weapon of insurgents in the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, and, because of their low cost, ease of employment, and high effectiveness, they will continue to be the weapon of choice for guerrillas and insurgents for the foreseeable future.

Components

In principle, all IEDs consist of an initiating mechanism, a detonator, an explosive charge, and a casing or collection of projectiles (such as ball bearings or nails) that produces lethal fragments upon detonation. In practice, IEDs can be made of many different kinds of objects and materials, including artillery or mortar rounds, aerial bombs, certain types of fertilizers, TNT, and other explosives. IEDs can also contain radiological, chemical, or biological components to increase their lethal and psychological effects. IEDs aimed at killing or injuring personnel can be as crude as pipe bombs (a metal pipe packed with explosive material and sealed at both ends), though they are often more-complex. Vehicle-borne IEDs aimed at destroying buildings can contain large quantities of explosives to enhance their destructive capacity. IEDs aimed at destroying vehicles can be quite sophisticated, especially if the target is armoured. For example, some IEDs have shaped-charge warheads that upon detonation create streams of molten metal that can penetrate armour. In Iraq some Shīʿite militia groups used explosively formed projectiles (EFPs)—an extremely lethal form of shaped charge supplied by Iran—to destroy even the most heavily armoured vehicles, such as M1 Abrams tanks.

Insurgents have used a wide variety of initiating systems to trigger detonations. Such systems fall into two basic categories: command-initiated and autonomously initiated. Command-initiated IEDs are detonated through human interaction with the triggering mechanism. Typically, a receiver on the explosive triggers detonation when an electronic impulse is sent over a wire circuit or via wireless signal. Common examples of command initiators are cell phones, pagers, cordless telephones, automatic garage-door openers, car alarms, wireless doorbells, and remote-controlled toys. Autonomously initiated IEDs are detonated automatically without human intervention. Common examples of those initiators are trip wires, pressure plates that activate the triggering mechanism when a certain amount of weight is placed on them, infrared systems that activate the triggering mechanism when a vehicle breaks a beam’s contact with its receiver, and magnetic detonators that are triggered by changes in a magnetic field (as when a vehicle passes by).

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Tactical use

IEDs have proved to be extremely effective in practice. They were responsible for thousands of military and civilian deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where insurgents proved particularly adept at hiding IEDs through skillful emplacement and effective camouflage. For instance, IEDs have been camouflaged to look like debris or street curbs; they have been emplaced behind guardrails, in animal carcasses, and inside culverts; and they have been dug into the ground and buried. To find and destroy concealed IEDs, the U.S. Army developed heavily armoured engineering equipment that can conduct reconnaissance and then remotely detonate any devices discovered. The U.S. Army and Marine Corps also both fielded K-9 units with explosive-sniffing dogs to locate IEDs on the battlefield. Engineer Ordnance Disposal (EOD) experts disable or destroy IEDs through a variety of means, including the use of robotic ground vehicles and explosives.

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For protection of troops against IEDs that go undetected, the U.S. and other NATO militaries retrofitted many of their vehicles with heavier armour and also produced specially designed mine-resistant, ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles. However, insurgents countered those improvements by producing more-powerful bombs. Technological innovations to counter IEDs therefore have also focused on interrupting the signals that detonate the devices. Various jamming devices, such as the U.S. Warlock system, were installed in vehicles to interrupt wireless triggering signals. Such systems are effective, but in response insurgents in many areas simply reverted to the use of hardwired initiation systems that do not rely on wireless signals. With the battlefield constantly shifting, countermeasures using a variety of technologies must be developed, though it is difficult to counter IEDs through technological means alone. Fully effective countermeasures must also target the social network that enables the existence of IEDs, such as the people who finance the devices, those who construct them, those who position them, and even those who act as lookouts—that is, all the people who conduct supporting activities before the devices are actually detonated.