By Ann Roosevelt
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va.–The deadly IED is not a conventional weapon in the hands of U.S. adversaries, it’s a strategic weapon, according to the top general working to defeat them.
“The IED is a strategic weapon and it’s got to be dealt with as a strategic weapon,” said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), speaking at the June 18 Joint Warfighting Conference 2008, co-sponsored by the Armed Forces Communications Electronic Association International and the U.S. Naval Institute, in cooperation with U.S. Joint Forces Command.
JIEDDO runs on an approximately $4 billion budget.
The IED is not a tactical weapon. “You can’t defeat a nation of 300 million with an IED,” he said.
“IEDs are strategic weapons because they attack the U.S. national will and try to undermine and eliminate Western influence.
“They want to wear down our endurance to get us to quit so they can rise up,” he said.
The worst thing that could happen is if IEDs come home, he said.
Metz said he was told that every home has enough electronics and enough chemicals to build an IED.
Metz has plenty of personal experience in Iraq and at the Army’s Training and Doctrine command before leading JIEDDO.
“I’m personally convinced we’ll fight irregular warfare for the next 20-30 years. The enemy will use asymmetric weapons and fight where we don’t want to go,” he said.
The enemy can’t win the conventional fight against U.S. forces, so he moves to those spaces where the U.S. is not: the jungle, areas of the electro-magnetic spectrum, he said.
You can see this in the innovative evolution of IEDs, Metz said. When he was in Iraq, IEDs consisted of radio-controlled devices, using such things as doorbells, and other simple electronics to arm and initiate devices. The U.S. introduced jammers, and pushed the enemy into more sophisticated methods, such as using command wire and pressure plates.
“He knows what he’s doing,” he said. In his day, targets were Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles, but what he finds now in bomb making houses are silhouettes of Humvees or Buffalos on the wall, and explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that are the more deadly IED.
Additionally there are the often-deadly suicide bombers. “I personally believe many of them are remotely detonated,” he said, particularly if the bomber is mentally impaired. These bombs can cause maximum chaos and damage.
EFPs are lethal, with pieces moving at 6,000 feet per second, he said. Compare that to shrapnel from artillery round, moving at around 2,000 feet per second. The kinetic energy from an EFP will drive it through the hull of a tank and they’re just about impossible to stop.
This brings up an issue: “if you optimize for EFPs, you’re sub optimized for RPGs,” he said.
IEDs target first responders, adversaries using complex ambushes and very high explosives, and they’re not running out of explosives, he said.
When Metz and JFCOM commander Marine Gen. James Mattis were in Iraq, they were blowing up tons of military explosives every day. Today, the adversary cooks up explosives at home, strong enough to blow a tank apart sending the hull one way, the turret another. They’ve learned to make stronger explosives.
JIEDDO also deals with vehicle-borne IEDs, even finding remotely controlled ones using simplistic solenoids on the steering wheel and gas pedals.
The organization is working to counter a “smart, innovative, ruthless, enemy.”
The IED is the “weapon of choice” in the U.S. Central Command area of operations.
Complicating the job is the fact that the enemy can put out “thousands” of IEDs a month. They have a “huge” capacity, he said.
However, the number of attacks has been dropping, he said. “June looks like it will go further down,” potentially to about half the attacks at the high point. This is due to a number of factors to include U.S. military strategy, the surge.
The downward trend is good, Metz said. “The issue is how quickly can the enemy return that capacity to the battlefield.”
Another positive: soldiers and Marines find and clear about 50 percent of the IEDs. Of those that detonate, only about 10 percent kill or wound.
Metz knows that toll, having put the flag in the hands of families after a family member makes the ultimate sacrifice.
JIEDDO’s goal is to keep casualties of any sort low and keep them low.
The Defense Department created JIEDDO with mission areas in operations and intelligence fusion, training support, rapid acquisition, and strategic planning.
The organization also has lines of operation: to attack the network of those involved in IEDs at any level, defeating the devices and training the force how to do both.
The “secret sauce,” Metz said, is that JIEDDO receives three-year, “uncolored”–or not service specific–money giving it an enormous capacity to do research, development, to build a program and work it hard, he said.
Metz said he goes to Capitol Hill as often as possible to build support to defeat an enemy that does not work within the U.S. budget cycle. The enemy works on the Information Technology cycle–moving on every nine months or so. The enemy plucks something from the shelf, when the U.S. counters it, they’ve already moved on to the next iteration.
JIEDDO looks nationwide for solutions to the specific IED it faces.
Through its capabilities and acquisition effort it finds good ideas, gets a joint operational needs statement, subject matter experts examine the ideas and move those mature enough forward to the point where they can be handed over to the services as a program of record.
For example, over two years some 1,379 proposals were submitted to JIEDDO. Of those, 649 passed the initial review and 393 projects were funded, he said.
Even with JIEDDO’s process, there is still friction with the two-year budget cycle.
JIEDDO divides its funds between network attack, defeating the device–the most–and training. Metz said he wants to spend more on training, because it is critical to military success.
Attacking the network is a large area of work. Money and logistics come from outside, he said. “It’s a huge industry.” And “they know we’re watching.” There is a Counter-IED Operations Center targeting these networks. There are forensic technologies and biometric exploitation as well as law enforcement programs to help. Also, there are human terrain teams to better arm commander with the cultural aspects of their environment.
At different elements of command teams are deployed to reach back to the United States or experts to connect capabilities at different levels.
“We’ve got to move information as fast as possible,” he said.
To defeat the device, JIEDDO utilizes jammers, explosive ordnance robots, protection for vehicles, route clearance, and personnel protection.
Considering the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, Metz said MRAPs have saved a lot of lives with its V-shaped hull, but it’s pitting a multi-million system against a $100 weapon.
Training has a tremendous payoff, he said. JIEDDO training of troops ahead of deploying to theater takes place at Ft. Irwin, Calif., 29 Palms, Calif., Indianhead, Md., and Lackland AFB, Texas. Training includes such things as fighting the network.
“I can assure you, every night someone is going down, because of the capability,” he said.
JIEDDO faces challenges to ensure that senior leaders don’t make decisions based on the IED, he said. Setting priorities is also difficult, he said, making sure the toughest jobs are high on the list. Having passionate personnel able to take the initiative is vital in the organization. “If it becomes a bureaucracy, I’ve failed.”
Additionally JIEDDO has to be as transparent as possible, because so much money flows to the organization. At the same time, Metz has to ensure the enemy gets as little usable information as possible. When information is reported in the media, it turns up quickly on Jihadi websites–the information flow is fast.
Industry can help, Metz told conference attendees. Figure out how to locate a pressure plate before a vehicle hits it. And, make sure the distance it takes to slow or stop a vehicle is taken into account. Consider the stopping distance of a large, heavy vehicle like an MRAP he said.
Industry can also help by working out the technology to detect command wire, to disrupt IED detonation.
Simulation is also needed. “The younger generation needs to be shaken, he said. They really need to really feel what’s happening.” They can learn that in simulators.
Metz said there’s no silver bullet that can solve the strategic IED issue. But JIEDDO is taking advantage of everything available.