Why are there so many killed by roadside bombs?

Question

Currently both the American and Canadian armies have minesweeping vehicles called Aardvark Mark 4. These have been used worldwide for sweeping minefields etc. There are so so many dieing when theres a vehicle that can take care of it and not hurt driver. These vehicles flailing up and down the travelled roads in both Afg and Iraq, would certainly save many lives, what do you think?

Answer 1

IED(road side bombs) are not mines. They are explosive devices planted in unsuspecting location. They could be a couple feet off the road. Impossible to see and unless the Mark 4 plows through everyting in the path of a humvee, they are impossible to find.

Answer 2

My understanding is that they aren't using mines, predominantly. They used buried bombs that aren't pressure triggered, like mines, they are detonated, with a trigger. That makes a difference because the targets are chosen--its not just that the first vehicle to come along triggers the explosive.

They are able to choose more vulnerable targets that way, and try to blow up the first vehicle in the convoy (and sometimes the last if they have two bombs buried). Then (in theory) they use small arms and rockets to kill off anyone trapped in the middle vehicles.

I'm not saying that these new vehicles wouldn't work to take the blast and save lives if they were the only vehicles on the roads, but I really dont think that the insurgents will waste their IEDs on vehicles that can withstand the blast. They'll just wait for the vulnerable ones.

If you're asking why the Aardvarks aren't the only vehicles on the roads, I think that cost and logistics are the main reasons. Everyone says the military there should have the best equipment available, but we seem to be unable to get a consensus on funding that need.

Answer 3

Because the Humvee is not and never was designed to be a front line vehicle. Further it has a flat low bottom which does little to deflect IED blasts. So why is this a problem. It is the main vehicle in Iraq. There is a new type of vehicle called an MRAP which has a v shaped hull to deflect IED blasts, and sits higher. These vehicles were first used by South Africa and Rhodesia so the design is good. Until more of these vehicles get produced, IED's will continue to kill.

Answer 4

OK, an IED is NOT a freakin mine, if you have half a mind and some sort of military knowledge they are totally different. A mine explodes when its detonator has pressure on it, and IED is something that either has a timer, a wireless reciever or a trip wire. They are crude and can be hidden in ANYTHING. You think it up, its been done. Yes our military (and others also) do have vehicles that can take a very strong blow, but they cant patrol the streets all day and all night on the same little road. Hajji can blow one IED and 10 minutes later put a bigger one in the new hole created. It happens, thats why when you are driving down the road, you pay attention to anything that looks out of place or suspicious. Stay alert, stay alive!

Answer 5

All forms of combat, from hand to hand to modern tactics, share one big thing in common. One is at the most vulnerable when he's moving.

That means that driving from point A to point B is more hazardous than being engaged with the enemy in a lot of ways. When you're involved in a firefight, you know what you're dealing with, where the enemy is, and what's going on. When you're on the move, everything is a potential threat and I don't care how good you are, you can't do a 100% investigation of everything around you. It's just impossible.

And in the case of IED's, they are not necessarily buried on the roads. They can be anything anywhere. They've been found stuffed into the carcasses of dead dogs, in garbage cans, even in fake curbs. Flailing the road to gravel will do nothing to find these.

There are so many possibilities that even the most vigilant soldier with the most attuned instincts can't possibly begin to think about every possible threat at any given time. It's just impossible.

We're after all dealing with an enemy that is just as adaptable as we are and who learns from us, just as we learn from them. And if we can think of something, so can they. And they'll find a way to exploit that. Just like we would.

Answer 6

The newly requested MRAP's have actually been in theater for awhile but not in large enough numbers yet. Production can't keep up with demand yet. The armored humvees have so much armor on them now that they are almost peeked out on it. Besides, they can just make their ied's bigger/better or emplace them better. A fellow first sergeant and a good buddy of mine got launched 30 feet in the air while still in his vehicle from a huge one. The roads are swept but is difficult to get them all since they come in varying forms, etc. and if the road is not secured, they can just be reemplaced. There are vehicle teams there used specifically for that purpose but not enough of them. The methods of detonation change with our methods of detection/avoidance. They'll go from command detonated to pressure plate, to command wire. The wires are generally easy to detect unless they are buried. The pressure plates can vary greatly so detection is spotty. Command det can be impossible by visual means if the receiver is buried an inch down. The IED's that were in our area were generally artillery rounds buried, or steel pipe with a charge on one end with a plate on the other that gets launched up through a vehicle (those were the worst ones in our area). The EFP's are the worst though. We didn't have those in our area when we were there.

Answer 7

If you can think of it, the military is likely already doing it. The problem is that no one system is appropriate for every possible IED the enemy can construct. In your example, if I were an insurgent, I would simply put the IED off to the side a few dozen feet, and have my trigger activated by the flails.

Since it is hard to predict what the enemy will do, it is hard to know what tactic or vehicle to use. And since the enmy reacts to our reaction, the next day your system that worked great won't work again.

Answer 8

So how will your wonder Aardvark find a bomb hidden in a culvert or in a parked car at the side of the road?

The Aardvark works against conventional mines thats why the terrorists are using Improvised Explosive Devices (I.E.D.)

So your question is irrelavent.

Answer 9

The roads are sweeped, people who are charged with that duty do it faithfully and they even have radio jamming devices, but the bad guy keeps growing and with it the technology. Their would be more casualties if the our military wasn't smarter than our enemies. They are high speed!

Answer 10

Two good answers so far - I'd just like to add that perhaps a little more armor plating on the humv's would be a nice improvement - especially when you know the likelihood that they will encounter roadside bombs.