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09-28-2009, 12:13 PM
U.S. works to stem rise in Afghanistan casualties
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 28, 2009 7:35:01 EDT
The U.S. military is taking a multi-pronged approach to battling the rising threat of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern part of the country.
“We’ve basically seen the number of IEDs double over a one-year period,” said Rear Adm. Michael Tillotson, the deputy J-3 for CentCom. “But ... we’ve [also] put a lot more forces out there also.”
There were 810 IED incidents there in August compared with 420 during the same month in 2008.
He added that about 50 percent of the IEDs are encountered in Regional Command-South, where the U.S. recently has dedicated thousands of additional troops, including the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, and the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team.
“We are focused in RC-South because that is one of the places where the insurgency is the strongest,” Tillotson said. “The highest level of violence is in RC-East and RC-South.”
About 38 percent of the bombs were encountered in eastern Afghanistan, 4 percent in the north and 8 percent in the west, he said. Improvised explosive devices remain the largest killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan even though more than half of the IEDs encountered are found and cleared before they have the chance to explode, a top Central Command official said Sept. 18.
Of the IED incidents, 51 percent of the bombs were found and cleared, about 30 percent were effective — which means the bomb resulted in casualties or loss of equipment — and about 20 percent were ineffective, Tillotson said.
In addition to more advanced or heavily armored equipment, “we are increasing the number of enablers who are there to counter the IED threat,” he said.
Route clearance packages, made up largely of engineers, explosive ordnance disposal experts and those who provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance are among the types of troops the U.S. will continue to grow in Afghanistan, Tillotson said.
He added that the military has already added a battalion’s worth of EOD forces in the south and increased the number of route clearance packages.
“It’s an increase in engineers and EOD forces in order to take care of the devices,” he said. “It’s an increase in [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] to get a better idea of what the enemy is doing to ensure we’re interdicting and make sure we’re getting to the left of boom.”
The military also is increasing its exploitation capability in Afghanistan, adding experts in forensics and explosives to study the IEDs, Tillotson said. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the effort, as well, he said.
“We have one such lab, or cell, in Afghanistan and we’re increasing that,” Tillotson said. “We have one in RC-East and we’re growing the capability down in RC-South. It’s fairly mature there [in the south] but we’re still adding more and more capability down there for forensics.”
In addition to adding more troops, the military also is relying on technology and equipment to boost its counter-IED efforts.
“One of the primary ways we’ve done that is we’ve pushed a lot of [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] into Afghanistan,” Tillotson said.
There were almost no MRAPs in Afghanistan in February, but as of Sept. 14, the military had delivered 3,735 of the vehicles into theater, he said.
The military also will start deploying the lighter and more mobile MRAP all-terrain vehicles to Afghanistan this month, and it has initiated a program to develop a lighter-weight mine roller to accommodate the rugged terrain in Afghanistan, he said.
“We’re doing a better job of protecting our forces,” Tillotson said. “Even though we’ve seen a doubling in the increase in IEDs in Afghanistan, we have not seen the casualties double.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/army_ieds_092809w/
By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Sep 28, 2009 7:35:01 EDT
The U.S. military is taking a multi-pronged approach to battling the rising threat of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan, particularly in the southern part of the country.
“We’ve basically seen the number of IEDs double over a one-year period,” said Rear Adm. Michael Tillotson, the deputy J-3 for CentCom. “But ... we’ve [also] put a lot more forces out there also.”
There were 810 IED incidents there in August compared with 420 during the same month in 2008.
He added that about 50 percent of the IEDs are encountered in Regional Command-South, where the U.S. recently has dedicated thousands of additional troops, including the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, and the 82nd Airborne Division’s 4th Brigade Combat Team.
“We are focused in RC-South because that is one of the places where the insurgency is the strongest,” Tillotson said. “The highest level of violence is in RC-East and RC-South.”
About 38 percent of the bombs were encountered in eastern Afghanistan, 4 percent in the north and 8 percent in the west, he said. Improvised explosive devices remain the largest killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan even though more than half of the IEDs encountered are found and cleared before they have the chance to explode, a top Central Command official said Sept. 18.
Of the IED incidents, 51 percent of the bombs were found and cleared, about 30 percent were effective — which means the bomb resulted in casualties or loss of equipment — and about 20 percent were ineffective, Tillotson said.
In addition to more advanced or heavily armored equipment, “we are increasing the number of enablers who are there to counter the IED threat,” he said.
Route clearance packages, made up largely of engineers, explosive ordnance disposal experts and those who provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance are among the types of troops the U.S. will continue to grow in Afghanistan, Tillotson said.
He added that the military has already added a battalion’s worth of EOD forces in the south and increased the number of route clearance packages.
“It’s an increase in engineers and EOD forces in order to take care of the devices,” he said. “It’s an increase in [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] to get a better idea of what the enemy is doing to ensure we’re interdicting and make sure we’re getting to the left of boom.”
The military also is increasing its exploitation capability in Afghanistan, adding experts in forensics and explosives to study the IEDs, Tillotson said. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the effort, as well, he said.
“We have one such lab, or cell, in Afghanistan and we’re increasing that,” Tillotson said. “We have one in RC-East and we’re growing the capability down in RC-South. It’s fairly mature there [in the south] but we’re still adding more and more capability down there for forensics.”
In addition to adding more troops, the military also is relying on technology and equipment to boost its counter-IED efforts.
“One of the primary ways we’ve done that is we’ve pushed a lot of [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] into Afghanistan,” Tillotson said.
There were almost no MRAPs in Afghanistan in February, but as of Sept. 14, the military had delivered 3,735 of the vehicles into theater, he said.
The military also will start deploying the lighter and more mobile MRAP all-terrain vehicles to Afghanistan this month, and it has initiated a program to develop a lighter-weight mine roller to accommodate the rugged terrain in Afghanistan, he said.
“We’re doing a better job of protecting our forces,” Tillotson said. “Even though we’ve seen a doubling in the increase in IEDs in Afghanistan, we have not seen the casualties double.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/09/army_ieds_092809w/