Under Pressure

The Army is looking for ways to better protect soldiers on the ground from improvised explosive devices, according to a recently released notice to industry.

Looking to pursue near-term solutions based on existing technologies, Army officials want to field systems that will help ground troops detect "pressure plate" IEDs, as well as those set off by command and trip wires, the notice states. With a 300-meter radius, the system must be man-portable, able to operate nonstop for six hours and able to survive the unforgiving terrain in Afghanistan.

The notice comes shortly after Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, director of the Joint IED Defeat Task Force, announced the service's efforts to use unmanned ground sensors to detect IEDs has largely been ineffective."The local population is able to detect them almost as rapidly as we can put them in,” he said during an Oct. 20 briefing in Arlington, VA. “That has not panned out to be as effective as many people thought it might be.”

However, the three-star general did note that ground commanders have voiced an an increased need for unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct counter IED operations, as InsideDefense.com reported this week. “Their application to the counter-IED fight is enormous," he said. UAVs, Oates noted, can carry a range of payload packages that aid communication over mountain ranges in Afghanistan, and provide full-motion video at lower tactical levels.