U.S. USES ISRAELI BOMB DETONATOR

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WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Israel has provided the United States with a new system meant to locate and destroy roadside bombs.

U.S. officials said the Israeli system was provided to U.S. Central Command for the war in Iraq. The officials said the system remains in the development stage and will probably be upgraded.

The Israeli system sends a signal meant to detonate improvised explosive devices along roads before they can endanger passing vehicles. The Israeli mobile system was first employed in Lebanon in the late 1990s and has undergone improvement over the last two years.

Israel also used the IED protection system to detonate the explosive belts of Palestinian suicide bombers. No details were available.

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From a laymans perspective, I find it strange that the US hasn't tried this before - the USN has used this technique and so have the UK forces in N Ireland.

 

[Red aRRow]

Well this technique is obviously meant for radio controlled bombs which have a detonator which is activated by a radio signal on a particular frequency.
However I am still doubtful whether it works against suicide bombers who obviously detonate the bomb using a wire fed detonator.
Also the road side bombs which are wire detonated will be immune to this kind of system.

 

[gf0012-aust]

Well this technique is obviously meant for radio controlled bombs which have a detonator which is activated by a radio signal on a particular frequency.
However I am still doubtful whether it works against suicide bombers who obviously detonate the bomb using a wire fed detonator.
Also the road side bombs which are wire detonated will be immune to this kind of system.

The Brit system was able to deal with hard wired bombs - so the capability does exist, it will depend on whether the Israeli system has the same capability.

The UK used to have a Landrover fitted out with the requisiye "black boxes" sitting in a trailer. IIRC the French also used a similar system in Bosnia

 

[Red aRRow]

Ahaaa. Well that's a surprise for me. Any non-invasive technique would require the "black box" to be somewhere near the wire atleast so that it might induce a signal in the wire (inductance). Or was that black box able to do it even when far away from the detonator wire??

Interesting stuff.

 

[gf0012-aust]

Not sure of the range as I would guess that its still classified, but you don't see too much history of Brit Army vehicles being "roadsided" in the last 10 years.

You'd want to shield the vehicles as well I would assume.

 

[Red aRRow]

Hmm....I have my doubts on jammers which work on wire detonated bombs.

 

[gf0012-aust]

Hmm....I have my doubts on jammers which work on wire detonated bombs.

Hamas have tried using wired roadside bombs as a way to get around the emitting/jamming issue - it does appear that the Israelis have resolved some of those.

I'd guess that they have a system similar to what the Brits have used in Northern Ireland.

I'm still trying to work out how it can be done at a technical level, but there isn't anyone I know of who is willing to go into too much detail (understandably).

I know its worked in some instances, but who knows what the variables and conditions were for those situations..