INFORMATION PAPER

Staff Group Alpha
11 Feb 13

SUBJECT: Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and Mines

1. Purpose: To provide information on Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and Antipersonnel Mines; as well as impacts and preventive actions for Ground Troops in Combat.

2. Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and Antipersonnel Mine Facts.

a. IED’s are “homemade” bombs and/or destructive devices used to destroy, incapacitate, harass, or distract. An antipersonnel IED that is victim-activated—one that explodes on contact by a person—is considered an antipersonnel mine.

b. IEDs come in many shapes and forms and can consist of almost any material, including agricultural and medical equipment. IEDs consist of a variety of components that include an initiator, switch, main charge, power source, and a container. IEDs may be surrounded by or packed with additional materials or “enhancements” such as nails, glass, or metal frag¬ments designed to increase the amount of shrapnel propelled by the explosion. Enhancements may also include other elements such as hazardous materials. An IED can be initiated by a variety of methods depending on the intended target.i c. IEDs can be carried or delivered in a vehicle; car¬ried, placed, or thrown by a person; delivered in a package; or concealed on the roadside.i There are three main types of IED’s/Mines.iii These include:

1. Package Improvised Explosive Device: Typically IEDs consisting of mortar and artillery projectiles as the explosive device.iii

2. Vehicle Born IED (VBIED): Vehicle borne IEDs (VBIEDs) are devices that use a vehicle as the package or container of the device.iii

3. Suicide Born IED: The bomber usually employs a command detonated high-explosive/fragmentary vest, belt, or clothing that is specifically modified to carry this material concealed.iii

d. IEDs are used by criminals, vandals, terrorists, suicide bombers, and insur¬gents. A typical IED terrorist cell consists of six to eight people, including a financier, bomb maker, emplacer, triggerman, spotter, and often a cameraman.

3. Unit Impact Facts:

a. IEDs have caused over 60% of American combat casualties in Iraq and 50% of combat casualties in Afghanistan. Antipersonnel mines, victim-activated IEDs, anti-vehicle mines, and mines of unspecified types, caused the most casualties in 2009, in total 2,548.ii

b. IEDs can have a strong psychological effect on its victims.iii Physical injuries include: 1. Overpressure damage to the lungs, ears, abdomen, and other pressure-sensitive organs.i

2. Fragmentation injuries caused by projectiles thrown by the blast – material from the bomb, shrapnel, or flying debris that penetrates the body and causes damage.i

3. Impact injuries caused when the blast throws a victim into another object, i.e. fractures, amputation, and trauma to the head and neck.i

4. Thermal injuries caused by burns to the skin, mouth, sinus, and lungs.i

c. IEDs undermine military operations and limit the progress of convoys or patrols, making them vulnerable to ambushes. An IED location can be covered by additional fire support or small arms fire to inflict more casualties on an already vulnerable opponent.iii

d. An IED attack may cause disrup¬tions in municipal services such as electricity, water, commu¬nications, and transportation, which may continue for days to weeks after the attack.i

4. Prevention Facts:

a. Total protection against IEDs is virtually impossible due to their unconventional and unpredictable nature. The number one way to protect from an IED attack is to be alert to the sur-roundings. Advanced technologies help authorities detect possible dangers, but an even more effective tool is to encourage individuals to be alert for, and to report, anything that is out of the ordinary in their daily routine.i

b. Another effective way to counter the threat posed by IEDs is by improving physical protection measures. The Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected, MRAP, family of vehicles is designed to protect against IED and mines.i Electronic jamming devices include the IED
Countermeasures Equipment and the Warlock, both of which use low-power radio frequency energy to block the signals of radio controlled explosives detonators, such as cell phones, satellite phones, and long-range cordless telephones.

c. The general strategy for countering IEDs has three main components: attack/defeat the IED system/network, defeat the device, and training/education.iii

End Notes National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council of the National Academies in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Online at accessed on February 4, 2013.

“Victim-activated IED Casualties,” Landmine & Cluster Munition Monitor Fact Sheet. Online at < http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/LM/Our-Research-Products/Factsheets> accessed on February 4, 2013.

Renata Giannini, “Afghanistan Improvised Explosive Devices (IED),”in Civil-Military Fusion Centre. Online at accessed on February 4, 2013.

Clay Wilson, “Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq and Afghanistan: Effects and Countermeasures,” in CRS Report for Congress. Online at accessed on February 4, 2013.

DOD Personnel and Military Casualty Statistics, Defense Manpower Data Center, Casualty
Summary by Reason, October 7, 2001 through August 18, 2007, available at
[http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/gwot_reason.pdf].

Sgt. Stephen D’Alessio, 2nd Marine Division, Marines schooled in new bomb protection, July
7, 2005, available at [http://www.marines.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/b89628064c45144e
85257056003871f1?OpenDocument].