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Podcast | Countering the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices

How is Australia helping counter the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs in the Middle East?

How is Australia helping counter the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs in the Middle East?

Darryn Smart discusses the development of specialised force protection systems designed to counter specific radio controlled IEDs. 

Transcript

Julia Freeman: In today’s podcast: How is Australia helping counter the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs in the Middle East?

[Music plays]

Julia Freeman: Since 2015 the REDWING program has been saving the lives of our coalition partners, military and civilian, from the insidious and growing scourge of IEDs.

[Music ends]

Julia Freeman: Hi, I’m Julia Freeman with another podcast from Defence Science and Technology.

Defence scientist Darryn Smart recently travelled to Canberra for the inaugural Public Sector Innovation Award ceremony hosted by the Institute of Public Sector Administration Australia. His team won the award in the Innovative Solutions category. Darryn’s team was part of the REDWING program, a joint Defence initiative that has seen the development of the low-cost counter IED devices to jam radio signals that can set off IEDs. Australia has already supplied 100,000 Redwing units to Afghanistan while another 50,000 units are on order.

Darryn Smart: Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, pose a lethal threat across battlefields in combat zones like Afghanistan and Iraq. This cheap, easily-made but deadly weapon can have a devastating impact on victims, both physically and mentally. Typically, IEDs are a hidden explosive charge attached to a discrete detonating device that can be triggered remotely.

These devices are often difficult to locate and can cause many serious injuries as well as lowering the morale of soldiers. It is little wonder that, since 2003, IEDs have become the insurgents’ weapon-of-choice across the Middle East combat zones, particularly Afghanistan.

Given this increasing threat to Afghani security forces, Defence’s Joint Counter Improvised Threat Task Force sponsored an initiative to develop a force protection system to help protect the Afghan military, police and security personnel against the IED threat they faced. The task force was seeking a solution that was low-cost, robust and lightweight and be used and maintained in austere operating environments such as Afghanistan. This program was called REDWING.

The Defence Science and Technology Group, or DST, has a long and successful history of developing countermeasures to neutralise these types of threats. We were called in by the Task Force to develop these specialised force protection systems designed to counter specific radio controlled IEDs. Once our scientific and engineering team had demonstrated their solution, the Task Force engaged with the Australian Military Sales Office and Defence’s International Policy Division to fund and commercialise the supply of the equipment to Afghanistan using Australia’s contribution to the Afghan National Army Trust Fund.

While the Task Force had experience creating this type of device for Australian forces, REDWING was very different. The Task Force set unique and challenging demands to address specific security and user requirements. This included deploying the devices in the harsh operating environment of Afghanistan for use by Afghan military and police units with minimal operator training and limited logistical support. The result was an easy-to-use, disposable system with a simple design and low production cost.

Two variants were produced – the GREENGUM personal unit and the GREYGUM vehicle-mounted device. Our scientists and engineers delivered an initial concept demonstrator in only three months. This rapid development was made possible only because we had done several years of background research and development in IED countermeasure systems.  

Once our scientists had produced and successfully tested the initial concept demonstrator, we began work on converting the demonstrators into pre-production versions. This included mechanical and printed circuits designed for mass production, and technical guidance data packs for the manufacturers.

We went through an iterative design phase before the Task Force sent pre-production units to the Afghan military forces for feedback. We received very positive suggestions for some minor, but very important, design changes. This included a request for a rechargeable internal battery for the devices which reduced the level of logistics support required in the field.

The REDWING design required some specific elements to ensure the devices were both suitable and effective across a range of environments. This meant creating a design that required minimal assembly, with no fasteners, and could be manufactured using injection moulding techniques.

The end product needed to have a low-cost, integrated rechargeable battery using a standard USB charging capability and an automated readiness testing element.

The Australian Military Sales Office became involved in late 2013. They provided all the project management, legal, contracting and financial services, and worked with IPDivision who managed the Afghanistan and Australian Government approvals.  Through the REDWING Project, the Australian Government is investing up to $45 million in the local defence manufacturing industry, effectively translating technology into jobs.

For mass manufacture, a number of external organisations were engaged to join the project. They included Micreo, Ultra Electronics Australia, Lintek, Diemould (now called AXIOM Precision Manufacturing) and Associated Electronic Services. In collaboration with these companies Defence then commenced manufacture and production to meet an accelerated timeframe.

By July 2015, over 100,000 devices had been manufactured, tested and delivered to Afghanistan, in time for their fighting season.

Since the introduction of the REDWING family of devices into Afghanistan, there have been many documented instances where these devices have saved Afghan lives. As a result, Afghanistan placed additional orders in late 2015 for another 55,000 devices, which have now been delivered. This has resulted in total overseas sales worth more than US $45 million over the two financial years.

The success of this program has resulted in another 4-year program for the further development of REDWING. In this program REDWING products with additional capabilities are being developed for future sale to Afghanistan and other potential coalition partners. This new version will be extremely technically challenging. We have already commenced the R&D necessary with our industry partner Micreo for the Phase 2 development, with delivery of the first new products expected within the next 12 months.

Some interesting statistics associated with the production of the first REDWING units are worth noting:

  • More than 100,000 units were manufactured from 20 million individual electronic components
  • Over 400 pallets of the packaged devices were produced and delivered
  • All units were manufactured, tested and delivered within a 6 month period
  • The REDWING Project represented a total investment of $US45 million.

The REDWING project is a stand-out example of Australian ingenuity and how science and technology adds value to Defence, saving the lives of our coalition partners, military and civilian, from the insidious and growing scourge of IEDs.

[Music plays]

Julia Freeman: Great to hear from you Darryn and congratulations on the award.

If you want to hear more about how Defence Science and Technology is helping defend against potential threats check out the latest in Australian defence science by following us @DefenceScience on Twitter, or download the DST App from Google Play or the App Store.

The Defence Science and Technology podcast is a production of the Defence Science and Technology Group, part of Australia’s Department of Defence. That’s all for now. See you next time.

ENDS

 

More information

Podcast Type

Audio

Publish Date

October 2016

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