U.S. Military Learns to Fight Deadliest Weapons

Photo: Tom Schierlitz

By Adam Higginbotham
Wired
July 28, 2010

The tactics of today's insurgent bombmakers are the product of a long-simmering melting pot of global terrorism.

One afternoon at the end of March, inside a cinder-block bunker on a small island in Chesapeake Bay, Scott Schoenfeld is waiting to blow something up. On a video monitor in front of him is a grainy image of a rusty steel box about 20 yards away. Inside is an explosive charge and an experimental target. A big, soft-spoken computational scientist wearing a black polo shirt, jeans, and wraparound sunglasses, Schoenfeld is one of the chief armor researchers for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, or Jieddo, the Pentagon agency dedicated to combating IEDs. He won’t tell me how much explosive he’s using today, or what, exactly, the target is. The charge is modeled on an IED discovered overseas, and the details remain sensitive, if not classified. “We’re trying not to give anyone ideas they don’t already have,” he says. But he will acknowledge that the charge is lethal. “Unprotected, it would kill many people. Pounds of high explosive are involved.” He hands me a pair of ear defenders. “The boom,” he says, “will be rather large.”

Outside, a siren blows three times. Standing at a rack of instruments in the corner of the bunker, the range operator announces, “Reset. Arm. Three. Two. One. Fi— “

On the monitor, a cloud of gray smoke puffs from the box, which is open at one end, and then a fraction of a second later comes the boom — a sharp crack loud enough to be heard through cinder block and ear defenders, drowning out the conclusion of the countdown. A shock wave shakes the walls of the bunker.

(More here.)