DTN News - FRENCH DEFENSE NEWS: French Army Nexter Aravis - MRAP

DTN News - FRENCH DEFENSE NEWS: French Army Nexter Aravis - MRAP

Source: DTN News - - K. V. Seth
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 10, 2013:  The French Procurement Agency DGA (Direction générale de l’armement) has announced having taken delivery on last 19 January 2010 of the first four Nexter Aravis mine resistant ambush protected vehicles earmarked for the French Army. 

A total of fifteen such vehicles, dubbed VBHP — for Véhicule blindé hautement protégé –, was ordered in April 2009 for a sum of about €20 million. This specific procurement, made under a French Army crash programme (UOR), is aimed at providing the Armée de Terre’s Engineer Detachment on duty with ISAF in Afghanistan with a highly protected road reconnaissance vehicle likely to defeat and resist any standard IED explosion.


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DTN News - MRAP NEWS: Dakota County Sheriff's Office Acquires Decommissioned Military-grade, Mine-resistant Vehicle

DTN News - MRAP NEWS: Dakota County Sheriff's Office Acquires Decommissioned Military-grade, Mine-resistant Vehicle

Source: K. V. Seth -DTN News - - Clare Kennedy 
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - September 8, 2013: The heavy vehicles were designed specifically to deflect blasts from roadside bombs in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan.

This week, the Dakota County Sheriff's Office took possession of a Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected armored vehicle, more commonly known as an MRAP.

The MRAP vehicles are military vehicles used in Iraq and Afghanistan to combat roadside bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). The MRAP delivered to Dakota County weighs over 40,000 pounds, Sheriff Dave Bellows writes in his weekly newsletter. 

"While they were designed with heavy armor to protect soldiers from the impact of IEDs, they will provide equal protection for law enforcement officers. After getting some refurbishment, we will assign the vehicle to the MAAG (SWAT) team," Bellows writes.

According to an article in the Washington Post, the U.S. military had about 24,000 of MRAPs at the start of this year, some of which have been scrapped as the war winds down. Each originally cost $1 million, the Post writes. 

Some of them have been decommissioned by the military for use by civilian authorities, however. The MRAP delivered to the DCSO is just the first of 18 such vehicles, which will soon arrive in Minnesota for use by local law enforcement agencies. The Minnesota Department of Public Safety will distribute the vehicles over the next few months. 

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*Link for This article compiled by K. V. Seth -DTN News - - Clare Kennedy 
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DTN News: UN ~ 1000 Afghan Civilians Killed In 2009

DTN News: UN ~ 1000 Afghan Civilians Killed In 2009

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) KABUL, Afghanistan - August 2, 2009: Afghanistan's intensifying conflict killed more than 1,000 civilians in the first six months of 2009, an increase of nearly a quarter over the same period last year, the United Nations said Friday. The UN has said US-led strikes were responsible for a huge number of civilians death in Afghanistan. This year has been the bloodiest in a Taliban-led insurgency that has drawn thousands of international military reinforcements, most of them deploying into areas where a strong militant presence could prevent August 20 elections. The boost in troop numbers - now roughly 90,000 - was one reason for the higher toll of 1,013 dead civilians, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Human Rights Unit. Nearly 60% of the civilian deaths so far this year were caused by insurgents, 30% by pro-government military forces and the rest unattributable to any party to the conflict. The same period last year saw 818 civilians killed in insurgency-linked violence. In the first six months of 2007, 684 were killed - 41% by security forces and 46% by militants, it said in a report. "The armed conflict intensified significantly throughout Afghanistan in 2008 and in the first six months of 2009, with a corresponding rise in civilian casualties and a significant erosion of humanitarian space," the unit said. Reasons for the surge in violence were increased military operations in civilian areas, more complex insurgent attacks and a crackdown on extremists in neighboring Pakistan that forced fighters into Afghanistan. Militant activity was also sustained during the winter, unlike in previous years when there had been a lull in fighting, it said. Almost a third of Afghanistan was now directly affected by insurgent activities with civilians bearing the brunt of the fighting, it added. "In addition to the sharp increase in civilian deaths, vulnerable groups are also suffering in terms of destruction of vital infrastructure, loss of income and earning opportunities, and deterioration of access to essential services." Most civilians were killed by insurgent bombs, called improvised explosive devices and suicide attacks, the report said. The widespread use of IEDs "contributes to a climate of fear and intimidation that has significant repercussions for Afghan civilians, including in particular in terms of loss of life and livelihoods," it said. Militants often target security forces but with no regard for the impact of their operations on civilians, it said. The unit also said that militants based themselves in civilian areas as part of "an active policy aimed at drawing a military response to areas where there is a high likelihood that civilians will be killed or injured." A new trend was the use of bombs that could be magnetically attached to vehicles. Schools, particularly for girls, came under increasing attack with 16 IED explosions on school premises this year. International air strikes killed just over 64% of those civilians killed in military action and 20% of all civilian deaths from January to June, the report said. These figures were down slightly and followed efforts to minimize the impact of military operations on civilians, the report said. Such killings by pro-government forces created a "strong feeling of anger and disappointment among the Afghan general public" which undermined support for the international community generally, it said. More has to be done by all, in particular the armed opposition, to reduce the impact of operations and activities

Basic Thoery: An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away Similarly An ACT 1 Keeps The Bad Guys Away

Basic Thoery: An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away Similarly An ACT 1 Keeps The Bad Guys Away

(NSI News Source Info) April 6, 2009: It's getting harder to be a terrorist, and much of that grief comes from cheaper thermal imagers, and more powerful pattern recognition software. One example of this is the ACT 1 (Access Counter IED Technology) thermal imager. This device can examine individuals approaching a checkpoint, or simply moving near a base.

As counter IED technologies evolve, so do IED detonation techniques, creating a new kind of arms race. According to (HSRC)’s research, 2008-2012 Global Counter-IED Markets and Technologies Forecast released in July 07, this unique situation creates a robustly dynamic counter-IED technology market, hungry for innovation and “out of the box” thinking, and eager to test best-in-class, next generation technologies.HSRC’s Research Examines and Analyzes 71 current and next generation IED Technologies including: Quantum Entanglement, Non-linear Junction Detector (NLJD), Anti IED Devices, Thor IED Zappers, JIN – Joint IED Neutralizer – Ionatron, Counter-IED Reconnaissance Planes, Aerostats, Microwave Based Explosive Caches Detection, IED Volumetric Detection, Ultra Wide Band High Powered Electro Magnetics Technology. Above is a photo of a specialized IED (Improvised Explosive Device) Clearing Truck, designed to scan the ground (see the horizontal panels) for buried bombs/explosives.

The software examines the thermal image of the individuals, and, using a library of data on how explosives or weapons show up under clothing, determine with a high degree of accuracy, who is armed, or wearing a bomb. ACT I is small, it looks like a large pair of binoculars sitting on a tripod. The entire systems weighs less than twenty pounds and can be operational in less than 15 minutes. Systems like this are getting smaller, more powerful and cheaper. A knowledgeable terrorist can do things to deceive it, but not all your terrorists are that smart. In Iraq and Afghanistan, similar systems, used as part of base defenses, to track suspicious activities, or assist in the pursuit of enemy forces. The U.S. Army is developing a new generation of remote sensors that uses similar technology. These can be air dropped, or placed by troops on the ground, to provide more monitoring capability in remote areas. The ability of the police or military to store vast quantities of this data also allows for suspicious activity to be sought out after a crime has occurred. Criminals, and terrorists, usually scout out a location before carrying out a crime. Advances in pattern recognition and statistical analysis software helps investigators find things that are not easily noticed at a glance.