The Snapper
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Bomb Tricks and Techniques in Afghanistan
07 July 2011
CIVCAS (civilian casualties) are a huge problem for our side and for the enemy. The enemy causes far more CIVCAS but as outsiders our mistakes have a more toxic psychological effect. We won’t have to wait long for the next report of the Taliban accidentally, or purposefully, blowing up civilians. It will probably happen today and tomorrow.
Our movements along the roads are predictable. In many cases nothing that can be done about that. The times may vary, but many of the routes are set by terrain or circumstance. Our people are very well trained to spot the bombs, and they are supremely outfitted with an impressive array of countermeasures and armor. There are few if any complaints from troops about their training or gear to avoid being blown up. Nobody in history has been more prepared for IEDs than our current combat troops. It’s hard to blow them up, but the enemy is smart and continues to land hard punches with low expense. Everyone realizes there is only so much you can do, and then you are in war, and you take chances.
The enemy has difficulty hitting our vehicles with RCIEDs (radio-controlled IEDs) because our countermeasures are excellent. Low-tech inexpensive methods, such as land mines, can work against us on roads, but the problem with land mines is that they are dumb and they blow up the first thing that ticks them off, which likely will be civilian traffic. Enemy CIVCAS toxifies their operating environment and also misses their target.
And so the enemy has developed techniques to circumvent countermeasures and reduce CIVCAS. One of those techniques is “the snapper.”
The snapper uses a tire for a diaphragm in which nails are used for contacts. When a vehicle rolls over a snapper, the circuit closes. To avoid CIVCAS, the enemy waits in hiding with a battery. One of the electrodes is connected. Traffic is allowed to roll over the snapper but there is no explosion. When the target approaches, the enemy attaches the other connection and now the snapper is ARMED.
Circuit closed
When the circuit closes this time, juice flows to the bomb, which must be very substantial to defeat our armor, but if the target is lesser-equipped Coalition forces or perhaps unarmored Afghans, it can be small.
And that’s it. The snapper.
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Comments
Just a thought ... given that there is little that can be done to deal with/jam/locate the arming wires I would think the next best thing would be to look for "roadwork" ...
Sure, lets just kill... EVERYBODY.
V/R,
tom
Tom, so you want to spend your time in Afghanistan protecting the freedoms of the United States, by asking someone in the United States not to exercise their first amendment rights? So why did YOU sign up for the military. Because the bullsh*t that you signed up to protect America is, well, clearly bullsh*t.. How dare you ask someone to censor themselves. You of all should know better the sacrifices given in support of the bill of rights, our constitution, and our way of life. Yet, here you are asking someone to throw all of that way by censoring themselves.
One, I am a Libertarian and
Two: switch to decaf.
Give any man/woman in the field the chance at surviving.
Read the text/history... ..
woww what an Intelligent answer.
Hmm. We have the technology, but why not go state of the art--to the extent that it makes the troop's job easier. Have someone in the lead track/truck with a laptop that can take real-time images of the road, compare them with yesterday and highlight the differences.
The obvious countermeasure is to put the snapper under a pile of dung. The counter to that is not to drive/walk through fresh dung.
If other military at Kandahar were told that these sort of pictures and information was strictly FOUO (for official use only), how do you get away with publishing this and then say you aren't doing anything to violate opsec rules?
Since I don't want to be as rude as you were to Major, could you please tell me where the First Amendment gives you the right to information that could possibly put any of the Coalition Forces in some sort of danger? I'm just asking.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
We are not abridging his or your right to free speech, just asking him the rules that he signed to agree when he went over. If MY can't follow simple rules, then how do you expect the rest of us to believe anything he says?
And BTW -- you may think Major signed up for BS, but he's over there protecting your right to be an idiot.
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