Counter IED
Long lead times
When the U.S. military needs a device to solve a particular issue — in this case, detecting IEDs — the conventional solution would be to create a new development program from the ground up or rush immature technologies to the field.
The conventional, however, allows for a long lead-time associated with creating new technologies from scratch and many immature technologies rushed to the front line do not live up to the promises of their developers. IEDs are threatening the lives of our soldiers in the Middle East each day; our warfighters do not have the time or resources to waste in developing new technologies from scratch.
Concept to testing in 6 months
With our knowledge of mature technologies developed and tested by national laboratories, we were able to pinpoint mature Counter-IED technologies that U.S. agencies and centers had invested in, but never deployed due to the disconnects between the warfighters’ urgent requirements and various agencies’ technology portfolios. By integrating these technologies with U.S. Army operations, we assisted the Army in testing and deploying the Counter-IED system into hostile zones in less than six months. More importantly, the Counter-IED system proved effective on the first day on the job. It has been saving lives every day since.
In taking an unconventional approach, we were also able to get innovative counter IED devices produced and fielded to U.S. soldiers in exponentially less time, since the technology behind these devices had already been developed and tested by a national technology center. We were able to save the U.S. government millions of dollars in development and testing costs, and cut the development-to-field timeline by years. More importantly, we were able to help the U.S. Army minimize the damage and deaths caused by IEDs.
Side Story
Defining Integration
The term integration can have different meanings in different situations. In this case, we understand the warfighters’ urgent need in countering the threats posed by IEDs. The gaps in security levels and respective missions between these two communities proved too great to overcome and available, effective technology sat on a lab bench rather than saving warfighter lives. We bridged those gaps. We integrated the needs of the U.S. Army with the technology capability of another agency. By putting them together and bridging those gaps, the U.S. Army was quickly able to field the technology to save lives, and the agency was able to watch their technology investments be used in new and creative ways to come up with entirely unique results. That’s what technology integration means to our customers.
More about our companyGoing beyond delivery
Uncovering potential technologies was just the first step in our process. Once we identified technologies that could be used in the military’s counter IED efforts, we needed to develop a way to test these technologies with the government’s goals in mind. We helped execute a number of tests to make sure the technologies we set up would do what we intended, and provided assistance as the military put together a program to operate the technology we had designed.
We developed a comprehensive plan to implement our system into ARCENT, assisting the military in identifying the skill sets that were required, and helping train soldiers in how to operate the technology. We ultimately helped ARCENT deploy and install the new Counter-IED system overseas, and stayed onboard as the system became operational.
Within six months after we started to tackle this difficult Counter-IED mission, we were able to field a fully functioning system that the U.S. Army now uses to address IED threats against military personnel and civilians overseas. Having successful results within less than six months was a major achievement for our group, and it’s something that would not have been possible had the military decided to develop a new technology from the ground up.