I totally agree and that dosnt even cover the use of Double Impulse fuses — [ open source] which requires two separate pressures on the fuse Flails have a place, usually in combat attacking an identifiable enemy !!

Originally Posted by MittMayo

Flails won't deal with an 'off route' device placed at the side of the route.

We used flails extensively in Kuwait after Gulf1, the combination of soft ground and mines, which needed a constant pressure to set them off, meant that they didn't explode. Those that were not broken were picked up and flung far and wide, sometimes into the lane just cleared.

We had a Flail Op lose a foot when he stepped out onto the ground he had just flailed.

They have their place but I'm fecked if I walk along a flail cleared path without a metal detector and caution.

We used to call them the 'Aardvark Mine Relocation System'

Originally Posted by King_of_the_Burpas

...
I know they have to ID where the devices are, but why not then drop a GBU-28 or similar on the pos and save these poor young buggers the effort of poking around on their belt buckles to get forensic intel that will only go to prove that the fucking Iranians are supplying most of the IED kit.

I have doubts about the RoI here as well though you do have to find the bloody things and that is in itself very dangerous. One of the Searchers lost three limbs doing that, brave seems too small a word.

Incidentally the Iranians are pretty recent entrants to that game and from what I've read still minor players.

On NightWatch last month.

...
Pakistan-Afghanistan: Update. US officials told the media today that the main ingredient in most of the homemade bombs that have killed hundreds of American troops in Afghanistan is fertilizer produced by a single company in Pakistan, where the US has been pushing unsuccessfully for greater regulation. Enough calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer for at least 140,000 bombs was legally produced last year by Pakistan's Pakarab Fertilizers Ltd., and then smuggled by militants and their suppliers across the porous border into southern and eastern Afghanistan, according to US officials.

Comment: Today's official statement understates the problem. There are two large Pakistani fertilizer factories that produce ammonium nitrate fertilizer and multiple distributors. According to one US official assessment, 95% of all ammonium nitrate fertilizer imported into Afghanistan is used for bomb making.

Only drug farmers use ammonium nitrate as fertilizer because of its price. Other Afghan farmers generally favor urea-based fertilizers and natural fertilizers because they are much less expensive. Only the Taliban and drug syndicates can afford to pay to have ammonium nitrate smuggled into Afghanistan, in defiance of the official ban on ammonium nitrate imports since 2009. Afghan media routinely report that the banned fertilizer enters Afghanistan from Pakistan at border crossing points in truck convoys without restriction.

Afghanistan produces no ammonium nitrate. Thus the apparently inexhaustible supply of IEDs used by the Taliban, which represent the greatest threat to US forces, originate entirely in Pakistan in two locations. Somehow correcting this situation and eliminating this source of threat do not seem to be a significant tactical challenge for US special operations forces. The question for ten years has been why nothing has been done.

Special comment: Readers need to know that US officials have known these facts for more than ten years and taken no effective action to shut down these factories despite rising loss of American lives. The irresponsible incompetence or outright maliciousness of the Pakistani government and business community contradict Pakistani protests that they are doing everything they can to control insurgency.

The fertilizer plant owners are flagrant war profiteers and should be prosecuted as war criminals. Every intelligence service in the world knows that terrorists use ammonium nitrate, including Pakistani intelligence. The Pakistani Taliban use ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the IEDs they use against Pakistani soldiers and citizens. Incompetent US diplomats involved in stopping the fertilizer plants need administrative sanction and to be replaced.

Destroying the stockpiles and closing the plants would seem to be obvious and easy fixes. However, the Pakistan Army, Incorporated, probably owns the plants. It owns any plants that turn a profit in Pakistan, unless it is owned by the politicians.
...

My bold, after a decade I'd be tempted to sends drones after the entire board of Pakarab Fertilizers Ltd, unfortunately it probably includes several of our venomous Pindi pets.

I'm not au fait with the ins and outs of IED clearance but I will say this...
Stringer is an absolute credit to himself!! There wasn't a hint of self-pity in him when they showed him at home with his kids, playing, just a stoical acceptance that his life has changed irreperably and determination to live it to its fullest! He may only be young but by God he's a MAN in the truest sense of the word!

Anyone notice the talibans white flag flying in the background. For those interested that stringer was in the paper last Sunday talking about his accommodation the council have put him in. While £1m homes go to asylum seekers, soldier who lost three limbs is put in tiny sixth floor flat | Mail Online

I like cheese and pickle cobs too. Unfortunately that is where the comparison with these blokes and their dog ends for me.

Good to see this, where it deserved to be, on BBC One rather but it ought not to be tucked away after the 10 o'clock news.

One question - I know they go out with an escort but it was obvious from the Apache activity, background small arms fire and Warthogs that there were often enemy nearby yet the serachers seem to go out without their personal weapon when delbrately clearing pathways? Why? Does it confuse the Vallon or does it just get in the way?

It doesn't confuse the search equipment, but it does get in the way and can get very annoying, when your trying to search. As it said on the programme if we stopped at every sound of fire/possible contact we would never clear the route, that's why the cordon is there. Also the decision to carry rifles is ground dependent, if a rifle isn't carried a pistol would be.

For those interested that Stringer was in the paper last Sunday talking about his accommodation the council have put him in. While £1m homes go to asylum seekers, soldier who lost three limbs is put in tiny sixth floor flat.

Two questions:
What is his Commanding Officer (23 Pioneer Regiment RLC) doing in regard of his circumstances?
Why isn't his MP, Jackie Doyle-Price (Conservative, Thurrock) banging on Ministers' doors?

B

Originally Posted by Tombone

Anyone notice the talibans white flag flying in the background. For those interested that stringer was in the paper last Sunday talking about his accommodation the council have put him in. While £1m homes go to asylum seekers, soldier who lost three limbs is put in tiny sixth floor flat | Mail Online

I hope to buggery that he paid for the full 15.

Originally Posted by bleh

It doesn't confuse the search equipment, but it does get in the way and can get very annoying, when your trying to search. As it said on the programme if we stopped at every sound of fire/possible contact we would never clear the route, that's why the cordon is there. Also the decision to carry rifles is ground dependent, if a rifle isn't carried a pistol would be.

Thank you, makes sense . I suppose the last thing you'd want is a slung weapon shifting about while probing. I must admit the bollocking the lad got last night for not "f'kin getting down on his f'kin belly and f'kin doing the f'kin job properly" was a highlight that brought back memories of one sided Anglo Saxon conversations with grumpy NCOs.

The trailer for the next one seemed to show them getting contacted while searching. For all their faults the BBC do this kind of documentary well generally. It was certainly better directed and levelled than "The TA and the Taliban".

As with most old and bold on here, I watched Iraq with interest and now watch what happens with Afganistan in the same way. I mourn when we lose people and am shocked at the seriousness of injuries recieved by the young soldiers doing their bit.
I think secretly I wish I was still young enough to go out there and do my bit and even occasionaly a little jealous of the soldiering going on. I would have loved to have been out there with my old battalion (3RGJ) I am sure we would have done well.
However last night I watched this programe with interest and thought "fuck that for a game of soldiers"

What those searchers and EOD are doing is without doubt "above and beyond"

I salute you all.