Building Forts
CONSTRUCTING SECURE CAMPS IN HOSTILE TERRITORY WITH ONLY ITEMS THAT CAN BE FLOWN AND SOMETIMES TRUCKED IN CAN BE A CHALLENGE. THESE HOMES-AWAY-FROM-HOMES NEED TO OFFER A DEGREE OF COMFORT AND A GREAT DEAL OF PROTECTION.
Deployed U.S. forces use barriers to provide layered security in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hotspots. Some fielded products provide blast protection from large-caliber munitions, air-delivered weapons and terrorist attack. Other units are designed to channel the flow of traffic or pedestrians. Smaller-scale barrier devices are built to disable vehicles upon impact.
However, barriers are not the exclusive domain of land warriors. Floating security barriers deter waterborne attacks by divers, small, fast-moving craft and larger vessels. As U.S. forces become increasingly expeditionary, industry is being responsive to their evolving security requirements. An increasing array of barriers can be driven or airlifted to remote sites, and used to build a fortified base, fort or camp for special forces and ever more mobile service units.
C-130 TRANSPORTABLE SYSTEM
Worcester, Mass.-based US Reflector Company offers the Emergency Safety Barrier (ESB) System that is a transportable, self-contained, force protection wall system. The ESB System and its variant, the Direct Deployment Barrier System, provide force protection personnel with a linear, interlocking wall protection system that, according to the company, “can withstand exploding fragments and provide authorities with a one-step, easily maneuverable safety system than can effectively channel vehicles, create roadblocks and create road closures.”
The system is fielded in three models: 20X with 20 barriers (120-linear feet (ft.)), 30X with 30 barriers (180-linear ft.) and 40X with 40 barriers (240-linear ft.). “The barriers can be filled with sand or water, depending on the level of protection required,” said George Cancelmo, a company vice president. The 20X is C-130- transportable.
The system’s lightweight, aluminum trailer system has a built-in crane that supports 360-degree placement of barriers by one person from the stock platform. The crane allows individual barriers to be picked up and dropped off from bridges, or directly to a surface. The trailer also has two other features: a self-contained generator with illuminating, Xenon high-power, work lights for nighttime deployment of units; and a two-inch, ball hitch assembly and an independent, bogie-tandem axle assembly to permit towing and travel over rough terrain.
CONCERTAINER WALLS
U.K.-based Hesco Bastion’s Concertainer system is designed to replace conventional field fortifications. Concertainer units are delivered as a prefabricated, multi-cellular system, made of galvanized steel Weldmesh and are lined with nonwoven, polypropylene geotextile. Units are built, joined and then filled with available local fill material.
The constructed walls are touted to provide various levels of blast and ballistic protection, based on the type of fill material, configuration of the completed units and other factors. Crushed rock, and sand and gravel generally provide good blast and ballistic protection as fill material, stated a product construction guide. Concrete, clay and top soil are among the other materials which could be enlisted.
Standard units can be used to build bunkers, aircraft revetments and other structures, observed Jonathan Bird, a company operations manager.
Rapid deployment is another attribute of this system.
A typical Concertainer unit, “equivalent to approximately 1,500 sandbags can be erected and filled by two men and one loader in less than 20 minutes. An equivalent wall constructed of sandbags would take 20 men seven hours to build,” asserted the company.
Initial Concertainer units were fielded to British Army troops in the Gulf War and have since been tested by most NATO forces including U.S. and Dutch militaries. The products are in service in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia-Herzegovina and other venues.
RDFW SOLUTION
Geocell Systems’ Rapid Deployment Fortification Wall (RDFW) is currently being used by U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps personnel in deployed locations, reported Major Morshe Araujo, spokesperson in the Air Force staff’s public affairs office.
“The RDFW is a modular plastic grid that serves as a replacement of sandbags and has numerous applications,” explained Araujo. Grids are still filled with sand and dirt but only require one-twentieth of the time and one-fifth of the manpower for employment.
RDFW are used for standoff blast and ballistic protection, vehicular barriers andhardening of facilities,” she added.
WATER-FILLED BARRIERS
The U.K. Ministry of Defence has enlisted that nation’s MRP Systems to supply water-filled barriers for Royal Air Force expeditionary air fields in Afghanistan. This product was designed to provide cost-effective blast and fragmentation migration arrangements for expeditionary, forwardoperating venues, as well as permanent infrastructure.
Jim Voss, company chairman, explained the absorption capabilities of his company’s water barrier unit. When a weapon detonates in the vicinity of a water barrier, “the blast wave carriers the shrapnel right through barrier,” pointed out Voss. “The shrapnel breaks apart the barrier and intersects the water. The energy of the shrapnel is consumed causing the water to turn to steam. So, basically when the wave of shrapnel gets to the other side of the barrier, its velocity is cut off to almost nothing.”
The barrier blocks have a 500 millimeter (19.7 inch (in.)) thick wall and are one meter (3.3 ft.) long and stand 0.75 meter high.
Empty blocks weigh 33 kilograms (kg) (72.8 pounds) and can be lifted by two persons. When filled with water, a full wall barrier unit weighs 360 kg. The barrier blocks may be stacked up to eight units high (six meters). They are available in full- and half wall, and full corner block variants, and other forms upon request.
Voss provided one metric for making a barrier system mission ready. He noted that two men using a water truck made a 30-meter long system operational in about two hours.
While operational barriers are filled with water, MRP is evaluating the effectiveness of sand and fly ash as fill material.
Other customers of these water barrier units include the U.S. Air Force.
For its part, Creative Building Products also fields an array of barriers which use water to provide mitigation from blasts. One, the company’s high-threat blast walls are 94-in. high, 36-in. wide, and 48-in. long. Its empty weight is 436 lbs. and water weight is 3,040 lbs.
DELAY BARRIER
As part of a defense-in-depth strategy, barbed wire provides physical protection and a psychological deterrence against potential threats with an important caveat—that a barbed wire installation is only as good as the next fence post.
Allied Tube and Conduit’s triple strand rapid deployment system (TSRDS) adds a new twist to using a supplemental protection layer as yet another barrier. “Our barbed tape obstacles are made with a tension wire core wrapped with a stamped steel strip,” said John Eichenlaub, a company project manager. “The components work together to make a stronger, more rigid product. This allows for helical and linear applications. The helical, or coil, products can be used to build a three-dimensional barrier. Coils can be deployed without fence posts in many applications,” he added.
The triple strand rapid deployment system consists of a stack of one, 60-ft. barbed coil on top of two, 30-ft. barbed tape coils. A network of structural support trusses placed every 11 ft. adds rigidity and allows accessories, such as security cameras, to be fastened. Coils are arranged on a deployment magazine and are deployed in 480 ft. lengths. According to the company, deployment time is two minutes and retraction time is between 12-to-17 minutes.
The barbed variant used is its short barb tape concertina (BTC) product. “This material was specifically designed for military application and is a considered a ‘delay barrier.’ Although it is very hazardous, it is primarily designed for maximum entanglement— I refer to it as ‘steel Velcro’,” Eichenlaub noted. The BTC is advertised to become entangled in tank tracks or road tires and axles, “and will bring even the toughest vehicle to a quick stop,” he emphasized.
The TSRDS has been under operational testing by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 2005. Earlier this year the service began the OPTEST of the rapid deployment system in Iraq, according to a company representative.
WHAT ELSE
Smaller, easy-to-move barriers also provide additional defense-in-depth for ground forces.
Kontek supplies its Hedgehog (Dragon’s Teeth) security barriers to the U.S. Army for use in overseas theaters. The device’s jagged and serrated ends are designed to provide maximum vehicle obstruction. “Vehicles hit the hedgehog, which digs in from the impact and disables the vehicle,” said Don Utz, a company spokesperson.
There are three models and sizes of hedgehogs: HH3 has 3-ft. long leg elements and weighs 67 lbs.; HH4 has 4-ft. long leg elements and weighs 156 lbs. and HH5 has 5-ft. long leg elements and weighs 200 lbs. “The steel hedgehog is quick to assemble and can be deployed by one person with a simple wrench,” pointed out Utz. Individual hedgehogs can be cabled or chained together, are typically deployed in two or three rows, or other configurations, and are easy to relocate, he emphasized.
MARITIME BARRIERS
On October 12, 2000, two maritime terrorists attacked the USS Cole during the ship’s reprovisioning in Aden, Yemen. During the assault, an explosives-laden dinghy pulled alongside the destroyer and blasted a 40-by-40-foot hole in the hull. The blast killed 17 sailors and wounded 37 others.
The Cole attack and the continued expeditionary nature of the Navy and Marine Corps team have expanded the list of requirements for maritime barriers, which also continue to be sought for U.S. commercial ports and naval bases.
The Navy has recently inquired about systems that could be stored on land and, on short notice, placed in the water to provide one ring of defense around newly arrived ships at anchor or alongside a pier. The strategy to protect Iraqi oil platforms and other water-based infrastructure under the watch of SEALs and Naval Coastal Warfare forces in the Arabian Gulf has created yet another demand for barrier solutions.
With an eye on helping to mitigate the risks of future nautical terrorism events, Wave Dispersion Technologies fielded WhisprWave Force Protection Marine Barrier Systems.
The small craft intrusion barrier, designed from a solid barrier of its WhisprWave modules, demarcates the marine port security zone and “significantly impedes hostile, small craft from penetrating it,” according to the company.
To counter larger vessels, the vessel exclusion barrier was developed to “withstand 1,500,000 foot-pounds (ft-lbs.) of energy over a 1.5 second period, capable of completely stopping 30-foot vessels traveling at 40 miles per hour (35 knots) and significantly impeding larger vessels.” As a reference point, the U.S. Coast Guard estimated that about 95-percent of registered craft would produce about 250,000 ft-lbs. of energy per second when they strike a barrier, noted Dennis Smith, chairman and chief executive officer, Wave Dispersion Technologies.
The enhanced vessel exclusion barrier provides additional security capabilities by adding barbed wire and underwater nets. “It’s a platform with tremendous strength and buoyancy,” pointed out Smith. “This is very popular overseas. It allows the customer to add radar, anti-swimmer nets and other devices,” he concluded.
ONE MESSAGE TO INDUSTRY
The Air Force’s Major Araujo was asked to identify her service’s unmet force protection or security requirements which can be met with barriers. She replied, “Following recent visits to deployed locations, the need for deployable barriers that can stop vehicles at distance and are man-portable, are highly desirable. Barriers need to provide the capability of quickly stopping and afford security force members as much standoff distance as possible.” ♦