Base Defense

Written by J.J. Smith

Defining the Threats is Key to Base Camp Protection.

A key to protecting the troops and civilians as they go about their business on a base is for the threat to be “properly defined,” said Geoffrey Patti, director of product marketing for Safariland’s Protech Armor Systems of Pittsfield, Mass. It is up to the base commanders in theater to ensure that the “ballistic or blast and fragmentation” threat levels are clearly assessed and proper countermeasures are deployed, he said. “That is one of the keys,” added Patti, whose company produces base protection products of all types.

Because the threats to a camp can be widespread, there is no one overriding policy or program that can be implemented that will ensure protection of those troops, says Gerard Muegerl, senior product manager for Creative Building Products (CBP) of Fort Wayne, Ind. The seriousness of a particular threat generally depends on where a base is located, he said. However, while there is no one-size-fits-all policy for base camp protection, the “one big thing” all commanders are concerned about is “protecting their people,” he added.

A government researcher specializing in camp protection echoes Patti’s and Muegerl’s beliefs about the lack of an overriding approach toward camp protection. In addition, a base’s perimeter, entry control points and critical structures are components that serve a function to protect a camp’s occupants, says Pamela Kinnebrew, technical director, Survivability and Protective Structures, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Miss. The ERDC is the research and development organization of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and provides the armed forces with expertise in engineering and environmental sciences. Each of those components is evaluated, and assessments determine the types of material and technologies that should be used to provide force protection, she said.

There are material solutions and technology advancements that have been developed for use in each of these component areas, and some of the material solutions developed for one application, such as the perimeter, are well suited for use in entry control points and protection for structures, Kinnebrew said. However, the application of some technologies might be limited to the entry control points, such as the various vehicle barriers and gates, she added.

A review of some of the latest base camp protection technologies will start at the front gate with “McCurdy’s Armor,” which is described as a portable, defensive system that troops can erect within minutes into a shell-like guard house—with windows—or a vehicle checkpoint, said Joseph Dimond, product specialist and military liaison for Dynamic Defense Materials LLC of Marlton, N.J. The armor that is the main feature of the McCurdy’s Armor system will stop bullets, including armor-piercing rounds, he said.

The system comprises different layers that, when increased, build up protection, Dimond said. “It’s kind of like Legos and is built up as needed, he said. “If the commander on site believes the threat is only conventional ball ammunition, one layer of armor will do the job. But if the commander believes [the troops] are going to be facing armor-piercing rounds, another layer can be added, and the troops can keep building on this system to suit the needs of the situation,” he said.

The McCurdy’s Armor system can be used as permanent guard houses at a base’s entry points, as well as at vehicle check points, said Dimond. In Iraq— Dimond spent 10 years in the Marines and served in Fallujah, Iraq—the U.S. camps’ entry control points and check points are basically sandbag structures with plywood, he said. Within the sandbag structures are Marines, or soldiers, who are manning a machine gun of some type, yet they have to leave the safety of the sandbags to see what is going on, and that is when those troops are “getting picked off by snipers,” said Dimond, who added that is what happened to Marine Lance Corporal Ryan McCurdy on January 5, 2006. Dimond served with McCurdy and was instrumental in getting the system named after the fallen Marine. What Dynamic Defense Materials has done with McCurdy’s Armor is to take the sandbag concept of building and adding up until it stops “whatever bullets are thrown at it, as well as fragmentation from bombs,” he said.

While McCurdy’s Armor portability and ease to assemble are strong features, its cost might be inhibiting, Dimond said. Obviously the system is more expensive than sandbags, but the fact that sandbag structures do not offer as good protection as McCurdy’s Armor, and that it takes hours to erect a sandbag structure, when the McCurdy Armor system can be assembled in minutes, are factors that need to be considered, he said.

While McCurdy’s Armor is an assemble-as-you-go system, Safariland’s Protech offers a line of prefabricated, hardened security structures, including guard houses and guard towers, Patti said. The defense and security-related products offered by Safariland’s parent company, BAE Systems, are “across the board,” he said, adding those products are too numerous to list. However, he focused on the perimeter security products, which are available in fully prefabricated or kit form for guard houses, guard towers and fighting positions. All of those products are ballistic, fragmentation and blast resistant, “according to the end user requirements,” he said.

The protection products are available in kits that can be assembled by contractors or—of likely interest to base commanders—by troops. “It’s not an elaborate process to install them,” Patti said. In addition, Protech provides “fixed or mobile” guard enclosures that are, again, “fully prefabricated” and arrive prewired for electricity. The enclosure is “dropped into place, and power just has to be run to it,” or the units can be powered by a generator, he said.

In addition to the front gate, camps generally have a rear gate that stands ready for emergency evacuations, said Muegerl. However, rear gates generally have less traffic, and therefore are typically not as well guarded as front gates, but a rear gate is still required to stop vehicles from crashing through. To meet that requirement, some camps have been using CBP’s Department of State K12 Gate, which is tested to stop a 15,000-pound vehicle traveling 50 miles per hour, he said.

Obviously providing protection to the troops who stand guard at a camp’s gates is just the start of base camp protection. There are then the walls, or security fence, that surround a base camp and which have to provide protection from projectiles, shrapnel and blast shock wave.

Another protection system is the Fortacrete Armor system by U.S. Gypsum Co. of Chicago. Fortacrete Armor is a modular protective system that can be deployed quickly without special tools or equipment, said Kumar Natesaiyer, who oversees Fortacrete Armor sales and market development. Each component is 10 feet high and offers 10 times the strength of concrete, yet each weighs less than 80 pounds. “When people first look at this system, they seem a little unsure as to where it would be used,” he said. The system is composed of two walls that are separated by a frame of steel pipes, or rods. There are two layers on the front wall, and two layers on the back. The front, cement-based armor panel has a very dense strike face, so when a projectile hits the wall, it dissipates the projectile’s energy and slows down the bullet, he said. With the bullet’s energy spread through the first wall, the second layer is in a better position to stop the bullet. And it will stop a bullet, he added.

Why the Fortacrete system is able to stop a bullet is because of its design, Natesaiyer said. “The whole system is engineered for ballistics and for blast,” he added. “What happens is the wall is hit by the shrapnel and shockwave, causing the frame to almost compress to take the shock,” he said. The system’s light weight combined with its modular design increases its use as a base protection that can quickly encircle a camp, according to Natesaiyer. “[Fortacrete Armor] can be used to protect all sorts of assets within the base and outside [the camp],” he said. “You open it up, and there you have it.”

While the Fortacrete Armor system can stop a bullet, its use is still in the early stage of deployment. A system that has been in use in Iraq is CBP’s Perimeter Security Veil. The veil’s widespread use in Iraq is because it is about as difficult to install as hanging a sheet on a clothesline. The veil provides protection by allowing those inside the camp to see out, while those outside the camp cannot see in, thereby thwarting snipers, Muegerl said. The Perimeter Security Veil acts like a “one-way mirror,” and provides protection against snipers, “because if a sniper cannot see a troop inside a camp, the sniper is not going to take a shot and give away his position,” he said. Exclusively designed for CBP, the Perimeter Security Veil, when used in conjunction with a security fence or barrier system, can provide additional protection, CBP says. However, while the veil has worked well in Iraq, there has not been much call for it yet in Afghanistan, Muegerl added.

However, base camp protection does not end at the entrances or perimeter, it continues throughout the camp, Muegerl said. “If you look at it from the bad guys’ point of view, what are they trying to do? They are trying to kill as many U.S. troops at one time as possible,” he said. To do that, an insurgent might have a single explosive device, so they want to get to where the troops congregate, and the terrorists know that during the lunch hour, the troops are going to congregate in the mess hall, making it a high-value target, he said. To counter that threat, base commanders have asked contractors to design compartmentalized mess halls that will contain a blast, thereby reducing casualties should an insurgent make it to a dining area, he said. In addition to building compartmentalization, to help counter the danger created if an insurgent “were to get into the camp,” CBP provides a system of internal camp gates, he said. The internal gates would close off areas of the camp and thus limit where an intruder could go, he said. Nonetheless, no matter if it is the front, rear, gate, the perimeter, or facilities on the base, it is up to the camp commanders to assess the threat to their bases, and then acquire the proper products to counter the threats, he added.

In addition, once the commanders define what they need, it is up to the developers to build products that meet the criteria, because once a product is deployed in a theater, it is “tough” to further define it to meet commanders’ security plans, Patti said. To meet the criteria, the products have to be tested for the threat by an independent ballistic lab, he added. “Testing, testing and more testing” is how products that solve a security problem are produced, he said.

In service with the UK Ministry of Defence in Afghanistan since 2006, Defen- Cell is used to provide blast mitigation walls at the ammunition supply points at Camp Bastion and Kandahar airfield.

According to the company, Defen- Cell offers a number of significant operational and logistical advantages over other force protection systems, including “it is one-man portable and deployable, its weight—being up to 10 times lighter than comparable products—it requires five times less transport volume, and being completely non-metallic with no cages or hinges, there is no secondary shrapnel or communications interference.Mp> The cellular design combined with the strength of the non-woven geotextile construction provides a rapidly deployable force protection system that can be used in a wide variety of military and homeland security roles.

Other military deployments have included the U.S. 84th in Iraq and the Irish Rangers as part of Eurocorps operations in Chad. Other international sales have been to Canada and Italy.

There has been “a lot of progress in the area of base camp protection with new and improved materials, technologies and protective designs,” Kinnebrew said. Because the threats to U.S. troops is constantly changing and at times increasing in severity, it is necessary to provide our soldiers with the proven protection materials and systems we currently have available, while continuing to conduct research on technologies that will allow them greater levels of protection, she said. Because of the need for new protection technologies, ERDC’s research programs will continue in this area to produce materials, products and technologies that will help save soldiers’ lives, she added. ♦

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