The U.S. has taken the unprecedented — and some would say questionable — step of selling some of its most sophisticated counter-IED technology to the Iraqi government, equipping specialized police, military and interior ministry troops with electronic systems designed to detonate roadside bombs and jam triggering signals.
Officials from Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq announced April 20 that its foreign military sales office had sold the Iraqis 411 Lockheed Martin-built “Symphony” counter-IED systems. A few of the Symphony systems are already up and running on Iraqi government vehicles, the command said, with the rest due to be installed by the end of the summer.
“This system will afford the Iraqi security forces long-term, independent counter-IED protection and relieves coalition troops from this responsibility so the latter may perform other tasks,” said Army Lt. Col. Will Flucker, the command’s Symphony program manager, in an April 20 release. “This system is a critical part of security transition from the coalition forces to the government of Iraq and integral to developing [Iraqi security forces] into a long-term partner in the global war on terror.”
But some might see handing over America’s most sophisticated and top secret counter-IED technology to Iraqi ministries, whose loyalty to Baghdad is less than certain, as extremely risky. Electronic jammers like the Symphony have saved American lives in a war where the roadside bomb is the number-one killer, and the possibility that an Iraqi official could hand over the technology to an insurgent or unfriendly government is all too real.
“You have to assume that about the third one that we ship over there is going to go straight out the back door,” said John Pike, director of the Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-area defense research group. “We have a fundamental dilemma here in trying to indigenize these security forces.”
Due to its highly-classified technology, Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Ellen Mitchell refused to discuss Symphony’s capabilities or the Iraqi sale. A 2007 Pentagon contract announcement called the Symphony a “programmable, radio-frequency IED defeat system that is vehicle mounted.”
The Army’s Flucker acknowledged the risk that the technology could wind up in the wrong hands, saying the $51 million deal had been inked only after “numerous technical and administrative delays.”
“Most of the administrative hurdles are related to providing effective technology to the partner nation while ensuring such technology is not compromised and does not proliferate beyond Iraq’s borders,” Flucker wrote Military.com in an email response to questions.
The Iraqi system will incorporate anti-tamper technology along with a fill or operating code that periodically expires and must be renewed in order for the system to operate, and the use of “trusted agents” to handle, control and distribute the operating code, Flucker added.
And that accounts for part of the lengthy “administrative” delays that kept the Symphony — which costs about $78,000 per system — out of Iraqi hands for nearly two years.
“This requires a combination of technical and administrative controls that require testing and refinement before they can be implemented with a high degree of confidence,” Flucker said.
Pike said that electronic jamming of IEDs is a problem of physics — there are a limited number of frequencies used to trigger IEDs and the jammers attack all of them. So a Symphony winding up in the hands of the insurgents would have limited utility.
“Whatever waveform it is using to jam … will by definition be disclosed to the enemy when you turn it on,” Pike said, adding that measures to prevent tampering or unauthorized use seem to work.
“I think that they are secure at least to the extent that Iran can’t do anything about it,” he said.
The Symphony systems will be doled out to Iraqi special forces, ministry of defense officials and interior ministry troops — including Iraqi army, police, national police and explosive ordnance disposal units. The deal includes a nine-month support contract from Lockheed Martin to “ensure the units function properly and the Iraqis can properly utilize the systems to their full advantage,” officials said.
Aside from protecting Iraqi officials, troops and police from roadside bomb ambushes, Flucker hopes the deal will help get more U.S. troops off the road by freeing them up from the dangerous and tedious duties of convoy escort.
“Affording counter-IED protection to the [Iraqi security forces] has been a partnership endeavor from the outset,” Flucker added. “Given the theater IED threat, the [government of Iraq] and the coalition have wanted to make this happen for some time now.”
– Christian
By the next time I go downrange either:
A) the ins and outs of this system will be on an islamic website or
B) I’ll find pieces of this system at an Iraqi market or weapons cache.
Yeah, probably.
this is unbelievably naive…
if true, it’s just another sign of the USA’s nosedive into the dustbin of history.
The US is cutting off its nose to spite the face in the stupid decision to sell counter-IED tech.
I dont see the risk. As they say, you can passively determine the functioning of the jammers already (with an antenna and O-scope). There is not much they could learn with possession of the actual device.
Secondly, it is in the interest of the Iraqi’s who are using them to keep them secret.
What’s with the doom and gloom? This is hardly high tech stuff, as pointed out before. It’s just a very broad spectrum jammer that feebly attempts to stop IEDs from going off. For the record, I haven’t seen anywhere noted where it has conclusively made a difference. As if Iran doesn’t already know how to get around it. They can also just turn to manual detonation. We’re talking about groups that already uses suicide bombers, so it’s not exactly a giant leap.
The MNF should consider themselves so lucky that their problem is with half-assed homemade bombs buried in the street versus shoulder fired sophisticated anti tank and anti aircraft missiles. Wouldn’t that be a joy?
“The Iraqi system will incorporate anti-tamper technology along with a fill or operating code that periodically expires and must be renewed in order for the system to operate, and the use of “trusted agents” to handle, control and distribute the operating code,“
Bwhah hahahah! I can just see Ahmed Chalabi being shuffled around Iraq by Blackwatercopters with the code of the week (day? hour?).
As John Pike said: ““We have a fundamental dilemma here…“
The problem is we aren’t welcomed or wanted there… Except by Ahmed and co.
Oh, and: “…there are a limited number of frequencies used to trigger IEDs…” is absolutely false.
I can trigger something with a battery, some wire, and a file to arc the wires against, an old cb walkie talkie, a car alarm keychain dongle (probably on the list of blocked frequencies), or just about anything that exhibits EMF in use… Admittedly, more hazardous than dedicated explosives detonators, but do-able.
Want safe? The 80 meter ham band with superimposed tone encode. You could trigger a device on the other side of the planet.
There are more ways to make and detonate explosive devices of ANY type, than you will EVER be able to develop counter-measures for.
It’s time to leave Iraq, before more US soldiers die for no good reason.
“Secondly, it is in the interest of the Iraqi’s who are using them to keep them secret.“
Engr, you’d be amazed how often self preservation DOESN’T make a damn bit of difference to some of those people.
We give them weapons, body armor, and radios that end up at the local market within days of our issuing them out.
Normally, I would read all input before responding. In this case I will do otherwise. ARE WE COMPLETELY NUTS???!!! I am supremely confident that within 12 hours one of those units was in Iran, and 12 hours later it was in Moscow. This is an example of complete lunacy.
We must truly have morons working at the upper levels of the Pentagon who approved this — this gear will be for sale in the Tehran bazaar witbin the week.
we have allways trained country’s that at some point use it against us down the line.Ho
Che Ming Is a good example.And the list keep’s going!
I guess it all comes down to how sophisticated the actual hardware is.
If the Software is the amazing part, and it locks up after a time not having the code, it is ok.
If the Hardware is the amazing part and even after the software control is cut off an replaced, well that
Being a Vet does not automatically make you informed. Some of you actually know just enough about spectrum dynamics to make yourselves sound credible .…except for the armchair warrior that said there was no way to control the spectrum.
go ahead and next time you go downrange, ask every last operator if they know exactly how the systems work. They dont. Theres a reason for that. Theres also a reason the Lockheed wont discuss this. And to prove that all you blowhards are in left field, you actually believe the Symphony was ever top of the line inventory!
I just have to add that, to the few of you old-skool throwbacks, until you can comprehend how we control the entire non-light data capable spectrum for 200 meters surrounding a moving vehicle and have communications at the same time…well, then do us a favor and shut your non-informed pieholes. You can blame the govts testing and regulation requirements for lack of fielding.
Too worried about politics to read between the blazing huge lines.
The Isrealis have been pushing this technology for years now, and although it is ‘illegal’ to own here in the States, I have been in a movie theater where my cell phone had no signal, nor did one ring during an entire movie.
In Mexico, some Priests and Ministers have installed these same device-types in their churches, with nary a service being interrupted by some schmuck who can’t stop talking for one hour.
Who knows, ‘tamper proof’ could mean the same thing it did for the seismic/sound/wiretap relay boxes laid next to the Ho Chi Mihn trail by Road Runner teams. If someone wanted to open it up, it gave them and their friends a Birthday Party.
We aren’t going to be giving current-generation (and doubtful last generation either) technology away. As much as CBS and CNN would like to make everyone connected in the Military as a non-thinking knuckle-dragger, you can trip over a few that actually know what they’re doing.
Jeez relax already.….…..
Gaiacomm International to develop Defeat IED technology
Gaiacomm International will develop Counter (defeat) IED technology for the US Military to be used in Iraq and Afghanistan. This technology is currently classified because of its accurate nature of detection. When deployed it will be able to detect and disable any device in the ground, on person, inside vehicle or building within a determined range, also classified. Soldiers are dying thus, the emphasis on accurate detection. Other technologies currently in the field simply do not operate as planned, thus the need for Gaiacomm’s technology.
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Anyone ever thought about the fact that this might be a tactic to get these as close to the enemy as possible (i.e they buy them from the market) and then they find the frequencies and detonate the IED right there in the factory? I know that sounds far fetched, but what if?