Everything but the 'BOOM'

Photo By Ed Drohan | Combined Joint Task Force Paladin fabricator Trace Yates attaches sheet metal plates to pieces of wood that will eventually become an improvised explosive device pressure plate trigger training aid at the CJTF Paladin Fabrication Shop on Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan, Aug. 20. The fabrication shop has produced more than 17,000 training aids for use by war fighters throughout Afghanistan since 2009. (Photo by Ed Drohan, Combined Joint Task Force Paladin Public Affairs)  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

08.22.2013

Story by Ed Drohan 

Combined Joint Task Force Paladin

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – A group of craftsmen here are busy building improvised explosive devices, the homemade bombs that are the weapon of choice for the enemies of Afghanistan. Fortunately, the ones they build have everything but the “BOOM.”

The Combined Joint Task Force Paladin Fabrication Shop builds the counter-IED training aids used by units throughout Afghanistan to educate U.S. and coalition forces on the threats found in the theater. Using information obtained from the battlefield, fabricators replicate threat devices ranging from pressure plates used to detonate IEDs to vests used by suicide bombers.

“Primarily what we do here is replicate threat devices from the Afghanistan theater of operations for the counter-IED mobile training teams,” said CJTF Paladin lead fabricator Casey Peterson. “We also produce individual items depending on the unit request…victim operated, RC (radio controlled), command wire and accessories such as (homemade explosives) containers, pressure cookers, and custom ordered devices such as your (directionally focused fragmentation charge and directionally focused charge).”

U.S. Army Maj. Stephen Midkiff, the CJTF Paladin officer in charge of training, said the training aids give the soldier on the battlefield a good look at what the enemy is trying to do.

“It helps them plan and train on what they may – and probably will – see out there,” Midkiff said. “It better prepares them to maneuver around the battlefield.”

The fabricators scrounge the base for many of the materials they use to make the training aids, just as enemy IED makers do. Wood taken from old pallets and pieces of scrap sheet metal are combined with nails, wires and pieces of old sandals to produce a pressure plate that looks and acts just like those that have been found at actual IED sites.

Using the scrounged material serves to make the training devices look more like the enemy-manufactured items since bomb makers usually use whatever materials they can readily find on the battlefield for their own deadly products.

“It looks more realistic, more worn,’ said fabricator Trace Yates as he assembled a pressure plate trigger device. Using simple tools, he went from scrap material to a finished device in less than 15 minutes, demonstrating just how simple some of the devices found in the battle space actually are.

While the enemy adapts to coalition counter-IED efforts, the fabrication shop adapts to enemy tactics as well. They receive information quarterly on IED trends seen on the battlefield, take the top devices that are being seen in various regions of the country, and then replicate them for the warfighter and their training mission.

It doesn’t take long to replicate, them, either.

“If it’s a mechanical type switch, we can replicate it that same day,” Peterson said. An electronic switch may take a little longer as the fabricators work with engineers to understand the device. Even with that extra step, the shop can usually replicate the device in one to two days.

“These guys are top notch at what they do,” said U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Lamont Washington, the CJTF Paladin training sergeant major. “Anything they produce allows everyone to understand everything that goes on with the IED.”

The fabrication shop has been busy since they started operations in 2009, with more than 17,000 training devices manufactured. They’ve built more than 5,000 this fiscal year alone. Each training device is a controlled item that must be signed and accounted for by the units receiving them.

The fact that each device is realistic is what makes the fabrication shop’s products so useful, and why they keep producing them every day.

“Everything we do here is to protect the war fighter. That’s number one,” Washington said. For the Afghan National Security Forces, “…it’s to assist them in understanding what they’re going to have to deal with for a long time and making an enduring capability.”

CJTF Paladin is a multinational, theater-wide task force that is responsible for Coalition counter-IED operations and training in Afghanistan. CJTF Paladin operates Coalition explosive ordnance disposal teams in each regional command and trains U.S., Coalition and Afghan National Security forces in IED identification and mitigation tactics, techniques and procedures.

• Date Taken: 08.22.2013
• Date Posted: 08.22.2013 02:17
• Story ID: 112362
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF