Spam ? - FW: DoD Taps Industry Know-How in Ongoing Counter-IED Efforts

[Paul L Rinaldo]

Gang,

FYI. 

Paul

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Press Service [mailto:afisnews_sender at DTIC.MIL]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 5:54 PM
>To: DEFENSE-PRESS-SERVICE-L at DTIC.MIL
>Subject: DoD Taps Industry Know-How in Ongoing Counter-IED Efforts
>
>
>By Donna Miles
>American Forces Press Service
>
>WASHINGTON, Jan. 24, 2006  - Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England called
>on what he called some of the best minds in the country today to help come
>up with new solutions to the threat improvised explosive devices pose to
>U.S. troops.
>
>Speaking to some 600 leaders from industry, academia, the national
>laboratories and all branches of the military at a two-day industry
>conference focused on the IED threat, England challenged participants to
>find better ways to counter what has become terrorists' weapon of choice in
>Iraq and, more recently, Afghanistan.
>
>"We owe it to the troops," he told the group.
>
>IEDs are the leading cause of U.S. combat deaths and injuries in Iraq, the
>deputy said. Every IED attack represents an attack, not just against the
>troops, but also against the will of the American people, he said.
>
>The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization and the National
>Defense Industrial Association are cosponsoring the two-day IED conference
>at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center to exchange
>information and explore solutions. In addition to briefing industry leaders
>about current and evolving challenges, defense and military leaders at the
>forum are encouraging participants to help come up with new ways to confront
>IEDs.
>
>But technical solutions alone won't resolve the IED problem, England told
>the group. Defeating IEDs requires new technology, new tactics, new
>techniques and new training methods, he said. Because the enemy is so
>adaptable in using these devices, the technologies, tactics, techniques and
>training designed to counter them have to be adaptable, too, England said.
>
>The IED industry forum comes days after DoD gave permanent status to the
>Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Task Force and represents another
>step in the ongoing counter-IED effort. England signed a memo Jan. 18 that
>elevates the task force former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
>established in mid-2004 to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat
>Organization.
>
>The status change is designed to help the group operate more effectively as
>it carries out what defense officials acknowledge has come to be viewed as a
>long-term mission that continues to expand to better meet the threat.
>
>Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appointed a retired four-star general to
>lead the organization and bring what he called "a senior commander's
>operational perspective to the overall IED effort." Retired Army Gen.
>Montgomery Meigs, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe and NATO's
>peacekeeping force in Bosnia, took control of the IED task force in early
>December.
>
>Under Meigs' leadership, the newly named Joint IED Defeat Organization will
>continue to expand the scope of its efforts. That includes the establishment
>of a new IED center of excellence at Fort Irwin, Calif., to take lessons
>learned in Iraq and develop strategies to defeat IEDs, England said in his
>Jan. 18 memo. The center will also provide a venue for integrating,
>training, experimenting and testing new IED defeat equipment and concepts,
>he wrote.
>
>Satellite centers will be housed at each of the services' major training
>installations, officials said. The center will be crucial in linking U.S.
>training centers with troops in theater, to share lessons learned,
>strategies and concepts, a senior military official told reporters on
>background in early December.
>
>"This is meant to be a defeat of the entire IED system," the official said.
>"We want to make sure that we continue and do even a better job of sharing
>the best practices amongst all of our troops, our forces that are deployed,
>and also on the training end of this."
>
>These latest developments are part of DoD's ongoing efforts to address the
>challenges IEDs pose, officials said. Since October 2003, the department's
>IED initiative has evolved from an Army organization of about 12 people to a
>joint task force to a permanent joint organization with $3 billion committed
>to the effort. The Joint IED Defeat Organization is made up of
>representatives from all services as well as retirees, all dedicated
>full-time to defeating the IED threat. "We are reaching out to get the very,
>very best people that we can, get them involved in this and then keep them
>involved in this so that we ... preserve continuity of the effort," the
>senior official said.
>
>IEDs are not the new threat that many perceive them to be and actually have
>been used all over the world for decades. One of the first coordinated,
>large-scale uses of the devices was during World War II, when Belarusian
>guerillas used them against the Nazis to derail thousands of Nazi trains.
>
>Biography:
>
>Gordon England [http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/england_bio.html]
>