November 07, 2005
Junkyard Wars
Army mechanics have jury-rigged a minesweeper in Afghanistan, where roadside bombs have killed five recently.
Arizona Sergeant makes McGiver proud
QALAT, AFGHANISTAN
"The latest thing to come out of the motor pool here at Qalat Forward Operating Base isn't pretty, and it isn't all that easy to steer. But it might just save some lives.
It's a minesweeper that rides out front of a Humvee, designed to detect land mines or roadside bombs by setting them off.
"Hopefully, it will blow up the mines and save the lives of the men inside the Humvee," says Sgt. Byron Begay, a motor pool mechanic from Superior, Ariz.
The minesweeper, due to make its battlefield debut this month, has a distinctly Frankensteinish look to it - iron welded to iron, a steering column, and a Humvee-length space of nothingness, where an exploding roadside bomb will be unable to do harm. It's the type of battlefield ingenuity that the Pentagon could draw upon as it tasks a high-level general to develop countermeasures to roadside bombs, or improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The Qalat minesweeper was cobbled together from parts scavenged from broken-down Humvees. And that, unfortunately, is something the Army has a lot of these days."
The rest is HERE
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Posted by BillyBudd at November 7, 2005 07:37 AM | TrackBackWell done! How cool is that? Making the best of a situation indeed.
Posted by: esther at November 7, 2005 11:06 AMAre you surprised that they haven't developed a minesweeper like this in the past?
Posted by: gindy at November 7, 2005 02:49 PMActually they have on the Sherman tanks in WWII.
Posted by: billybudd at November 7, 2005 03:27 PMdqpifdnabo ptsejfyu
Posted by: Dudley at February 27, 2006 09:47 PM