Much improved Canadian intelligence in Afstan, and IEDs

It seems the CF are increasingly able to carry out intelligence-led operations (I have heard from someone knowledgeable that there has been a huge intelligence capability improvement--collecting, analyzing, and putting to practical use--in recent years). A good story in the Toronto Star (they can do very useful work, e.g. getting the story behind the story here) gives some details:

Troops target Taliban bombmakers
Soldiers to use old-fashioned detective work, forensics to root out insurgents in Afghanistan

The Canadians know the names of their killers.

A secret military database contains the names and intimate details of some of Kandahar's most-wanted – insurgents responsible for the roadside bombs targeting Canadian soldiers, four more of whom were killed Friday [March 20].

"We're collecting intelligence all the time from all kinds of different sources. Do we have some pictures of some of these guys? Yes, we do," said Col. Omer Lavoie, the commander heading up Canadian efforts to counter roadside bombs.

"We've obviously got a pretty good data bank of insurgent information. We have a pretty good idea about how many numbers of cells we have," Lavoie said.

Using that information, Canadian troops are going up the "enemy hierarchy" with their crosshairs on the insurgents who make the bombs.

Take out the individual digging the hole to plant an improvised explosive device (IED) and the Taliban will find a replacement in hours, someone desperate enough to do the work for "20 bucks."

"But if you can take the guy out who is building the thing or who is transporting it or who is paying for it, then the effect is going to be measured in months or weeks," Lavoie said. And he adds the Canadians have been successful targeting the IED cells though he declines to provide specifics, saying such information might give insurgents "a piece of the puzzle they are missing."

This evolving strategy by the Canadians comes as insurgents are dramatically stepping up their attacks on coalition troops. IED "incidents" in Afghanistan jumped to 539 in the first two months of 2009, from 329 in same period last year, according to U.S. statistics provided to the Toronto Star.

The number of coalition forces killed by roadside bombs more than tripled to 32 during that time – up from 10. The number wounded more than doubled as well – 97, compared with 40 last year.

The military closely guards its Kandahar-specific statistics for fear of providing insurgents with "battle-damage assessment."

But Lavoie said up to 60 per cent of IEDs are located and defused before they have a chance to kill or maim soldiers or civilians [emphasis added], a number that is in line with the U.S. figures. He calls roadside bombs the "new normal" and says Canadians are turning to new technology, improved tactics and even old-fashioned detective work to foil the "bastards" who build and place them.

The lingo of those who defend against and track down roadside bomb networks in Afghanistan is abstract – bombs are "devices" and "effects" are the ones that kill – but the urgency of the work is deadly focused...

"They're not going to defeat us with IEDs, they're not going to defeat us with (rocket-propelled grenades)," Lavoie said.

"But it's at the strategic level that the impact of sending soldiers home in caskets who are killed by IEDs (was felt) [emphasis added--all too true; to watch CTV's Question Period today was to be told essentially that Canada should bug out and let the incoming Americans take the casualties] . We certainly needed to do something at the strategic level to take care of this, this weapon of choice that they've used."

When he returned from Afghanistan, Lavoie, a 26-year veteran of the army with a Master's degree in counter-insurgency, was tapped to establish a counter-IED task force.

The sole job of the team, which now employs about 60 people based in Ottawa, Kingston, Gagetown, N.B., and Kandahar, is to stay one step ahead of the insurgents lurking in Afghanistan's shadows.

It is an endless game of one-upmanship, played out on dusty dirt roads as coalition troops use new tactics or better armoured vehicles and insurgents respond with their own ever-evolving strategies.

Advances in detection techniques have resulted in insurgents using explosive material with less metal content, making it harder to locate by mine sweepers. Taliban spotters study troop movements and tactics, patiently waiting for weaknesses to reveal themselves.

"The last thing we'd ever do is underestimate them. They're a learning enemy," Lavoie said.

The latest Taliban move is to stage "complex, co-ordinated attacks," said James Hasick, a Texas-based defence industry consultant.

Rather than simply planting a single bomb along a well-travelled route, the Taliban is strategically placing explosives to halt a convoy, plus others to hit soldiers as they exit their armoured vehicles. And sometimes an insurgent sniper will be nearby to pick off those who escape the first two blasts, Hasick explained.

It doesn't take much explosive to take out an armoured vehicle. Sometimes just nine kilograms is enough if it's designed right, said Barry Taylor, executive vice-president of HMS Inc., a firm that provides counter-IED advice and equipment to military forces.

"If you've got someone experienced in explosives, knows what the explosive will do, they can be engineered to do some very clever things," Taylor said...

Starting this summer, soldiers will become gumshoes to better track the insurgents behind the bombs [emphasis added]. A new unit of soldiers, with backgrounds in forensics, explosive analysis and electronics will be in place to examine roadside bombs – exploded or not – to look for the "signatures," the telltale clues that can help pinpoint the person who made the weapon.

At the moment, Canada has to rely heavily on its coalition partners in Kandahar to do the work.

"If you're a CSI fan, it's going to be CSI Kandahar. It will be able to do the full range of capabilities, biometrics, electronics, chemical analysis, explosive analysis," Lavoie said. "It's like any sort of crime scene. Traces are left behind that we can, just like a police investigative crime scene, try to find the bread crumbs that will lead back to the bad guys."

He says much of the counter-IED work is akin to law enforcement, noting an IED cell "is really a bunch of organized serial criminals."

And soldiers are getting a little help from above. Fleets of unmanned surveillance planes [e.g. our new Herons] fly the skies with a constant eye on the ground and this summer the military plans to install tethered balloons and towers with sensors and high-tech cameras around Canadian bases in Kandahar [that's called "persistent intelligence"].

Lavoie says there is some evidence the combined efforts are working. Insurgents are having to plant more bombs to achieve a similar level of "success" in striking coalition forces.

"We're still taking casualties and that's not good but they're working harder to do it and if they have to work harder to do it, the more energy we cause them to expend and the better chance we're going to catch them," he said.

Here's an interesting post by Babbling on IEDs--plus one on a Canadian soldier's personal initiative to help deal with them.