Experts

I am always wary when experts are quoted as when all said and done, an expert opinion is just that, an opinion.

Reported in the Telegraph and on the BBC website today is the verdict of the coroner in the inquest on the deaths of three soldiers in Afghanistan. I always try and tread very lightly when blogging on issues such as this but the report has some interesting comments that illustrate how reliance on expert evidence does not always enhance a process.

The inquest in question investigated the deaths of Cpl Tom Gaden from Somerset, L/Cpl Paul Upton from Cornwall and Rifleman Jamie Gunn from south Wales. All three were travelling in a Land Rover WMIK when an extremely large IED was command detonated when they drove over it. The home made charge was buried in a drainage culvert and was reported to be one of the largest ever encountered, estimated to be approximately 250Kg.

The estimation of charge size is a difficult and imprecise science with many variable factors and the size of the charge is not the only factor when examining its destructive effect. Placement, type of explosive and other factors play an important part.

In recording the verdict of unlawful killing the coroner stated,

To put that in context – that’s by far the largest amount of home-made explosive I’ve come across. That explains the devastation. It’s clearly my view that they didn’t stand a chance

Both the BBC and Telegraph report states

Experts said no vehicle would have withstood the force of the improvised device

That is a subjective comment, what does withstood actually mean. Certainly the WMIK has very low levels of protection against even moderately sized IED’s but it interesting to draw a comparison to the the US MRAP and our PPV vehicles which are designed to ‘withstand’ the explosive force of large IED’s.

No vehicle can be completely protected and people have died in MRAP type vehicles when the explosive force is so large that it throws the vehicle a large distance.

However, to say no vehicle could withstand a 250Kg (550lb) IED is not actually true. There have been several reported very large IED attacks on the various designs of mine resistant vehicles in service and whilst there have been casualties and injuries they have also saved many lives. Examples include this widely reported US Cougar, the Cougar is the US version of the UK Ridgeback, where all the crew survived.

US Cougar - 500lb IED

Another well reported example is a 600lb IED that was used against a US MaxxPro MRAP in Iraq where of the 4 crew members, 1 was killed (reportedly the exposed top gunner) but the other three escaped with minor injuries.

I am not an expert and there may be other factors involved but on face value, the evidence would suggest something isn’t quite right in that statement, vehicles can withstand very lage buried IED’s.

In his closing remarks the coroner said the use of the long-distance command wire detonation method was a ”cold, callous and arguably cowardly way” to take lives. He said he had no doubt that unlawful killing was the right verdict.

This is a vaguely ridiculous comment, what does the coroner expect the Taleban to do, run up to a WMIK armed with a 250Kg of explosives and a cheeky grin. They will, like ANY ARMED FORCE, seek to exploit their strengths and our weakness. We have Claymore command initiated anti personnel mines, ROVER terminals for controlling B2 bombers that drop JDAM GPS guided bombs, Javelin missiles and GMLRS guided rockets fired from miles away.

It would be interesting to hear the coroners verdict on the bravery of calling in an airstrike using a radio and a laptop as compared to initiating a command detonated IED from 500m away, well within the effective range of a mounted patrols weapons.