Report highlights weakness in military defense against IEDs
Years after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, the U.S. military still has difficulties coordinating efforts to defend itself against the No. 1 threat to troops there: improvised explosive devices (IEDs), according to a recently released government report.
Two soldiers from the Rio Grande Valley were killed by such devises in the past three weeks. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Bradley Espinoza, 26, of Alton, died Oct. 19 in Iraq after enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an IED.
U.S. Army Sgt. Fernando De La Rosa, 24, of Alamo, was killed by a roadside bomb Oct. 27 in Afghanistan.
The Government Accountability Office issued the second in a series of reports Oct. 29 that highlighted a military agency formed in 2006 to develop strategies and means to defend against IEDs, but has broad criteria in how it funds those efforts and little internal controls to monitor its efficiency.
The agency — the Joint IED Defeat Organization — received $16 billion in funding from Congress this year to address the IED threat and continue coordinating efforts throughout the military.
But the GAO report stated that other military services like the U.S. Army and Marines also received $1.5 billion this year and continue to develop strategies and technologies on their own.
The report found that organization’s lack of criteria for doling out funding has resulted in spending for items not associated with defending against IEDs and, in some cases, even the purchasing of duplicate items.
According to its 2008 annual report, the organization used funding to buy authentic Iraqi furniture and other items to create a realistic environment for counter-IED search rehearsals. Since fiscal year 2007, it also spent $24.1 million on simulated villages at training centers in an effort to make steel shipping containers resemble Iraqi buildings.
The report also found that the organization, despite setting a detailed list of goals last year, has yet to develop a means to measure them. Officials of the organization said collecting data and feedback from soldiers is limited, though, because it would distract them and possibly make them more vulnerable.
“If these issues are not resolved, the Department of Defense’s (DOD) various efforts to counter IEDs face the potential of duplication of effort, unaddressed capability gaps…and inefficient use of resources in an already challenged fiscal environment,” the report stated.
As a result, the report said that government officials were considering “creation of a new organization…if no existing organizations are capable of fulfilling the mission’s goals.”
The report states that the IED threat began to increase after major combat ended in 2003 in Iraq and insurgents shifted tactics due to the “overwhelming firepower” of U.S. forces. IED incidents in Iraq escalated from 22 in June 2003 to more than 600 per month a year later.
Last year, they accounted for almost 40 percent of attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. As the security situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, according to a November GAO report, the number of monthly IED incidents there has also increased to more than 800 in July 2009.
“There is widespread consensus that this threat will not go away and that IEDs will continue to be a weapon of strategic influence in future conflicts,” the report stated.
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Nick Pipitone covers McAllen and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.
