Soldiers test 2-seat mine clearance vehicle - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldiers test 2-seat mine clearance vehicle

The Army is testing a two-seat Husky Mine Detection System — equipped with a new remote weapon system — in Afghanistan to help soldiers find more roadside bombs and protect themselves from ambushes.

Huskies are wheeled vehicles with V-shaped hulls that resemble front loaders. They drive in front of route clearance teams with ground-penetrating radars and metal detectors mounted to the vehicle’s front arm. In the standard one-seat models, the soldier must drive the vehicle while monitoring the radar and mine detector and keeping an eye out for command wires connected to the improvised explosive devices.

Two two-seat Huskies deployed to Afghanistan in October — one in the south and one in the east — for a 120- to 180-day test period to help assess whether the Army wants to buy more.

Army engineers added a common remotely operated weapon system, called CROWS II, that allows a soldier to stay in his seat and fire a MK19 automatic grenade launcher, a .50-caliber M2 machine gun, a M240B machine gun, or a M249 light machine gun, which would be mounted to the Husky before a mission.

Route clearance teams will start using the two-seat Huskies in mid-November, said Bill Schultz, theater rapid response team leader at the Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center’s prototype integration facility.

“We’re hoping that it will increase the find-clear rate because there is one guy concentrating on the road and one guy concentrating on the [ground-penetrating radar] ... as well as seeing how the CROWS works out and if they think that should be incorporated on that platform,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Todd Burnett, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization’s senior enlisted adviser.

The Army keeps shipping Huskies to Afghanistan as the threat from IEDs continues to rise.

The number of coalition troops killed by IEDs in Afghanistan more than doubled over the past two years, from 152 in 2008 to 334 in 2010, according to iCasualties.org. IEDs account for 60 percent of all coalition soldiers killed in 2010.

The Army has 180 Huskies deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. In June, the service bought 76 additional one-seat Huskies for $106.5 million.

With the addition of the NIITEK VISOR 2500 ground-penetrating radar, the Husky has proved even more effective in Afghanistan than it had been in Iraq because many more IEDs in Afghanistan are buried underground, Burnett said.

Route clearance teams don’t depend on technology to find the majority of IEDs. Burnett said 85 percent of all IEDs found are found by the “human eyeball” by picking out command wires sticking out of the roadside bombs. Allowing one soldier to focus all his attention on the road searching for these wires will help, the command sergeant major said.

The two-seat Husky’s wheelbase isn’t any wider to make room for the additional soldier who sits next to the driver. The soldier seated next to the driver will have both the ground-penetrating radar and the CROWS II controls in front of him.

“Fitting everything into the cab was the biggest challenge [in designing the two-seat Husky],” Schultz said.

Engineers lifted the front arm after JIEDDO received complaints from soldiers that the radar was dragging on the ground.

The Driver’s Vision Enhancement was added to the inside of the cab to help soldiers spot IEDs at night, Burnett said.

Combat engineers, the soldiers who operate the Husky, should not expect to deploy more than they already do because of the added seat to the Husky, Burnett said. However, he did propose that other career fields should start operating the Husky and its ground-penetrating radar.

“As a battalion sergeant major, I would probably put my surveyors in there because they understand soil composition and there are some things that would jump out to them that won’t to other soldiers,” Burnett said.

The Army first bought Huskies in 1998 to help soldiers clear mines in Bosnia. Originally called the Chubby system, the Army bought 10 Huskies from a South African train manufacturer.

In 2004, the service bought 30 more Huskies to protect soldiers searching for IEDs in Iraq. Original models that led route clearance teams had the metal detector mounted directly under the driver. It was designed to have only a driver because if it hit a mine then only one soldier would be lost, Burnett said.

The 25-year command sergeant major said he can’t believe the advances the Army has made in IED defeat technology over the past 10 years, considering soldiers started the decade in soft-skinned Humvees with flashlights.

“It’s an amazing evolution when you think in Desert Storm we started with the deuce and a half and ended with the deuce and a half,” Burnett said. “At no time in my military career have I seen us advance so far in technology or in personal protective equipment.”