Busted Bomb Busters

Mark Mazzetti of the Los Angeles Times reports that there’s a device called the Joint IED Neutralizer (JINs for short) that in tests has destroyed 90 percent of roadside bombs in its path. Roadside bombs account for more than half of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq. Yet none of the JINs have been shipped to Iraq.

JINs are remote-controlled devices that blow up bombs with a directed electrical charge. No one expects the JINs to eliminate all deaths from roadside bombs, but troops in the field seem to think that the possibility of eliminating some deaths should make deployment of the JINs a priority. They’re cheap beasts by military standards — $200,000 each — and they can withstand AK-47 fire and detonate bombs from a distance. Each device ought to be usable multiple times. The company that makes them says they could crank out 50 per months if they got the go-ahead. Only about a dozen have been produced so far.

The excuse is that deployment of these thingies to Iraq has been snagged in Pentagon bureaucracy for months. Others in the Pentagon say the device requires further testing. However, recently the Marines decided they’d test the things in the field, thank you, and are preparing to ship some JINs to Al Anbar province in Iraq.

I am weary of the “bureaucracy” excuse. Bureaucracies are as good as their managers. Yes, low-priority projects can linger in someone’s in-box, but if the top suits (or brass, as it were) make it well known they want some particular thing to move, and direct mid-level managers to expedite the process, then I bet movement there will be. But when the top guys can’t or won’t set clear priorities because they have their heads up their butts and don’t know how to work with the bureaucracy beneath them, that’s when items get bogged down.

Update: While at the Los Angeles Times, don’t miss “For One Marine, Torture Comes Home.”

6 thoughts on “Busted Bomb Busters

  1. The present set of “managers” are way too incompetent on so many levels, the “jins” just ONE example…How about the returning maimed military , who get SOME needs and assist but then are set adrift without FULL rehap? Any catch the FallenHeroes.org fund fund raising presently going on? Private group putting it together, will give ONGOING support services…An msnbc mouth got on the bandwagon to assist raising their last needed ten million dollars and rattle some ears that hold elected positions as to why the GOVT. has not allocated at the very least that last needed ten million (but now down to a needed mere five million thanks to efforts and bullying/etc…) A look at the pork in the budget makes one want to gag and strangle them that got “theirs” while ignoring this REAL need. The CBS 60min. has a note on the WASTE of $$$$ in Iraq…referred to as “footballs” , the money bundles UNACCOUNTED for but tossed around and into the BILLIONS from our tax dollars (into the pockets of “cronies” and preferred corporations who had no compunction in ripping off as much and providing shoddy service for those overbillings to boot…) HOW DO NONE GET HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE and just HOW does the CIC remain seemingly unscathed by this gross incompetence is baffling…the bar has certainly be lowered so far that it is non-existent!!!

  2. The JIN’s sound like an overpriced cure all with a heavy dependency on the idea technology can overcome human ingenuity.Using Rush Limbaugh’s logic that the only effective means to prevent STD’s, teen pregnancies, and abortions is thru abstinence, than the only effective prevention of deaths resulting from IED’s would be to withdraw our troops from Iraq. It would be 100% effective..Just like abstinence

    But then again, what’s a few extra million when you’re spending 6 billion a month on a lost cause. go figure.

  3. Not only are Bush and his cronies incompetent; but, they are so self-absorbed, they never notice the consequences of their inadequacies. I had a history teacher who introduced me to a phrase that describes this group of incompetents to a T. They are the epitome of assininity.

    Unfortunately, real people suffer because of these bozos and their elite clique of no-nothings. Real people who know what it is like to work hard for living.

  4. Only $200,000 each?
    Crap, if the producers of these thingies were true PATRIOTS, they’d make the damned things for free!
    Freedom ain’t free, the military-industrial complex is a money machine!
    Those people are a disgrace to humanity.

  5. Only $200,000 each?

    Yeah, for a glorified TV remote/ garage door opener..You can buy one at K-mart for $7.99. I’m sure the company who want the contract will be able to ship the product as fast as the Chinese can supply them. It makes you long for the good old days of the $100.00 toilet seat.

  6. From the description, this is a portable EMP generator. It´s so easy to circumvent the mechanism it would be near useless within weeks. Obvious sales promotion.

Comments are closed.