Airman 1st Class Patrick Connolly of Dayton, Ohio,
demonstrates the placement of the water disruptor in a simulated
village used to train soldiers heading overseas (Image: by Randy
Montoya)
According to the Pentagon, improvised explosive devices, or
IEDs, are the number one killer and threat to troops in
Afghanistan. Now a new tool that shoots a blade of water capable
of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to
help them disable these deadly devices. Developed by Sandia
National Laboratories researchers, the fluid blade disablement
tool produces a high-speed, precise water blade to perform some
precision type destruction on whatever IED it’s up against.
The fluid blade disablement tool is a portable clear plastic
device that is filled with water, in which an explosive material
is placed. When detonated, a shock wave is created that travels
through the water and accelerates it inward into a concave
opening. So when the water collides, it produces a thin blade.
The precision water blade is then immediately followed by a
water slug, which performs a general disruption and tears
everything apart.
“The fluid blade disablement tool will be extremely useful to
defeat IEDs because it penetrates the IED extremely
effectively,” said Greg Scharrer, manager of the Energetic
Systems Research Department at Sandia. “It’s like having a much
stronger and much sharper knife.”
Focusing the energy
Unlike traditional explosives, which release energy equally
in all directions when they go off, researchers use
shaped-charge technology to deliberately manipulate the
explosives so that they create a certain shape when they
explode, allowing the operator to focus the energy precisely
where it’s needed. The inventors of the fluid blade disablement
tool took a different tack. Rather than changing the shape of
the explosive, they used an explosive modeling tool to figure
out how to change the shape of the water when designing the
water disruptors.
The fluid blade disablement tool was invented by Steve Todd,
a mechanical and materials engineer with extensive Navy
experience fighting IEDs, Chance Hughs, a retired Navy SEAL
explosives expert on contract to Sandia, and mechanical engineer
Juan Carlos Jakaboski in Sandia’s Energetic Systems Research
Department for a National Nuclear Security Administration
sponsor.
“We’re putting the explosive in a flat tray and we’re shaping
the water,” Scharrer said.
The process happens in microseconds and can’t be captured by
the human eye, so researchers used computer simulation and
high-speed flash X-rays, which can view the interior of
imploding high-explosive devices and record the motion of
materials moving at ultrahigh speeds, to fine tune the design.
Troops lend a hand
They also used another approach. Soldiers rotating out of
Afghanistan and Iraq worked hand-in-hand with researchers and
developers to test the device for several months in the New
Mexico desert. The company improved the tool based on the
soldiers’ input after it was exposed to dust, water and banging
around by the troops. The improvements included providing a
better seal and redesigning the water plug so it is easier to
insert.
Sandia
licensed the patent-pending technology to a small minority-owned
business,
TEAM
Technologies Inc. The Albuquerque-based company made its
first shipment of about 3,000 new water disruptors to
Afghanistan this summer. Eventually the company would like to
sell the device to law enforcement and airport security
agencies. It says the device could also be used for forced entry
into buildings.
Paul Reynolds, TEAM Technologies’ program manager, said the
tool can be placed almost in contact with the target or a
distance away without losing its effectiveness. It uses minimal
explosive material, its plastic legs can be attached in various
configurations so that it can be placed in different positions
to disable bombs and it’s built so that robots can easily place
it near a target, he said.