DIFFERENTIATING EXPLOSIVES ON THE BASIS OF DELIVERY
Let’s take a look at various explosives based on their mode of delivery or release. Here is a list from explosive stimulant trainings of means that have been used to transport explosives to targets:
1. Automobiles – We’ve often seen car bombs or vehicle based IEDs (also called VBIEDs and pronounced vee-bids) being used by terrorists. These are basically vehicles that are loaded with explosives and later set off by a remote control, a detonator or the driver itself. These can cause a lot of damage to life and property. An automobile bomb isn’t hard to miss – it is usually modified on the inside to hold explosives, is almost always driven by one person, and is low slung due to the immense load of the explosives. Since there have been cases when people have been forced by terrorists to drive such car bombs, you must read guidelines published by the U.S. State Department on the issue.
2. Boats – This is another means of carrying explosives to a target that could either be in water, for instance ships, submarines etc; or close to water as in the case of cities connected to a water body. One of the first examples of a bomb deployed on a boat is World War II when the Japanese used it against the American ships with high rate of success.
3. Animals – It may sound archaic and it is, dating back to 1000 AD. Explosives have been attached to the backs of animals like monkeys and pigs and used in warfare. The rareness of using such tactics ensured that eight people died in China recently when a horse was used to carry explosives and then detonated. A similar instance with a donkey has been reported in Afghanistan.
4. Collars – Explosive collars are mostly used by terrorists in Columbia in order to scare the local farmers and extort money from them. In reported cases, three farmers have already been killed in this manner. In America, this method was used by a terrorist who strapped on an explosive collar to a pizza delivery boy’s neck and later detonated it, killing him.
5. Humans – One of the most ingenuous ways ever invented of killing a lot of people at one time and also instilling fear in them – by using a human being as a bomb. Suicide bombers strap on explosive laden vests onto themselves and move amidst huge groups of people. They then detonate the bomb, killing not just themselves but dozens of others. These were first used by the Tamil Tigers.
6. Platters – Platter bombs have a high success rate since they explode with a lot of momentum. Made of steel plates (square or round) weighing a few kilograms, they have explosives of a similar weight fixed to one side.
7. Penetrators – Penetrators are cylindrical in shape and have a concave metal top that is very useful in puncturing through the armor of vehicles. Used mostly in Iraq, they are also valuable since they can be used from a distance greater than 50 meters. However, the great cost involved in making them has not made them very common.
8. Rockets – These are the Improvised Rocket Assisted Mortars, commonly called IRAMs, first used in 2008 against the American troops stationed in Iraq. They are basically 107 mm rockets that power propane tanks laden with explosives.
Even the American troops were