Homeland security

Snapshot: Large–Scale Vehicle–Borne Improvised Explosive Device Testing

In recent years, several massive VBIEDs (also known as car bombs) have been thwarted by local security forces throughout hotspots in the Middle East and Asia, and by U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan.

VBIEDs continue to pose a real and evolving threat to even the most secure compounds. The Explosives Division (EXD) of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) has taken measures to address this threat directly. 

EXD’s Homemade Explosives (HME) program conducts Large–Scale VBIED testing to mitigate the threat posed by massive car bombs and to ensure such attacks do not occur in the U.S.  This program is part of S&T’s Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Recently, S&T EXD conducted a series of explosives tests with varying charge sizes to learn more about mitigating these threats, based on the size and composition of the explosive device. These large-scale explosives tests, conducted at Fort Polk, Louisiana, brought together the HME preparation expertise of the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center’s (NSWC) Indian Head facility and the live fire testing capability of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering, Research, and Development Center in Vicksburg, Mississippi.