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(NSFW) Afghan Humvee Runs Over Pressure Plate IED
Published 3 years ago
A several-years-old video shows the moment a fully-loaded Afghan National Army (ANA) humvee runs over and detonates a pressure plate IED, sending the occupants into the air as a result of the powerful blast.
Afghanistan is an especially dangerous place for IEDs. With few paved or improved driving surfaces, insurgents can plant large devices directly under the vehicle's line of travel. In places like Iraq, where there are paved roads, the IEDs are usually hidden alongside the line of travel, creating more survivable standoff distances and forcing the insurgents to aim their devices at the thick side armor of passing military vehicles.
Humvees are notorious death traps. They were never originally intended to be mine-resistant or ambush-protected. They have little to no armor underneath and certainly do not have a V-shaped hull to direct the blast away from the occupants. The hidden improvised explosive device was likely detonated by a pressure plate initiator, in which the vehicle's weight triggers the bomb, and there is no need for a trigger man to be present. Set it and forget it. However, the pressure plate system may be very indiscriminate if there is no specified target-weight system. Any civilian vehicle driving over the device is just as likely to detonate it.
