Military tests nonfatal ways to halt vehicles
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2383956.php

Two teams of military engineers competed to come up with a solution to
a problem U.S. troops face daily in Iraq - how to stop civilian vehicles
that blunder past checkpoints without destroying the vehicles or killing
their occupants.

Maj. Gen. Ted Bowlds, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory,
said that after a little refinement, the teams' devices probably will be
used in Iraq.

"These young researchers have come up with some pretty good, innovative
ideas," Bowlds said. "My guess is, based on what I've seen, bits and
pieces of what we've found here will find their way out there (to Iraq) in
some fashion."

On a test range in the Arizona desert Nov. 10, Air Force Research
Laboratory engineers used remote-controlled automobiles and high-speed
cameras to
test four devices they designed to halt oncoming traffic by non-lethal
means.

A team of junior officers and civilian military engineers from Kirtland
Air Force Base, N.M., was declared the winner for a pair of devices that
literally lift an onrushing car off the ground, bringing it to an
almost instant stop from a speed of 35 mph.

Bowlds said the Kirtland team's devices might be used in combination
with elements of the designs produced by the competing team from
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

The teams of six engineers and scientists, all with less than five
years' military experience, were given six months and $60,000 to come up
with
prototypes to help solve a frequent problem on the ground in Iraq.

Hundreds of cars and pickups pass through U.S. military checkpoints
every day. Civilians have been injured and killed when they failed to
stop as
requested and been fired on.

Troops trying to halt such vehicles are told to shoot at the engine
block to disable the car, and if they miss, "they might hit something more
 important," said Capt. Chris Rehm, leader of the winning team from
Kirtland.

"We're looking for some kind of nonlethal device we could give them,"
he said.

The teams came up with relatively similar solutions, despite working
without knowing what the other was doing, said Mark Lewis, chief
scientist of
the Air Force.

They included:

. A wooden wedge placed in the roadway with barricades channeling
traffic directly to it. If the vehicle does not stop and strikes the
wedge, it
is lifted up and slides to a stop, leaving the wheels of the vehicle off
the ground and its undercarriage resting on the wooden wedge.

. A "sled" consisting of two low-lying aluminum boxes with air bags
inside and grappling hooks at one end. When a vehicle passes over it, a
soldier controlling the checkpoint can remotely activate the device, causing
the hooks to latch to the front bumper and the airbags to deploy. The car
is lifted off the ground by the airbags as the device drags along
underneath the vehicle.

. A pair of devices made of steel tubing, one of them shaped like a
triangle that rises up when struck, lifting the car's wheels off the ground.

The first two solutions won. The tests were conducted on sedans, an SUV
and a van - typical civilian vehicles encountered by troops in Iraq.

They were carried out at a proving ground near Sierra Vista, Ariz.,
operated by Raytheon. The southern Arizona site was selected both to
replicate
Iraqi conditions and because the facility is a hub for the development of
vehicles operated by remote control. Because the stops can be violent, the
military did not want to use manned vehicles.

In addition to seeking a solution to a frequent problem, the Air Force
conducted the competition as part of a program to develop expertise
among junior military and civilian researchers and engineers who work
for the
research laboratory.

Lewis, the service's top scientist at the Pentagon, said the Air Force
Research Laboratory tries to anticipate technologies of the future, and
"at the same time, we've got folks out in the battlefield now whose needs
we are trying to answer."

"One of the things the lab is looking at is how we can respond more
immediately to problems we're facing today," Lewis said. "We're
concerned about saving as many lives as we can."