Many of us in Group and even Conventional military servicers have used many items made (R&D) from JIEDDO (JIDA now) and/or used their Analysis to support us before and during a deploy. Very interesting development in the defense bill.
If a plan to transition the JIDA under an existing agency is not submitted nine months after the bill is passed, funds will be withheld, except for those directly supporting war activities.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/259620-defense-bill-would-close-anti-ied-office
Tree Potato
11-20-2015, 20:21
Is there a behind the scenes push to move it under DTRA and tax some of the meager funding stream?
Is there a behind the scenes push to move it under DTRA and tax some of the meager funding stream?
I don't know of the behind the scenes things going on. But it being a THREE Star Command position with a couple of other Stars in a Joint Command, I don't see the Stars wanting it to go away.
I heard that COIC of JIEDDO was going to be "Absorbed" up by DIA or NGIC. But them sliding under DTRA we can see that didn't happen.
Tree Potato
11-23-2015, 09:00
Per the habibi-net, this is from the SECDEF's push to decrease HQ staff. No one wants it to go away, and several COAs are under consideration to ensure the capability brought to warfighters isn't affected.
Peregrino
11-24-2015, 15:39
IED Detector
(Photo: TONY KARUMBA/AFP/GettyImages)
13 CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE
FORT BELVOIR, Va. — As the temporary Pentagon organization created nearly 10
years ago to combat roadside bombs transitions into a smaller, permanent
agency, the improvised explosive device problem has only proliferated and
grown white-hot as forces continue to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and
elsewhere.
So while many thought the role of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device
Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) would end as the wars were due to wind down in
Iraq and Afghanistan, the newly named Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency
(JIDA) is busier than ever, working to find solutions to protect soldiers
and civilians against more and more creatively made and used bombs.
At Fort Belvoir, Virginia, on Tuesday, JIDA showcased some of its
capabilities developed over the last 10 years to combat insurgents' growing
ability to build and conceal IEDs as well as capabilities to track
bomb-making networks.
Tents were pitched across the expanse of a large field and sensor towers
punctuated the landscape. On one end, a small command post showed a clear
picture in real time of the entire area, tracking people and even a large
flock of birds that settled on the ground near a cluster of sensors during
the event.
On the other end, instructors were showing visitors the evolution of JIDA's
mine detectors and how to sweep for possible buried explosives. Parked out
in the field were JIDA's Husky mine-detecting vehicle and a
mine-neutralizing vehicle called the Tarantula (mainly due to its eight
emitors sending 30,000 volts of electrostatic charges through the ground at
the front of the vehicle).
"How the unit has transformed itself has been pretty innovative," Lt. Gen.
Michael Shields, JIDA's new director, told a group of reporters sitting in a
tent on the edge of the field.
JIDA has grown smaller, he said. JIEDDO, at its height, had a $4 billion
budget and employed roughly 3,000 people. It now has about 1,000 employees
and about $500 million per year to spend, although there are mechanisms in
place to obtain additional funding to develop capabilities for certain
urgent requirements, Shields explained.
The goals for the agency — attack the network, defeat the device and train
the force — have not changed, and JIDA still has a "laser focus" on the IED
threat and also on rapid acquisition of solutions to combat such a threat.
Shields said his goal is to deliver capabilities in less than two years
after a requirement is defined.
The agency is having to learn to do more with less in a burgeoning age of
prolific IED use as the fight against the Islamic State group, often called
ISIL, in Iraq continues to accelerate and Afghanistan continues to see its
share of violence.
Shields has been in the job about two months but has already traveled to
Iraq and Afghanistan and witnessed what forces are up against.
"In Afghanistan we still have forces that are in harm's way and that are
facing the threat of IEDs," Shields said.
In Iraq, Shields was able to see some of the counter-IED training of Iraqi
soldiers and learn first-hand what the Iraqi forces are encountering there.
"This is not the fight that we faced when I was a brigade commander in 2005
and 2006 in Iraq," Shields said. "This is very organized. [ISIL] has an
industrial capacity to produce IEDs, so it's not a terrorist organization
that is using them to achieve a terrorist effect; they are using them in
vast quantities to help them isolate and shape the battlespace almost in
phased types of operations. They are covering them with observation and
fires."
ISIL's use of IEDs has caused the Iraqis and coalition partners on the
ground in Iraq to rethink their way of combatting the threat. "It's less
about these [explosive ordnance disposal] teams and going forth and dealing
with a device, it's about combined arms maneuver and combined arms
breaching," Shields said.
"Imagine belts of IEDs," he said, "used to shape the battlespace, using
suicide vehicle-born improvised explosive devices as their precision guided
munition ... and an incredible capacity to produce many of them — and by
many I mean 10, 20, 30, in an individual attack."
ISIL is employing technology, while not overly sophisticated, in innovative
ways such as using crush switches in buildings, using anti-tamper, anti-lift
and motion sensor triggers, Shields said.
JIDA is supporting Iraq and Afghan forces in determining what is needed to
combat the threats encountered in both theaters of operations. The agency
has teams deployed forward to see what is needed on the ground. The teams
submit requests back to headquarters for assistance such as analytical
products, Shields said.
He noted that JIDA, while small now, is designed to be scalable depending on
the need. "There may be a time where we may have to increase capacity
depending on how this fight progresses and so forth, but from a technology
perspective," he said. "I haven't seen an appreciable spike in
requirements."
Yet from an analytical perspective, Shields said, JIDA's ability to provide
virtual modeling and simulation to support forces at forward operating bases
has been in high demand in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Our soldiers are still in harm's way. There's been no peace dividend,"
Shields said.
Email: jjudson@defensenews.com
Good article Peregrino.
It would be a real bad thing to see this organization go away.
I would use them for my trips into AFG and for every JCET. I would look to see what the CNT Units mission was and get a product for use and one named for them if I could.
It really helped me for planning, training the HN Unit and tying it to the IED threats within the country we were going to.