Just because it isn’t strapped to your neck, doesn’t mean that IED is any less deadly. The AquaRam Disruptor defuses these home-made bombs by neutralising the detonator with a blast of water strong enough to punch through steel. Problem solved.
The AquaRam, developed by the MREL companies, is the latest advancement in the fight against IEDs and is employed by both military and civilian agencies. It’s a disruptor device, based on the same methods as the Pigstick, which defuses bombs by frying the detonator mechanism’s electrical circuitry with an explosive blast of water. The problem with an IED car bomb carried in say, a panel van, is three-fold: The van allows for more explosives to be carried than a person on foot could; the hull of the van provides a solid obstacle against outside forces, and the enclosed space makes disposing of it especially dangerous because you’ve got to either defuse it manually or remove enough obstacles to fit a PigStick in there (as it can be held no more than three inches away).
They’re not problems for the AquaRam. It’s specifically designed to not only knock out detonators but power through any obstacles present. The AquaRam Max (the largest of the AquaRam series) uses a light-weight Polyethelene box that’s divided into three sections. The largest section holds a blast-suppression material and wraps around the section containing 9.5kg of FIXOR liquid-powder binary explosive which wraps around the innermost section containing 11 litres of water. Remember that red and clear stuff from Die Hard with A Vengeance (the one with Samuel L Jackson)? Yeah, binary explosives. FIXOR isn’t nearly as powerful as that stuff though — it’s only about 85 per cent as strong as TNT.
When fully loaded with FIXOR and water, the box weighs 175 pounds can either be positioned by hand or delivered by an EOD robot. Once ready, the the FIXOR is detonated which shoots the water out the front of the box at 14,100 ft/sec, nearly 9 times faster than a bullet fired from a .44 Magnum. The box forces water out in a high-velocity, low-density jet that penetrates anything from car doors to shipping containers before knocking out either the detonating mechanism or the explosives themselves. This system virtually eliminates risk to bomb disposal teams and minimises collateral damage.
Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.
Monster Machines is all about the most exceptional machines in the world, from massive gadgets of destruction to tiny machines of precision, and everything in between.
[MREL – MK Defence – Safe Tactics]