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Copyright 2006 Inside Washington Publishers
All Rights Reserved
Inside the Army
November 13, 2006
SECTION: Vol. 18 No. 45
HEADLINE: ARMY TASK FORCE UTILIZING MANNED, UNMANNED AIRCRAFT TO DETECT IEDS
BODY:
The Army has established a task force to look at ways of employing manned and unmanned aircraft to detect and destroy improvised-explosive devices, according to service officials.
Brig. Gen. Stephen Mundt -- the Army Aviation Task Force director -- told reporters Oct. 30 that "key parts" of the "Task Force Observe, Detect, Identify, Neutralize" are fielded today and added that it will "continue to grow."
"Task Force ODIN is part of what the Department of Defense has been working hard at trying to deal with," the one-star said. "There is an IED [threat] and Task Force ODIN and others are out taking back the roads. How do you do that?
"There are a number of technologies we are looking at -- both manned and unmanned platforms -- to be able to do that and looking at ability to get information from those sensors down into an organization that can use it and take action to eliminate the threat."
In a Nov. 3 e-mail to Inside the Army, an Army official said details on units, organization, specific capabilities, concept of operations and time lines for the new task force remain classified.
However, the official offered the following information:
* The Army continually seeks to employ the latest technologies available to defeat IED threat;
* Recent initiatives include increased use of manned and unmanned airborne surveillance dedicated to identification, warning, destruction and, ultimately, prevention of IED emplacements; and
* Airborne surveillance permits commanders to rapidly detect and neutralize a wide variety of threats, including IEDs.
Christine DeVries, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Task Force, told ITA last week that the Army is heading Task Force ODIN, but her organization is helping to support the initiative. -- Ashley Roque
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Copyright 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. http://www.mcgrawhill.com
All Rights Reserved
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
October 30, 2006 Monday
SECTION: What's Ahead in Aerospace & Defense; Pg. 2 Vol. 220 No. 20
HEADLINE: Task Force ODIN works to provide anti-IED measures
BYLINE: Staff
BODY:
TASK FORCE ODIN: The U.S. Army is running a secretive initiative to provide an integrated array of sensors and even weaponized platforms for field commanders to tackle the improvised explosive device (IED) problem in Iraq. The effort, dubbed Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify and Neutralize), could include existing systems, modifications to existing systems, and possibly new systems. In discussion are the I-Gnat unmanned aircraft and modifications to C-12 aircraft, although officials shy away from specifics. The Army aviation program executive and Joint IED Defeat offices are declining to comment or answer questions on the subject, citing an oft-repeated need to keep IED countermeasures hush-hush. One defense official says Task Force ODIN has been in existence "for a while," although it is only just now beginning to be discussed more widely. Odin is the chief god in Norse mythology, having a dual role as the overseer of war and death as well as a bearer of poetry and magic.
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