PipeBarrier
April 3, 2003
A simple, portable vehicle barrier for Military Checkpoints in Iraq. It stops car bombers and allows checkpoint personnel a safe standoff distance from exploding car bombs. This barrier was field-tested at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after the embassy bombings of the 1990s.
An archive of LLNL’s description of the truck barrier is available. The video of the test has been removed from the lab’s web site.
The Iraqi regime and its terrorist supporters can be expected to force more suicide or car bomb attacks on our troops at roadway checkpoints that our military will have to establish in occupied Iraq. They have already killed at least six of our servicemen. There is a way to stop this. Our forces in Iraq should know about it immediately.
A simple portable steel pipe vehicle barrier was developed by the University of California Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that gives military forces in the field a solution to this problem. Three figures attached at the end of this memo show how the pipe barrier is constructed and can be used in the field.
This pipe barrier allows normal passage for cleared vehicles but it also allows checkpoint personnel to immediately “choke off” a vehicle that refuses to stop while keeping checkpoint personnel at a safe standoff distance in case of explosion. The pipe barrier also flips truck bombers upside down on impact, as shown in actual field test pictures attached to this memo. Standard concrete K-rail barriers are too heavy and cumbersome to be useful in most battlefield situations. And when available, they can not be moved quickly enough by checkpoint personnel to choke off charging renegade vehicles.
The steel pipe barrier looks like a macaroni necklace constructed out of short steel pipe sections strung on an ordinary steel cable. These materials are available all over Kuwait and Iraq. Military crews in the field can construct this barrier in an hour and carry it with them wherever they go. The characteristics of this barrier are described below and in the figures attached. The full test data report and pictures of the high-speed crash tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site are available from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Ron Cochran 925-422-5153; Dr. David McCallen, 925-423-1219; or Dr. Milton Finger, 925-422-6370). Contact Chad Noble, 925-422-3057 electronic copies of the report in Acrobat (PDF).
I believe that our troops in Iraq should be told about this vehicle barrier PDQ. Pentagon Threat Reduction people saw the test videos several years ago at Livermore and were “very impressed.” But nothing was followed up on.
News reports show that our military guards in Iraq are using standard K-rail concrete barrier sections at some checkpoints. These concrete barriers can not be used at checkpoints that are moved frequently (as our troops move rapidly) because these barriers are heavy and cumbersome and require construction equipment to load, unload, and put them in place. But worse, they invite forced-suicide attacks because the passage corridor through the barrier can not be configured or moved quickly to “choke off” a renegade vehicle that refuses to stop. Hence, guards are forced to fire on the occupants. Then we get blamed for the tragedy—or it is too late when a bomb explodes close to our checkpoint personnel.
After the embassy attacks of the 1990s, we designed an inexpensive, lightweight, movable steel pipe barrier that consists of steel pipe sections, 12 to 24 inches in diameter, 10 to 15 ft. long, loosely stung on a steel cable like a macaroni necklace. It is simple and very effective. It was field-tested at the Nevada Test Site and shown to be very effective at stopping large
truck bombers at high speed (it flips them over).
A few men can roll this pipe barrier in place and form a checkpoint barrier across any road in a few minutes time. A slow-speed vehicle can not drive over the round pipe sections because the front wheels of the vehicle are sheered sideways by the loose pipe on the ground. Furthermore, the pipe barrier can be configured so that it can be pulled together quickly and remotely (by pulling the cable with a vehicle) to choke off the vehicle passage corridor and trap a vehicle that refuses to stop—like pulling the drawstring on a duffel bag. The guards can remain at a safe standoff distance while doing this in case the renegade vehicle contains explosives. The guards do not have to shoot the occupants under panic conditions. Light military vehicles can be used to secure and operate the barrier easily.
Most important, GIs in the field can put up and operate this barrier with an hour’s training. Military construction crews will know how to do it instantly once they see the field test videos that are available from the Livermore Lab.
(If desired, I will personally show them how to do it.)
Used steel pipe sections and steel cable are available all over Kuwait and Iraq. I saw this material by the hundreds of tons when we were putting out the Kuwait oil well fires after the Gulf War in 1991. Our troops could have workable barriers wherever they go, not just in a few places where heavy concrete barriers can be erected. Our many occupation camps will be very susceptible to terrorist or forced suicide car attacks otherwise.
Diagrams of the Barrier
Figure 1 shows a vehicle (1) on a roadway (11) and a vehicle checkpoint (2) where vehicles are stopped and inspected by personnel. Some distance beyond the checkpoint is a steel pipe barrier. The barrier consists of two or more pipe sections (5 and 6) strung on a cable (9). Cable (9) is tied to vehicle (4) on one side of the roadway. The cable (9) passes through the barrier pipe sections (5 and 6). It passes under stationary vehicle (7) (or any other heavy obstruction) and is attached to movable vehicle (8). Stationary vehicle (7) is parked such that it constrains pipe section (6) from moving sideways when cable 9 is pulled tight by vehicle (8). For normal vehicle passage, pipe sections (5 and 6) are positioned as shown and the cable (9) is slack on the roadway to allow slow vehicles to pass by making a sharp turn between the pipe sections 5 and 6.
Figure 2 shows how the pipe barrier is closed to vehicle passage when vehicle (10) pulls the
cable (9) tight and forces pipe sections (5 and 6) together. A signal to the driver of vehicle 10 from checkpoint personnel is all that is needed to close the barrier.
Figure 3 shows a wide pipe barrier of many pipe sections which can close off access around a broad roadway checkpoint. Sections of standard concrete K-rail barrier are shown as tie-downs in place of vehicles (4 and 7) in Figures 1 and 2. The cable (9) passes through an “O” ring connector on K-rail (7) and is pulled by the vehicle (8) to close the pipe barrier passageway as in Figure 2.
This is the configuration that was tested by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory at the Nevada Test Site. A remotely controlled one-ton truck impacted the barrier at 40 mph. The truck was flipped over and stopped within one hundred feet of the barrier. The barrier was not broken. After each test run, the pipe barrier was rolled back in place by four men.
Note that any heavy tie-down object can be used in place of stationary vehicles 4 and 7 in Figures 1, 2, and 3 above. Disabled enemy vehicles or tanks are adequate. Sections of concrete K-rail barrier (when available) can replace vehicles (4) and (7) as shown in figure 3.
Pictures from Actual High-speed Tests Nevada Test Site
These four pictures show a remotely controlled one-ton truck travelling at 40 mph hitting a pipe barrier configured as in Figure 3 described above. (The larger circular section of pipe barrier surrounding the straight barrier section impacted by the truck was included for safety purposes to insure that the truck could not roll beyond the test area.) The full field report with all test data and photos is entitled “Evaluation of an Expedient Terrorist Vehicle Barrier.” It is available by e-mail as an Acrobat (PDF) file from Chad Noble or Dr. David McCallen at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Bill Wattenburg is a Research Scientist with The
Research Foundation, California State University Chico (Chico, CA 95929). He grew up in the Sierra mountains in California and worked as a logger and firefighter before being appointed to the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley and working in the Physics Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in nuclear weapons design. He has consulted for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for more than 30 years, and still fights wildfires most every summer as a bulldozer operator for the U.S. Forest Service.
