Mission Integration: Countering Improvised Explosive Devices

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are something that Dave Williams, a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, knows a lot about. As a Marine during the Vietnam War, he experienced first hand the destructive nature of IEDs.

In an interview for the Booz Allen’s web video series “Ready for What’s Next,” Williams discusses key aspects of creating a strategy for countering IEDs. According to Williams, the following are key components of achieving a successful counter IED strategy:

• Strong government policy
• Buy-in by management and staff across government agencies
• Available financial resources.
• An operational strategy that drives technology, not vice versa
• Integrated operations that create a whole-of-government approach to solving the IED dilemma

Williams explains that for years terrorist groups and insurgents have considered IEDs as weapons of choice because IEDs are inexpensive to construct and cause very high numbers of casualties.

And…the threat on an IED attack does not simply lie outside our U.S. borders; rather, the threat within our nation is real. Williams says that the United States must partner with its international allies to create a global mission integration-centric approach to combating IEDs.

View more discussions with Dave Williams on countering IEDs:

• Mission Integration: Countering Improvised Explosive Devices podcast
• Strategy to Counter IEDs podcast
• Administration’s Strategy to Counter IEDs podcast
• Successes and Failures Countering IEDs podcast
• The Situation in Afghanistan podcast
• Domestic Safety podcast
• Wargaming and Simulation podcast
• Lessons Learned Creating Strategies to Counter IEDs podcast