NPS Pioneers Advanced Course on Defeating the IED System

On Jan. 24, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England called on “some of the best minds in the country” to come up with new solutions to countering Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the leading cause of death and injury to U.S. troops in Iraq. Insurgent attacks involving IEDs, most of them remotecontrolled and vehicle-triggered roadside bombs, nearly doubled from 2004 to 2005 -- from 5,607 to 10,593 -- causing over half of all U.S. and Coalition combat deaths. (1