Measurement of Trace Explosive Residues in a Surrogate Operational Environment: Implications for Tactical Use of Chemical Sensing in C-IED Operations

• Main Authors: Kunz, Roderick R, Clow, Kerin, Hardy, Dennis, Fountain, III, Augustus W, Ostazeski, Stanley A, Oyler, Jonathan
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ammunition and Explosives; CHEMICALS; CONTAMINATION; CORRELATION; Countermeasures; DETECTION; DETECTORS; EXPLOSIVES; EXPLOSIVES DETECTION; FALSE ALARMS; FIRING TESTS(ORDNANCE); IED(IMPROVISED EXPLOSVIE DEVICES); LEVEL(QUANTITY); LOW RATE; MEASUREMENT; MILITARY OPERATIONS; Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics; OPERATION; PERFORMANCE(ENGINEERING); PROBABILITY; REPRINTS; RESIDUES; SCENARIOS; SIGNATURES; SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS; Statistics and Probability; SYMPOSIA; Test Facilities, Equipment and Methods; THREAT SIGNATURES; THREATS; TRACE ELEMENTS; TRACE-EXPLOSIVE SIGNATURES; TRAINING

A campaign to measure the amount of trace explosive residues in an operational military environment was conducted on May 27-31, 2007, at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, CA. The objectives to this campaign were to develop the methods needed to collect and analyze samples from tactical military settings, to use the data obtained to determine what the trace-explosive signatures suggest about the potential capabilities of chemical-based means to detect IEDs and IED-related threats under tactical conditions, and finally, to present a framework whereby a sound understanding of the signature science can be used to guide development of new sensing technologies and sensor concepts of operation. Through our use of combined background and threat signature data, we have performed statistical analyses to estimate upper limits of notional sensor performance that is limited only by the spatial correlation of the signature chemicals to the threats of interest. Here, the threats were surrogate IEDs used in situational training exercises at the National Training Center. Even for this best case detection scenario, we estimate that tactical use of explosives detection to locate IEDs and/or IED-related threats will likely not support high detection probabilities (i.e., 50% PD at best) or low false alarm rates (i.e., 5% PFA likely). This is because, although explosive residues are spatially correlated with IED-related threats, the correlation is weak. Specifically, it was determined that only 27% of all IED-related threats exhibited trace explosive residues exceeding 1 microgram on/in their immediate vicinity, whereas for general background measurements this fraction was 1%. However, 6% of background measurements taken from live-fire areas recorded contamination levels in excess of 1 microgram. A greater understanding of explosives residue fate and transport is needed to further refine these estimates. See also ADM002187. Presented at the Army Science Conference (26th) held in Orlando, Florida on 1-4 December 2008. Published in the Proceedings of the Army Science Conference (26th), 2008. The original document contains color images.