Interesting Military Use For Silly String

[FSTargetDrone]

(Did a search, no joy.)

Anyway, I saw an article in today's local paper about a soldier's mother (Marcelle Shriver) who has been trying to get cases of Silly String shipped over to Iraq for use in detecting tripwires:

...

With donations from people across the country and help from a North Brunswick, N.J., shipping company, Shriver sent about 80,000 cans of Silly String to the troops, who use the foamy substance to detect trip wires on bombs.

...

Shriver got the idea for her Silly String campaign nearly a year ago from her son, Army Specialist Todd Shriver, a combat engineer who sometimes dismantles bombs as past of his job in Ramadi.

Silly String is not standard issue with the military, which is used to using more costly, high-tech devices such as robots to deal with bombs.

...

The troops can shoot the Silly String 10 to 12 feet across the room - and if it drapes in mid-air, it's hit a trip wire.

"Most of the booby traps are triggered by cell phones or other electronic devices but (Silly String) can be used to find trip wires," said Carolee Nesbit, a spokeswoman at Fort Dix. "We have handed it out to units as they leave for Iraq. We still have some left."

...

Because Silly String is in an aerosol can, it's considered a hazardous material. Only certain companies are allowed to ship it.

After a story on Shriver's plight appeared in the New York Times, she said, she got a call from Thom Campbell, one of the founders of Capacity LLC, a North Brunswick company that ships hazardous materials.

He wanted to help. "It seemed like the right thing to do," said Campbell. "We're quite lucky to have an opportunity to help her."

The cans of Silly String were packed in boxes addressed to individual service members, placed on more than a dozen skids, and picked up Monday by a company called Yellow Transportation.

...

I just excerpted the most interesting parts in terms of the military using the stuff, but the original story is available here.

So I was wondering if any vets here have ever heard of the stuff being used like this? It seems like a really cool idea.

[Aaron]

Yeah I heard about this about a year and a half ago. Haven't run across any guys in my Vets group that have used it but I never asked either.

[Elaro]

Silly String is not standard issue with the military, which is used to using more costly, high-tech devices such as robots to deal with bombs.

Damnit, stop trying to undermine my future career!

But still, cool. Low-tech solutions to military problems. Nice.

[Aaron]

Damnit, stop trying to undermine my future career!

But still, cool. Low-tech solutions to military problems. Nice.

Your joining the CF? I take it your going to be a Field Engineer, which I think is the trade which gets to use the EOD robots.

[Sidewinder]

I remember hearing about wires strung up across roads to decapitate the machine gunners on Army vehicles. I wonder if Silly String would be useful against that? (Doubtful, considering the fact that a vehicle would cross 12 feet in seconds, not enough time to do something about the wire.)

[FSTargetDrone]

I remember hearing about wires strung up across roads to decapitate the machine gunners on Army vehicles. I wonder if Silly String would be useful against that? (Doubtful, considering the fact that a vehicle would cross 12 feet in seconds, not enough time to do something about the wire.)

Well, how about going back to the basics? They already use standoff armor like the Germans and Russians did 60+ years ago.

[FSTargetDrone]

Whoops, meant to add, here's one used on something a bit more modern:

[Pulp Hero]

This is old, I have heard of soldiers two this at least up to two years ago.

I like how the news article says the military uses more expensive solutions like robots to IED/BTs, as if robots are used in room and cache clearing, instead of disposal of IEDs.

[Sea Skimmer]

Whoops, meant to add, here's one used on something a bit more modern:

I’m pretty sure that one is meant to cut the wires on enemy anti tank missiles; you’ll find something like that on most large armored vehicles as a kind of collective formation protection.

[FSTargetDrone]

I’m pretty sure that one is meant to cut the wires on enemy anti tank missiles; you’ll find something like that on most large armored vehicles as a kind of collective formation protection.

So it is! At least in some cases, as with the description I found at a General Dynamics Land Systems' site about the LAV:

ATGM Wire Cutter

* 2 at driver & turret

The picture of the vehicle above doesn't clearly show such a cutter at the driver's position, but it may be folded down.

On the other hand, this site describing various Swedish armored vehicles states that in the case of at least one APC type, that:

The SISU XA-180 have are used Kosovo. First in UN service, but now in KFOR service. They have also been a part of the IFOR and SFOR. They are popular among their crew, partly because they have proved very resistant to mines. The armor protects the passengers from splinters and 7.62 mm rounds.

The vehicles are fitted with a wire cutter placed on the front roof. This protects the crew in open hatches or on top of the vehicles from wires crossing the road.

A post on another message board described the wire cutters as useful not only for severing the wires of a multitude of expended missiles (merely to keep them from snagging all over the vehicle) but also to sever low-hanging power lines and the like for the same purpose.

I've seen similar, but smaller, wire cutters mounted above and below helicopter fuselages, in front of the main rotor and forward of the landing gear, presumably to slice through any power lines the chopper might find itself accidentally too close to.

[CmdrWilkens]

I can say offhand that the wire cutting devices ARE in use though almost all of them are local manufacture weld-ons to 5-ton and 7-ton trucks and not specifically designed kits.

[Aaron]

I’m pretty sure that one is meant to cut the wires on enemy anti tank missiles; you’ll find something like that on most large armored vehicles as a kind of collective formation protection.

They kind of pull double duty, cutting ATGM wires and protecting those with their heads out of the hatches from losing their heads. That was the gist of the suject on my APC drivers course.

[Kanastrous]

It's difficult to visualize how the wire-cutters on the vehicles pictured, would be useful against an ATGM.

Imagine the path followed by a missile aimed at the vehicle (or one in formation with it) and try to see how those cutters would intersect with the control wire...pretty unlikely.

[FSTargetDrone]

It's difficult to visualize how the wire-cutters on the vehicles pictured, would be useful against an ATGM.

Imagine the path followed by a missile aimed at the vehicle (or one in formation with it) and try to see how those cutters would intersect with the control wire...pretty unlikely.

I thought the same, because as at first blush, it seems like it would have depend on a hell of a lot of luck to intercept such a wire from a missile in flight, even with a lot of vehicles equipped with cutters in the area. If the missile is flying down from above at an angle, it's difficult to see how these cutters could even reach the wire before the missile hits its target

It seems like these cutters would be more useful, in general, dealing with wires stretched across a road that were setup to injure or kill an exposed vehicle crew member, but some of what I've read elsewhere implies that it would be useful for slicing through the wires of expended AT missiles, after a particularly heavy use of them, when the area is strewn with wires. But, I will leave it to the experts here!

[Sea Skimmer]

It's difficult to visualize how the wire-cutters on the vehicles pictured, would be useful against an ATGM.

Imagine the path followed by a missile aimed at the vehicle (or one in formation with it) and try to see how those cutters would intersect with the control wire...pretty unlikely.

Imagine? Can’t say I’ve seen it in real life, but I’ve seen a huge number of gun camera TOW launches, and several videos of Chinese HJ-8 launches. Wire guided missiles DO NOT fly in anything like a straight line at the target. They bounce all over the place because the guidance system is constantly making corrections, and that’s going to greatly increase the chances that a wire might just get snagged and cut before the missile hits something. Its certainly better then nothing, which is all that matters given the tiny cost.