The U.S. Army Center of Excellence (COE) for Attack Scene Investigation and Battlefield Vehicle Forensics (ASI&BVF) is a program directed by the Headquarters, Department of the Army and hosted at the National Ground Intelligence Center in Charlottesville, VA. Also known as the Anti-Armor Analysis Program, the program’s core mission is to characterize combat incidents of Intelligence interest to help identify the threat weapon(s) used in attacks, determine their lethal effects, and make focused research and combat threat mitigation recommendations via trends analysis. The primary recipients of ASI&BVF’s recommendations are the force modernization community, deployed Warfighters, and senior decision-makers.
The program’s +20-yr history has largely focused on using a whole-of-government approach to standardize and proliferate ground combat post-blast forensic collection methodologies to ensure the most detailed and accurate reporting from first responders where U.S. troops, vehicle platforms, and structures are in enemy contact. The team has Department of Defense proponency for doctrine development and training in this area and has codified these collection methodologies in publications across the Army, Joint, and Allied spectrum.
The ASI&BVF closely collaborates with the Joint Aircraft Survivability Program (JASP), Joint Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD), the National Center for Explosive Training and Research (NCETR), and the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytic Center (TEDAC) to glean, develop, and share best practices that will then be used in both permissive and nonpermissive environments. Numerous testing and evaluation (T&E) and research and development (R&D) organizations that are central to the force modernization and survivability of ground combat vehicle platforms and structures are also consulted to confirm that all developed combat incident reporting guidelines and follow-on analysis meet their requirements to implement highly focused and timely upgrades to a respective vehicle platform. These organizations then use the collected empirical data and resulting foundational analysis to validate their experiments and tune and validate high-fidelity models.
One ongoing partnership that has been especially critical to the success of the ASI&BVF is the one the team has with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). For the last decade and a half, ERDC has been providing quantifiable and qualifiable science to assist the ASI&BVF in developing comparative and predictive modeling tools and thereby help analytical teams in the identification of threat systems used in attacks. These cutting-edge models, in conjunction with a massive catalog of searchable and stored combat incidents and experiments, enable analysts to provide answers and recommendations with the highest confidence levels possible.
Through the collection of the post-blast weapon signature and the resulting debris field, analysts can then use the models to determine if a given threat weapon was a surface-/below-surface-laid device, high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) round, rocket, mortar, or air-dropped system. The net explosive weight of the device can also be determined. Fast-running, physics-based-algorithm models are also used for crater analysis, strike point analysis, fragment metrics, and penetration/perforation effects.
Additionally, the ASI&BVF has had a long, collaborative history with JASP and its Joint Combat Assessment Team (JCAT) and Army Aviation Survivability Development and Tactics (ASDAT) programs. We have mutually developed, vetted, and shared numerous post-blast techniques and training capabilities. For example, the programs will often share instructors at their respective training courses, and JCAT and Combat Investigation Response Team (CIRT) members—the ASI&BVF’s version of deployable JCAT teams—are encouraged to attend each other’s training events for their professional certification. Likewise, JASP and NGIC are in the process of ensuring future interaction and interoperability for data analytics between their respective Combat Damage Incident Reporting System and the Joint Ground Combat Incident Database in the event of a large-scale combat operation.
Recent game-changing accomplishments that the ASI&BVF has directly supported include:
- horizontal and top-down blast effects to vehicle platforms and occupants due to the rapid proliferation of munitions dropped by unmanned aerial systems
- vehicle-borne blast effects to protective barriers and structures
- vehicle platform armor upgrades based on strike point analysis/probability of threat system encounters
- monthly combat incident reports distributed to more than 60 organizations across the U.S. Government and its allies.
In short, whether for a counterinsurgency or large-scale combat operations, the ASI&BVF is continuously working with the blast effects and survivability communities to improve ways of collecting and distributing post-attack information to help save Warfighters’ lives.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Charles Crowder currently leads the Army’s COE for ASI&BVF for the National Ground Intelligence Center. A retired Army Colonel and decorated combat veteran, he is an internationally recognized subject-matter expert in lethal blast effects and post-blast collection methodologies and analysis. Mr. Crowder has authored or coauthored more than 120 analytical, informational, and instructive manuals in these fields.
