Car bombs, or Vehicle Borne Improvized Explosive Devices (VBIED), have a long and deadly history. They are a weapon equally popular with assassins, terrorists and guerillas and have been used throughout history to variously kill the occupants of the vehicle and people near the blast site, as well as to cause damage to buildings or other property. Their popularity rests largely in the fact that they act as their own delivery mechanism, can carry a relatively large amount of explosive and, because of the sheer volume of vehicles on the road, attract very little suspicion. Additionally, due to their popularity, there is a vast body of international know-how and expertise within the criminal and terrorist communities on how to construct viable and effective devices.The car bomb has five main attributes that make it attractive: stealth, low-cost, simplicity, indiscriminate in nature and anonymous. Together these attributes make it very difficult to defend against in an open society.
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How to defend against VBIEDs will be one of the topics covered on Security Management Stage 1, which commences on Mon 30 June.
