Australian troops to get IED blast gauges

Updated October 15, 2012 14:26:10

Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are set to be given new equipment which it is hoped will help save the lives of troops wounded in bomb blasts.

The pressure gauges are worn on a soldier's helmet, chest and shoulder and can measure the pressure that they have been exposed to when hit by an explosion.

That information can be used by medics to assess the extent of the wounded soldier's injuries and better identify the brain damage that can be caused by the shockwave from the explosion.

Thirteen of the Australian soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan have been killed in roadside bomb blasts.

Defence Materiel Minister Jason Clare says 3,500 sets of the equipment will be sent out.

"The blast gauge is designed to measure the shockwave that comes from a blast," the ADF's Colonel Jason Blain told ABC News Breakfast.

"So when you have an IED [improvised explosive device] for example, a blast event, it sends out shrapnel and dirt and other particles, but also a major shockwave.

"This device measures the actual amount of shockwave that hits the body to try to find a correlation between that shockwave, that pressure, and injury it may cause to the brain."

About 400 soldiers have already been issued with the equipment in a limited trial.

"Thankfully so far [since the start of the trial] we've had no-one exposed to a blast, but they're out there in Afghanistan now with our soldiers who are wearing these on their combat ensemble - so if one of those soldiers is exposed to a blast event, we can now start measuring the data," Colonel Blain said.

"So after that soldier goes back to patrol base or to a hospital, they can determine that actual amount of pressure that that soldier has experienced."

The blast gauges are already being used by about 7,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

Topics: defence-forces, defence-and-national-security, army, unrest-conflict-and-war, australia, afghanistan

First posted October 15, 2012 09:57:30