NM firm sends stingrays to help troops

ALBQUERQUE (AP) - A New Mexico firm that develops national security technology says devices that use a jet of water to disable roadside bombs are headed to Afghanistan to help U.S. troops.

Sandia National Laboratories licensed the patent-pending technology to Albuquerque-based TEAM Technologies Inc., which began shipping 5,000 of the so-called "stingrays" to Afghanistan this summer to disable so-called improvised explosive devices — the leading killer and threat to troops in Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon.

The device is filled with water and an explosive material that — when detonated — creates a shock wave that travels through the water and speeds it up, creating a thin, powerful blade of water capable of penetrating steel.

"It's like having a much stronger and much sharper knife," said Greg Scharrer, manager of the Energetic Systems Research Department at Sandia.

Soldiers who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq field-tested the device during training at the federal laboratory in the New Mexico desert and suggested improvements while the product was being developed.

Paul Reynolds, program manager of TEAM Technologies, said the soldiers' input helped the company improve the device after it was exposed to dust, water and banging around by the troops. The improvements included providing a better seal and redesigning the water plug.

"The soldiers helped on the design to make it more ruggedized and small enough," said Steve Todd, a mechanical and materials engineer who invented the device and has extensive Navy experience fighting improvised explosive devices.

Sandia has worked on the devices for two years.

Scharrer said the basic concept of the devices was developed in the 1970s by Great Britain to deal with Irish Republican Army explosives, but has been refined over the years by Sandia researchers and others to give police and military bomb squads better tools.