Barricades at the United States Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan, stopped a bomb-laden car and SUV from penetrating the entrances.
The Taliban attacked the consulate in western Afghanistan with car bombs and guns on Friday, September 13, 2013, killing at least four Afghans but failing to enter the compound. The two drivers of the explosives-filled vehicles did not survive.
Greg Hamm, pictured Delta Scientific vice president of sales, says: “The attempted breach of the consulate in Herat again shows how important it is that facilities are protected from vehicle bomb terrorists with certified, proven barriers, barricades and bollards. Our barriers have also been in place when attacks occurred at the US Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan as well as US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. In all cases, they did exactly what they were supposed to do, protect the people that worked there.”
California-based Delta adds that the barricade that protected the consulate staff in Herat was the DSC1100, which will stop a 15,000 pound (66.7 kN) vehicle going 40 mph (64 kph). Certified by the US Department of State, the DSC1100 features a phalanx-type rising plate barrier mounted within multiple inertial pods and can be deployed for full manual or automatic operation within two hours, the makers say. The plate barrier lies level to the ground to allow vehicles to pass and is raised or lowered into position utilizing a hydraulic cylinder driven by a Delta hydraulic power unit or manually.
Hamm adds: “From what has happened at Herat and the other government buildings that have been protected by Delta barricades while under attack, it is easy to discern that a large factor in saving lives from vehicle bombers is to successfully stop the attacking vehicle far enough away from the building to avoid the high pressure shock wave of a bomb blast. In a Reuters photo published September 13 on the BBC website, one can pick out the DSC1100 along with the charred and demolished car.” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24075687 – Look to the bottom centre of the photo for the diagonal stripes. That is the DSC1100.)
The barricade used at Herat is one of 50 styles of vehicle barricades that Delta Scientific supplies to embassies, consulates, private corporations, banks and hotels to protect people from truck bombs. Delta adds that its product line takes in barricades that can be set up in fifteen minutes and used at short term events, to permanently installed barricades designed to stop a fully loaded dump truck that will continue to operate after the attack. Before introducing barricades, Delta Scientific conducts full scale crash tests of the design.
