Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) are a constant and ever-changing threat to the security of our nation, as evidenced by these highly publicized events and the many that are successfully thwarted by our law enforcement agencies that never hit the press.

In the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols built an IED with ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and stolen commercial explosives in a rental truck, and detonated it beside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

High school students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who shot and killed 13 people, used multiple IEDs during the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, including two large propane bombs, pipe bombs, molotov cocktails, and two car bombs designed to attack first responders and news reporters responding to the initial bomb, which thankfully failed to detonate correctly.

On April 15, 2013, as the annual Boston Marathon race was concluding, two homemade pressure cooker bombs detonated 14 seconds and 210 yards (190 m) apart at 2:49p.m., near the finish line of the race, killing 3 people and injuring several hundred others, including 16 who lost limbs.

On September 17–19, 2016, several explosions occurred in Manhattan and New Jersey, the sources of which were all found to be IEDs of various types, such as pressure cooker bombs and pipe bombs.

The extreme destructive potential of IED threats, as noted in the attacks above, demand innovative solutions to counter and mitigate these threats.

That’s where the Reverse Velocity Jet Tamper (ReVJeT) comes in.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T),which was recently honored with multiple awards in the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, in partnership with the FBI, whose Violent Crimes against Children (VCAC) program was likewise recognized in the 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program, has fully transitioned the ReVJeT to hundreds of state and local bomb squads across the country through the FBI’s Hazardous Device School.

“It was one of those eureka moments,” explained FBI Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Ian Vabnick, who accidentally discovered the technology behind ReVJeT while testing something else.”

“This is probably the biggest advancement in water cannon technology in the last 50 years.

“There have been other improvements, but when it comes to firing fluid jets, ReVJeT is the most significant advancement in stabilizing that jet.”

ReVJeT breaks apart IEDs by targeting a stream of high-velocity liquid, such as water.

It does not detonate the device, but rather disarms it from a distance and allows bomb technicians do their jobs faster, safer, and more effectively.

ReVJeT improves upon existing platforms by a conservative 300% and can enhance any propellant-driven disrupter system, making it capable of neutralizing various IEDs.

The genius behind the technology is that it enhances efficiency by combating a phenomenon in hydrodynamics known as the reverse velocity gradient.

Within a water cannon, there are millions of individual molecules of water.

As the cannon fires, and a jet of water streams out, the molecules of water move at different speeds.

The water in the front does not have as much velocity as the water in back, so its momentum is lower.

Another way to think about it is to picture a train with the caboose moving faster than the engine.

If the conductor hits the brakes, but the back is still moving fast, then the train cars in the middle will all get knocked off the track.

That is what happens to a jet of water as it comes out of a cannon.

The back end is moving faster than the front and overtakes it.

The water in the middle gets pushed out of the way.

As a result, the jet breaks itself apart as it travels toward the target, the IED.

“There is an exponential drop-off in performance with distance as you move a disruptor away from a bomb, but not with ReVJeT,” explained Vabnick.

“There isn’t an exponential drop off because you’ve gotten rid of one of the biggest inefficiencies in the system, which is this reverse velocity gradient phenomenon.”

The ReVJeT effort is part of DHS S&T’s Response and Defeat Operations Support (REDOPS) program, which provides a collaborative structure for addressing IED response and defeat capability gaps identified by federal, state, and local bomb technicians, including the National Bomb Squad Commander’s Advisory Board.

Throughout the testing and development process, ReVJeT benefitted from direct end-user involvement.

The technology was given to real first responders, so they could evaluate and train with it.

In the span of approximately two years, this versatile tool concept was discovered, specifications were developed, prototypes were built and field-tested, and the final product was delivered directly into the hands of first responders.

ReVJeT is now part of the formal training curriculum at the only school that teaches bomb technicians in the United States.

Rather than going through a vendor, the federal government acquires the tools at-cost, making them in-house and giving them away to the emergency response agencies that need them.

Every bomb squad in the country now has this capability and the feedback has been resoundingly positive.

One agency even found another application for the technology when forced to problem solve in the field – using ReVJeT to safely open a barricaded door.

This technology transition success story highlights the incredible partnership that exists between DHS S&T and the FBI.

In addition to funding support, there is deep collaboration and teamwork that results in game-changing innovations like ReVJeT.

Every bomb squad technician has access to this tool, and the necessary training to operate it, and every American is safer because of it.

DHS S&T Honored for Fourth Consecutive Year in Annual ‘ASTORS’ Gov’t Excellence Awards

DHS S&T National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Responder RAD Preparedness

• Responder RAD Preparedness – DHS Science and Technology Directorate, National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, in partnership with FEMA & the Department of Energy, & National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) provides guidance and exercises for first responders and emergency managers on how to plan for the first minutes of an radiological dispersal device, or “dirty bomb,” detonation.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate

• • Excellence in Public Safety

  • Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Program

  • The Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Program works with first responders across the country to ensure the technology they use while responding to an emergency keeps them better protected, connected and fully aware.

DHS S&T Office of Mission and Capability Support

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The FOVEA (Forensic Video Exploitation and Analysis) Tool Suite

• The FOVEA (Forensic Video Exploitation and Analysis) Tool Suite is an add-on suite of analytic tools for the forensic review of video in large-scale surveillance systems, developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory under the DHS S&T Office of Mission and Capability Support (MCS) Surface Transportation Explosive Threat Detection (STETD) Program for Complex investigations.

2019 ‘ASTORS’ Government Excellence Award Recipients Also Include:

Commissioner William J. Bratton

• 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Person of the Year

• Extraordinary Leadership in Homeland Security & Public Service

• Commissioner William (Bill) Bratton, one of the world’s most respected and trusted experts on risk and security issues and Executive Chairman of Teneo Risk a global advisory firm, was recognized as the ‘2019 ‘ASTORS’ Person of the Year’ for his Lifetime of Dedication and Extraordinary Leadership in Homeland Security and Public Safety.

John F. Clark, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Mr. John F. Clark was with the United States Marshals Service (USMS) for 28 years, serving as head of the USMS from 2006-2011.

• Prior to the USMS, Mr. Clark served with the United States Capitol Police and United States Border Patrol.

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Initiative

• The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day hosted by the DEA and its national, tribal and community partners aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.

Federal Protective Service in Collaboration with the Argonne National Laboratory

• Best Big Data Analytics Solution

• Federal Protective Service Threat Assessment Report

• The Federal Protective Service Threat Assessment Report (TAR) is an automated, human-in-the-loop, machine learning (ML) new threat and vulnerability assessment framework that has significant, long-term impact for FPS and the greater national security community. 

Dean C. Alexander

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Mr. Dean Alexander is the Director, Homeland Security Research Program & Professor at Western Illinois University.

 

United States Postal Inspection Service

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Office of Investigations

• The United States Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service with jurisdiction of “crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system or postal employees.”

Grant Coffey

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Portland Fire & Rescue Hazmat Team Coordinator (Ret), CBRNE Industry Expert, Guest Author and FLIR Systems Brand Ambassador

United States Marshals Service

• • Excellence in Public Safety

  • Fugitive Task Forces

  • The U.S. Marshals Service currently leads 60 Regional fugitive task forces which combine the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations. 

Sheriff Tom Knight, Sarasota County Sheriff (FL)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Sheriff Tom Knight

• Sheriff Tom Knight, the 10th Sheriff of Sarasota County, has served since January 6, 2009, following a 20 year career with the Florida Highway Patrol.

• He has demonstrated a lifetime of devotion to public safety and protecting children from abuse and exploitation, most recently with Operation Intercept VI a 4-day initiative focused on protecting Sarasota County children from online predators and human trafficking which resulted in the arrest of 25 child predators.

Dr. Sean Lawler

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Supervisory Special Agent
  for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

 

United States Border Patrol

• • Excellence in Homeland Security

  • Border Patrol, Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR)

  • The Border Patrol, Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) Unit is a specialized unit of the United States Border Patrol trained in emergency search and rescue & primarily assists injured or stranded migrants who enter the United States illegally from Mexico at remote desert locations.

(John Welter, a Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector, explains how a little-known team called the Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit, or BORSTAR, has largely gone under the radar. Courtesy of The Daily Signal and YouTube.) 

Dr. Konstantinos Papazoglou and Dr. Daniel M. Blumberg

• Excellence in Scientific Research

• Co Authors of ‘Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience’

• 

  ‘Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience’ collectively presents the numerous psychic wounds experienced by peace officers in the line of duty, including compassion fatigue, moral injury, PTSD, operational stress injury, organizational and operational stress, and loss.

• The book encompasses evidence-based strategies to assist law enforcement agencies in developing policy programs to promote wellness for their personnel.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), protects and to enforces laws at PANYNJ facilities including airports, seaports, and bridges and tunnels, plus three bus terminals, the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, and the PATH train system.

• The PAPD is the largest transit-related police force in the United States.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The CyberTipLine

• The NCMEC congressionally mandated CyberTipline is a reporting mechanism for cases of child sexual exploitation including child pornography, online enticement of children for sex acts, molestation of children outside the family, sex tourism of children, child victims of prostitution, and unsolicited obscene material sent to a child available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

(After over 20 years in operation, the NCMEC CyberTipline has received more than 45.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation – more than half of those in just the last two years. Recognizing this explosive growth, Congress unanimously passed, and the president signed, a new law to streamline the CyberTipline process and tackle new trends we’re seeing in child sexual exploitation. Courtesy of NCMEC and YouTube. Posted on Jan 23, 2019.)

United States Marine Corps

• Best Cyber Security Program for Government or Military

• U.S. Marine Corps 1700 Cyberspace Operations

• The U.S. Marine Corps 1700 Cyberspace Operations Occupational Field cyberspace workforce works to compete successfully on future battlefields & adapt to the rising threat of near-peer adversaries like Russia and China.

• Additionally, these positions support “the maturation of the Marine Corps’ cyberspace workforce through the establishment of specific career paths, standardized training continuum, and mechanisms to retain trained and qualified Marines within the cyberspace community.”

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)

• • Excellence in Homeland Security

• Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) is being recognized for his work on aviation security H.R. 91– Saracini Enhanced Aviation Safety Act of 2019 which would require the installation of secondary cockpit barriers on existing aircraft, and for other purposes.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Federal Risk Management Process Training Program

• The Federal Risk Management Process Training Program is  Interagency Security Committee certified for Facility Security Officials, Federal Security Supervisors and those involved with Federal facility acquisition, construction, and renovation projects.

• New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services (NYS DHSES)On October 19, 1995, six months after the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12977, creating the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) to address continuing government-wide security for federal facilities.

  Prior to 1995, minimum physical security standards did not exist for nonmilitary federally owned or leased facilities.

• Excellence in Public Safety

• NYS Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Drone Training Program

• • The NYS Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Drone Training Program helps to safely and effectively leverage UAS in support of the agency’s mission & includes UAS training courses created to help agencies develop their own UAS programs and train UAS Operators.

  One component of the DHSES UAS Program is series of UAS training courses created to help agencies develop their own UAS programs and train UAS Operators.

Ewart Williams

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Mr. Williams is an Adjunct Professor for New Jersey City University tailoring courses and mentoring the next generation of National Security and Intelligence professionals.

• The NJCU Professional Security Studies Department has been designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a National Center of Academic Excellence.

• Mr. Williams works in this framework teaching courses in National Security and Intelligence Programs.

Stanley I. White

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• International Association for Counterrorism & Security Professionals (IACSP)

• As Counter-intelligence Advisor Mr. Stanley I. White collects intelligence (OSINT, HUMINT and other available sources) and analyzes the subject information using SWOT techniques.

For a complete list of award winners, click here.