Beyond IEDs

The Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) was once a multibillion-dollar juggernaut in the Pentagon’s war against improvised explosive devices (IEDs). But resources began to dwindle with the withdrawal from Iraq and drawdown in Afghanistan, and now the much-reduced agency has a new name and mission.

Recast last year as the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency (JIDA), the organization, which reached initial operating capacity in October, will take on and prepare troops for more than just IEDs. JIDA will counter a wide array of so-called “improvised threats”— basically, everything the enemy can devise: small makeshift drones, crude tunnels, improvised chemical and biological weapons or repurposed gunship rockets mounted on the back of a pickup.

Read the full article at USA Today.