The Navy is ramping up its reset effort of about 500 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles brought back from Afghanistan as the U.S. military presence winds down, with each vehicle carrying an estimated price tag of about $380,000 for refurbishment, according to a Navy spokeswoman.

After some difficulty last year in working with leaders of two Pakistani fertilizer factories, which produce most of the ammonium nitrate used by insurgents to make homemade explosive devices in Afghanistan, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization is reporting progress in the factories' effort to curb the flow of the substance into IED-making networks, according to JIEDDO's director.

A November 2011 incident in which U.S. forces accidentally killed 20 people at a Pakistani border outpost has likely contributed to the United States' difficulties in convincing Pakistan to help in countering the proliferation of improvised explosive devices in the region, a State Department official suggested last week.

The Army is seeking another means of spotting improvised explosive devices in the path of U.S. vehicles in Afghanistan, calling for proposals for a "deep buried detection" capability for the Husky Mounted Detection System.

Anticipating the approval of a joint urgent operational needs statement that will require manipulator arms be provided to explosive ordinance disposal and route clearance forces, the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization wants to buy more than 600 of Qinetiq's Dragon Runner 10 Payload Light Weight Modular Arms, according to a justification and approval letter signed in December.

The Marine Corps would like the science and technology community to focus on improvised explosive device neutralization and force protection as top priorities as the service shifts its focus from Afghanistan to the Asia-Pacific region, the Marine Corps' top official said last week.

The Navy could start buying up to 1,000 systems for jamming improvised explosive devices in fiscal year 2014 to help fulfill a stated Marine Corps need for 370 dismounted and 2,040 mounted systems, according to a notice on Federal Business Opportunities.

With U.S. operations in Afghanistan scheduled to wind down, questions are being raised again about what should happen to the organizations spawned during the past ten-plus years of war, including the sprawling agency charged with countering improvised explosive devices, according to current and former defense officials.

The Navy has issued a request for information asking for industry to provide information on quickly-fielded systems that can jam improvised explosive devices, with plans to buy 65 systems by September of next year, according to a recent notice on Federal Business Opportunities.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization is beginning to look beyond the IED threat in Afghanistan and consider how it may assist combatant commanders around the globe, a JIEDDO official said last week.

The Army is moving forward with plans to buy small jammers that soldiers can wear on their bodies to prevent nearby remote-controlled improvised explosive devices from going off, according to a service official.

As part of its effort to combat improvised explosive devices, the Defense Department is seeking industry proposals on ways to defeat bombs made from potassium chlorate.

House and Senate authorizers want to give the Pentagon the authority to use funds to support efforts to disrupt the flow of improvised explosive device "precursors" into Afghanistan.

The Defense Department has asked Congress for the authority to use Joint Explosive Devices Defeat Fund dollars for efforts to disrupt the flow of improvised explosive device "precursors" from neighboring countries into Afghanistan.

The Army this week plans conduct industry briefings to let companies in on the service's latest effort to protect dismounted soldiers fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom against improvised explosive devices: The 'iCREW' system.

The Army is looking at where within the service organization Task Force ODIN, a specialized aviation unit designed to engage bomb-laying insurgents, could reside in the future, according to the two-star general in charge of force development in the service's G-8 office.

The Marine Corps continues to upgrade its MaxxPro Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle fleet as part of its modernization program, according to two January contract awards totaling $990 million.

As budgets shrink, Defense Department officials expect a trend toward consolidation of funds among government agencies as they combat the threat of improvised explosive devices, according to a new Pentagon report.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization released a broad agency announcement on Jan. 17 calling for proposals that could help curb the spread of the kinds of homemade explosives widely used in IEDs in Afghanistan.

A standoff between the United States and Pakistan has dashed recent glimmers of hope in Washington that Pakistan might step up its cooperation in interdicting the flow of bomb-making materials from two fertilizer factories within its border into neighboring Afghanistan, Inside the Army has learned.