The science of combat

Grunt

The Curious Science of Humans at War

Mary Roach

Pan-Macmillan

288 pages; Rs 599

The BASH squad of the US Air Force uses modified cannons to fire dead chickens at aircraft and it overlays strange noises onto the roar of USAF jet engines. These experiments have influenced aircraft design and saved many lives. BASH is the Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard team, a group of engineers with a brief to reduce damage from bird-hit.  Birds avoid aircraft, which make noises that sound like bird alarm calls; dead supersonic chickens mimic the damage caused by live birds. 

Military exigencies often lead to unusual research. This book focuses on the weird and wonderful aspects. It deals with the USA’s (much larger) equivalent of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Mary Roach went to see how scientists and engineers help grunts (a colloquialism for low-ranked soldiers) cope with noise, temperature extremes, “ill-timed gastrointestinal urgency”, wounds, etc. 

Ms Roach is not only one of the best popular science writers around; she is unquestionably the funniest. It is hard to imagine anyone else who could have narrated macabre incidents involving horrendous injuries and the blowing up of cadavers in a way that makes readers burst into spontaneous laughter. She manages the superhuman feat of being funny while remaining entirely respectful of the human beings (and corpses) under discussion. 

The US used to assume that it might need to wage two “major wars” simultaneously on different continents (vide World War II). It has bases all over the world.  President Donald Trump has talked isolationism. But he’s increasing the defence budget by 9 per cent, taking it to about $650 billion. That is almost a third of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 36 per cent of total global military expenditure.

Some of that money goes into the unglamorous but fascinating research described here. For example, how do you design armour for light combat vehicles to be cost-effective and functionally effective at shielding passengers from IED blasts and RPG attacks? Simple: Put a few corpses in said vehicles, and set off explosions and film everything. Then sort through the bits and pieces to assess injuries and rejig armour and vehicle design until the injuries drop to acceptable levels. This involves building very specialised crash facilities and asking people to donate their bodies to be blown up. 

Ms Roach describes her debut on a firing range with an M-16 and TCAPs. TCAPs (tactical communications and protective systems) are smart earplugs. These are key elements of high-tech battlefield equipment. Firefights are noisy. Eardrums must be protected. Yet, soldiers must hear orders and respond to enemy activity. TCAPs amplify “quiet noises” and dampen out loud ones, while carrying R/T radio. Another fascinating section describes submarine rescue facilities — deep pools where crews learn to use specialised pressure suits. 

Textiles are another research area. Ideally, uniforms are flame-resistant, water-proof, insect-resistant, Kevlar-reinforced to shield wearers from shrapnel and bullets, insulated against cold/heat, camouflaged, etc. Plus, everything must be comfortable (soldiers avoid using stuff that is not) and come in within budget and stand up to brutal wear and tear. 

Ms Roach met the “Flame Goddess” — the scientist who tests textiles for the army. She also met the “chief fashion designer”. That lady contends with unusual needs. Snipers were the original customers for sleeve pockets — those things tennis-players love.  Other unusual “fashion statements” includes mittens with one trigger finger, and “combat diapers” with Kevlar-lining.

The US Army has a 22-page guideline on acceptable buttons (the wrong buttons can kill if driven into the body). There is ongoing research to develop less noisy Velcro, zippers that don’t jam in mud, and so on. Women soldiers wear uniforms cut for the female shape. But in a paroxysm of political correctness, these are called “American Combat Alternate Uniforms” — since men might wear them as well. US Navy personnel wear blue-green camouflage uniforms, to ensure “that you can’t see a sailor who falls overboard”.

The US Veterans Health Administration spends $1 billion a year treating hearing-loss. Ms Roach also looks at other medical issues. The material gets grimmer when she describes face-time with amputees. One chapter is about penis reconstruction and penis transplants. There is a hysterical description of doctors practising penis transplants on two cadavers. Another medical chapter is about carefully constructed, realistic movie sets where combat medics are taught how to evacuate battlefield casualties (Ms Roach plays a smoke inhalation victim in one scenario). 

She lasts seven minutes with a 14-kg load on the treadmill in a heat research centre, where the lead scientist banters with her Ranger son who runs for an hour with a 42-kg load under the same conditions. She travels to Djibouti, in search of tummy ailments. The US Army developed oral rehydration therapy, which has helped saved millions of lives.  In Djibouti, Ms Roach has a strange encounter with a Special Forces veteran, who suspects she is investigating a crime. Once he opens up, he speaks freely, in disgusting detail, about “ops” behind enemy lines undertaken while suffering from dysentery.

Ms Roach covered enormous territory in physical, mental and emotional terms to write this book. She obviously received huge amounts of privileged access while researching it. She’s returned the favour by breaking multiple boundaries in her depiction of what the backroom boys and girls do.