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Hesco bastion

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U.S. Soldiers assembling a HESCO bastion.
Iraqi Army engineers fill a section of four foot Hesco bastions with their bucket loader.

The HESCO barrier or HESCO bastion is a modern gabion for military fortification. It is made of a collapsible wire mesh container and heavy duty plastic liner, and used as a temporary blast or small-arms barrier. One of the less heralded life- and labor-saving devices of war, it is used on nearly every US military base in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is named after the British company that developed it over a decade ago.

Originally designed for use on beaches and marshes for erosion and flood control,[1] the HESCO Bastion quickly became a popular security device in the 1990s[2].

Assembly

Assembling the HESCO bastion entails unfolding it and (if available) using a front end loader to fill it with sand, dirt or gravel. The principle protecting personnel and equipment from enemy fire (or bombs) is very similar to the use of sandbags or earth berms in previous conflicts. The main advantage of the HESCO barriers, strongly contributing to its popularity with troops, is the quick and easy setup. Previously, troops had to fill sandbags, a slow undertaking, with one soldier filling about 20 sandbags per hour. Troops using HESCO barriers and a front end loader can do ten times the work of troops using sandbags.

The HESCO barriers come in a variety of sizes designed for military work. Most of the barriers can also be stacked, and they are shipped collapsed in compact sets. Example dimensions of typcial configurations are 4’6”x3’6”x32’ to 7’x5’x100’.

Protection

Hesco bastions stacked two high around portable toilets in Iraq.
Norwegian base, inside Camp Marmal near Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Filled with sand, 60 centimetres (24 inches) of barrier thickness will stop rifle bullets and shell fragments. It takes 1,5 metre (five feet) of thickness to prevent penetration by an RPG round (although these usually do not hit at the right angle to need that much thickness, but just explode creating a lot of fragments.) About 1.2 metres (four feet) of thickness will protect against most car bombs.

See also

  • Bremer wall, steel-reinforced concrete blast walls
  • Gabion, a historic precursor for both erosion control and defense
  • Erosion, original intended use of the Hesco-type containers

References

  1. ^ Flood Fighting Structures Demonstration and Evaluation Program - US Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Factsheet January 2006
  2. ^ Engineers wall Dobol - The Talon, Operation Joint Endeavour, Friday 6 December 1996
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