Australia is helping Afghan security forces reduce the threat posed by crude but deadly improvised explosive devices.
Afghan soldiers and police routinely encounter radio-controlled IEDs which can be detonated by Taliban insurgents from hundreds of metres away.
Australian and other western forces, who have now left Afghanistan, had mostly defeated this threat through use of sophisticated electronic countermeasures which jammed insurgent radio signals.
Now Australian defence scientists and defence companies have developed a low-cost version of this system for Afghan soldiers and police.
It requires minimal operator training and limited logistic support with the first units now being fielded by Afghan security forces for the 2015 Afghanistan fighting season.
Defence Minister Kevin Andrews, who launched the industry program in Canberra said the government would invest up to $50 million in domestic manufacture of this technology.
"Australia will continue working with our Afghan partners to defeat the threat of improvised explosive devices, including supporting future Afghan National Defence and Security Forces requirements for these force protection systems," he said in a statement.
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