Hesco bastion

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U.S. Soldiers assembling a HESCO bastion.

The HESCO barrier or HESCO Bastion Concertainer is a collapsible wire mesh container with a heavy duty plastic liner, used as a temporary 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 Hesco Bastion, Ltd. and it's owner/inventor James W. "Jimmy" Heselden of Leeds, UK....now one of the wealthiest men in Great Britain. While Hesco Bastion, Ltd. is the manufacturer of the Concertainer the product is sold by the company's commissioned broker HESCO MILITARY PRODUCTS, LTD. of London. This company is owned by David Ashburn (formerly Dusan Mandic of Bosnia) and Leo Clifford.^{[citation needed]}

Originally designed for use on beaches and marshes for erosion and flood control,^[1] the HESCO Bastion quickly became a popular security device even before September 11, 2001.^[2]

1 Protection
2 Assembly
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Protection

Filled with sand, 24 inches of barrier thickness will stop rifle bullets and shell fragments. It takes 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 four feet of thickness will protect against most car bombs. The HESCO barriers are credited with preventing hundreds of casualties among US troops.

[edit] Assembly

HESCO bastions at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait.

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 and prices (height, width, length, price in US$) would be from 4’6”x3’6”x32’($651) to 7’x5’x100’ ($3,700). A special 'bunker kit' is also available. The Hesco Bastion Concertainer and Hesco Barriers have been proven to be a poor value to military organisations however because they last for typically six to twelve months during which time they collapse as a result of hydrostatic pressure as well as from the effects of rain and ultra-violet rays. Hesco Bastion Concertainer is purchased by the Defense Logistics Agency on a NO BID - SOLE SOURCE basis.^{[citation needed]}