In film and TV there’s always tension built up as the hero makes a decision on which which wire to cut; the blue. No, the red .. No .. orange ..
Why can’t you simply make a bomb safe by separating the detonator from the explosive?
In: 0
If I were to design a bomb that I wanted to be effective, I would make it so that it couldn’t just be disabled by removing the detonator. That would defeat the purpose. So I would design a circuit that would detect if the detonator is tampered with, and immediately detonate.
[removed]
Detonators are frequently (?always) smaller explosives designed to be big enough to ignite the larger explosive.
Ignoring any countermeasures the bomb maker may have included, merely moving the detonator may not be enough to stop larger explosion, and definitely won’t stop the trigger going off.
Detonators have to be placed near the explosive device in order for it to work correctly. If they were separated, then the explosion would not be as powerful.
If bomb was that simple, then sure, that would work. However, it would not be difficult to design one to explode when the explosive component *stops* receiving a signal, as a failsafe. So you need to be clear how it works before you go around cutting random wires.
I’m guessing that’s not a *common* situation in real life compared to the movie trope, but that’s the reasoning for it.
To defused most bombs now in days they usually just super cool them with liquid nitrogen or something similar to render all the electronics and stuff inert then they blow it up with a smaller safer bomb. All via a robot.
Edit: correct spelling
It is hilarious sometimes when watching film. I saw one the other day where they were using C4 (I’m sure it was just clay meant to look like it) and they jam a blasting cap into the C4 and wire it to a timer. They walk up to the thing to think about how to defuse it, when there are literally only 2 wires running from the cap to the timer. It is possible to make a circuit that would detect if those wires were being cut and potentially go off just before that, but there’s no way to detect whether the cap is in the Play-Doh or not with only 2 wires. However, there are absolutely bombs like the one a guy made that fooled the FBI and they still use a mock up of it to train people. I’ll see if I can find a link to a good video about it.
Edit: [Qxir video ](https://youtu.be/kGo959uECTM)
Take this with a grain of salt, I’m not EOD, just worked with them and Route Clearance a time or three.
Technically. Yes, you could render the bomb “safe” by physically removing the blasting cap or fuse assembly. (Which is what I assume you mean by “detonator”)
Now, doing so prevents the device from triggering as intended, but you still have a device made of questionable explosive material and at questionable levels of sensitivity. It could still very well detonate just from handling, or static discharge if you touch it, or, ad other Redditors have mentioned, the triggering device you pulled could’ve been a decoy or there could be a backup device or fail-deadly circuit.
It’s also entirely probable the device is being observed by a trigger man who would attempt to detonate the device when a technician approaches to tamper with it.
All this and more is why, in my experience, EOD techs are inclined to simply detonate the device in-place with a charge of their own. If this cannot be done safely, they will approach with an armored vehicle employing “smart” radio frequency jamming, reach out with a remote controlled arm, sever any observed command wires, and unearth the device before driving a safe distance away holding it in the claw.
After which they will place the device down, prime it with a charge, and back away before detonating it.
This is not a one-size-fits-all solution, EOD techs and Route Clearance personnel have numerous tools in their inventory, so different situations will call for different approaches. But I can say with certainty the scene of a tech leaned over a bomb sweating which wire to cut is almost universally bullshit.
Not knowing what tye bomb is made of or the many, many different ways of triggering it means that removing the “detonator” is the 2nd least safe option for defusing it (the first being to let it blow “naturally”). So, while it might be possible to just remove the detonator, there’s really no way to know if that’s enough to keep it from going off. The safest way is to encase it in a bomb-resistant container and do a controlled detonation. This renders *all* of the unknowns moot, as there’s no more bomb once it has exploded.
Latest Answers