The Strategic Logic of SVBIEDs – Part 1 – Mirroring the Conventional

Hugo Kaaman, January 26, 2025

Note: This article was written in the latter half of 2021, and has NOT been factually updated since then. I am publishing it in its original state, without edits.

The use of suicide car bombs, or Suicide Vehicle-Borne IEDs (SVBIEDs) by non-state actors has evolved substantially over the past decade. The SVBIED, which was previously synonymous with a covert approach where the rigged vehicle was indistinguishable from regular civilian traffic, has effectively been adapted to conventional warfare by the application of improvised armor plating to the vehicles. While this might seem trivial, it has elevated the SVBIED from a tool of terror to also being a weapon of war, something that has allowed multiple non-state actors the ability to challenge their state military opponents head on. With the SVBIED as a central tenet of their military strategies, groups like al-Qaeda (AQ) and the Islamic State (IS) have attempted to bridge the military gap between themselves and their opponents, succeeding at times. Over time, these groups have successively refined their strategies, tactics, as well as the designs of their up-armored SVBIEDs in order to gain an advantage on the battlefield.

The extensive application of the up-armored SVBIED in a more conventional military role by these non-state actors has facilitated their takeover and subsequent defense of territorial holdings, and has simultaneously highlighted how the SVBIED has emerged as a powerful and versatile weapon meant to replace a non-state actor’s lack of a proper air force. In this context, the old comparison of the SVBIED as “the poor man’s air force” even more apt.

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