Soldier Armed
Concertainers
By Scott R. Gourley
W idely used in a range of force-
protection measures from Bosnia
to Afghanistan, Concertainer defense
walls, also known as Concertainers,
have helped to revolutionize the way
U.S. forces view earth-filled protective
measures.
As described by the Defense Logis-
tics Agency (DLA), “The Concertainer
defense wall is a rapidly built solid
blast-barrier wall built from heavy-
duty galvanized wire mesh lined with
a geotextile fabric designed as a substi-
tute for sandbags. The wall can be filled
with any available material such as
sand, mud, soil [or] rock using minimal
manpower and a mechanical digger.
The wall has been tested using small-
arms fire, machine guns, mortars and
30 mm cannon. It will also protect
against indirect artillery fire up to
155 mm caliber. Uses include aircraft
and headquarters location revetments,
bunkers, observation posts, border
crossings and fuel installations.”
In addition to its protective benefits,
the wall design provides significant lo-
gistics advantages through a collapsible
design that is transported as a small
Hesco Bastion/SGT Jimmy Albright
Concertainers are solid blast-barrier defense walls that can be filled with
virtually any available material (including snow), can be erected rapidly, are
logistically efficient and are a great improvement over sandbag defenses.
76 ARMY ■ June 2010
percentage of its “as-constructed” vol-
ume before expansion and is ready for
rapid filling at its final destination.
Hesco Bastion in Leeds, England,
possesses an internationally recognized
design patent for Concertainers. Thom-
as Redfern, marketing representative
for Hesco, reiterated several of the ben-
efits in a more technical description of
the product line.
“HESCO Bastion Concertainer is a
unique, patented multicellular defense
wall system,” he said. “It is made from
prefabricated Galfan-coated mild steel-
wire mesh and vertical coil joints that
are lined with a nonwoven material
called polypropylene geotextile. Once
erected, Concertainer units can be
filled using almost any locally avail-
able material. By enhancing the mass
and characteristics of the fill material,
Concertainer units are able to with-
stand attack from a variety of weapons
and significantly reduce harmful frag-
mentation.”
The Concertainer product line in-
cludes multiple options, designated
Mil 1 through Mil 10, with sizes rang-
ing from smaller—2 feet by 2 feet by 4
feet (Mil 2)—to large—7 feet, 3 inches
by 7 feet by 90 feet (Mil 7) and 7 feet
by 5 feet by 95 feet (Mil 10)—options.
With a 3-inch mesh size on all struc-
tures, the galvanized steel-wire thick-
nesses are 4 millimeter (8 Gauge) on the
smaller products and 5 millimeter (6
Gauge) on the large Mil 7 and Mil 10
designs. The wall cells are connected at
the corners with spiral wire hinges that
allow rapid expansion from the com-
pact, folded-storage configuration.
All options feature the 2 millimeter
heavy-duty nonwoven polypropylene
geotextile filler in either beige or
green that allows them to be filled
with a range of local earth materials.
The material selection—optimized for
tactical considerations, availability,
transport requirements and intended
structure duration—can include any-
thing from concrete, crushed rock and
various soil types to field-expedient
materials such as snow.
According to Redfern, the Concer-
tainer system “was conceived in 1989
initially to mitigate coastal erosion
and then was introduced into military
applications by the U.K. Ministry of
Defence. Since then, products have
been developed and comprehensively
tested.”
Noting that “Concertainer units
have been described as the most signif-
icant development in field fortification
since World War II,” he said that “since
the Concertainer’s first use by the mili-
tary in 1991, more than 15 of the
world’s leading authorities in blast
mitigation and effects have performed
tests using a number of different
weapon systems. Concertainer units
have also been developed to meet spe-
cific requirements, such as bunkers
with overhead protection and flood de-
fenses in the mainland United States.”
In the case of specialized needs, for
example, the Concertainer structures
have evolved from field-expedient tac-
tical applications to specialized struc-
ture designs that have been “kitted”
by the DLA as U.S. Army Engineer Re-
search and Development Center “ap-
 proved fighting positions”—including
the single-bay aboveground fighting
position kit, two-bay aboveground
fighting position kit and aboveground
small observation-post kit—that come
complete with a set number of Mil 2-
size Concertainers and plank struc-
tural roof and roof membrane.
H esco has also developed some
of its own structural package de-
signs. One innovative approach in-
volves personnel and material bunkers
built around a standard sea container,
with the entire “containerized bunker
kit” packaged inside an International
Organization for Standardization con-
tainer that has already been modified
with a prefabricated personnel door
and emergency escape hatch.
Another available company package
is the Hesco Accommodation Bunker
(HAB), which was developed “as a re-
sult of the ever-increasing threat to de-
ployed personnel from indirect-fire
weapons.” Formed from Mil 6-size
Concertainer units with a specially en-
gineered roof structure, HAB is de-
signed to provide safe living accommo-
dation for up to eight individuals with
protection levels against weapon sys-
tems “up to and including large mortar
rounds.”
In parallel with the protection pack-
ages, Hesco has also focused on the lo-
gistics elements of Concertainer em-
placement through the development of
Rapid In-theatre Deployment (RAID),
Hesco Bastion
Hesco Bastion
in which Concertainer walls are pack-
aged to facilitate immediate deploy-
ment. One recent test highlighted by
the company demonstrated the deploy-
ment of 1,000 feet of 7-foot, 3 inch-high
Mil 7 wall structure that was ready for
filling in less than one minute.
“Current mission requirements
have led to the design and develop-
ment of a number of unique products
by Hesco,” Redfern said. “RAID, for
example, is a delivery system that
aids the end user in speed and ease of
deployment of Concertainer units,
with a massive reduction in the logis-
tics burden. HAB is a protective ac-
commodation unit for use in expedi-
tionary missions. These products are
now beginning to filter into the opera-
tional theater with great feedback
from the soldier on the ground.”
In terms of current program activi-
ties, Redfern said that “an ongoing con-
The protective bar-
riers are shipped
flat then quickly
opened and
rapidly filled. Origi-
nally designed for
flood and erosion
control, Concer-
tainers have pro-
vided military force
protection since
the 1991 Persian
Gulf War.
tract with the DLA is in place and has
been for more than five years, ensuring
that all our products are available
through the military logistics chain.”
Looking toward the future, he ad-
ded, “Hesco Bastion has been involved
with supplying the Concertainer unit
and force-protection systems to all ma-
jor military forces throughout the
world since 1991, and it has continually
taken the lead in providing solutions to
protect forces against the changing na-
ture of the threats faced in today’s
asymmetric battlespace. Hesco contin-
ues to progressively test and develop
its products in a diverse range of envi-
ronments across the world, keeping it
at the forefront of engineered fortifica-
tions and protecting both military [per-
sonnel] and civilians across the globe.
New force-protection products are al-
ready in the pipeline for 2011.”
Asked to reflect on the product’s
and company’s significance to the
warfighter, he concluded: “The Hes-
co Bastion Concertainer is the pre-
mier force-protection system, a user-
friendly and adaptable product that is
unrivaled in the role of providing forti-
fications for expeditionary missions.
The focus of the company is not only to
provide the military with the best pos-
sible product, but also with unprece-
dented technical assistance and sup-
port directly to the troops on the
ground.” ✭
The barriers can be configured in different
ways to provide various levels of protection
for personnel, vehicles, equipment and fa-
cilities against a variety of specific threats.
June 2010 ■ ARMY 77