Pentagon Widens Program to Foil Bombings in Iraq

"WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 — The Pentagon is tripling its spending, to about $3.5 billion this year, on a newly expanded effort to combat the rising number of increasingly powerful and sophisticated homemade bombs that are the No. 1 killer of American troops in Iraq, military officials say.

The move is a tacit acknowledgment that despite years of rising death tolls from the devices, the response has not been sufficiently focused or coordinated at the highest levels. And it comes in addition to recent spending to get more and better armor for troops and their vehicles, spurred by concerns expressed by Congress and the American public.

Interviews with a dozen officials in Washington and Iraq detailed an intensive effort on the overall project, which at one time was led by a one-star general but was recently put under a retired four-star Army general, Montgomery C. Meigs."
NYTimes