Self inflating foamcrete T-Walls come next. Just hook up a garden hose, pull the ripcord, & it grows and inflates itself into a 12' tall T-Wall barrier ...
Hesco barriers are for bases. Sandbags are still used by the infantry. Hesco barriers require heavy equipment to place them. Infantry troops don't have that luxury. I am reminded of the time when I was a private in the 82nd. We were going into the field and my platoon sergeant was assigning tasks. He tells me "You will carry 4 sand bags. I was freaked out because sand bags are heavy and I was the M-60 machine gunner. The M-60 and ammo is already heavy. I went to him afterwards and told him that I would try but I didn't know if I could carry that much weight. He looked puzzled at first, then burst out laughing. "Hey, Dumbass, they don't have sand in them when you are carrying them. You fill them when needed." I should have felt foolish, but I just felt great relief.
This is the grunstest story of all grunts. This reminds me of the story in ww2 when the Gurka regiment was told they were going to be flown into hostile territory and then they would jump out of the plane. They assumed they were going without parachutes..... for a full week and were making requests for changing the landing spot to an open field so they had a higher chance of survival. But they never refused😂
@@sebastianbauer4768 Sand is much more effective than gravel. So is dirt. Gravel would send, well, gravel flying everywhere as shrapnel when hit with mortars or artillery.
the major flaw being it works very poorly in wet areas, it needs a dry base and dry fill; if the structure built gets waterlogged you can forget the re-use or dismantle part.
I built and deconstructed these all over Africa in 2019 , they NEVER come apart in the Sahara , sahel or jungle , just use the gas powered chop saw , or 20-36 inch bolt cutters they work really well when you don't have any mogas . Also if your gonna pour concrete in them , which you can , do 1 foot at a time so they don't bulge, sweel or leak out the bottom , mixing a lot of crush and run in works good . Also you can send the exterior side of the cloth and grass and vines will grow on it , don't forget to wire claymores on the sides before you seed and plant vines on the sides .
Hear me out. What if we take a fueler; the m978. Take the fuel our of the equation, replace it with concrete, and 3d print the barrier. That way if its wet it should be able to print a foundation itself, given the fortifications lend curing time
I spent many hours around Ramadi in a loader, both filling and removing HESCOs. The idea of pulling the rod and dumping the dirt out is a nice thought, and _might_ work if you're making a promo video and it was only filled an hour ago. In practice, by the time you're told to remove the things, they've been in place for months or years and seen at least a couple good rains. At that point, they may as well be concrete for most purposes. You couldn't even push them with a D7, most of the time. My method was to simply attack them with a clamshell bucket until they ripped apart, while softening the dirt. Ram them, pinch the top and pull, scrape vertically with the teeth-whatever it took. You ended up with a pile of dirt and HESCO scraps all mixed in, which you could load into a dump truck (or...not).
@@rickskellig4652 Ha, I would have preferred that over most of the nicknames I earned. Just like pilots' callsigns (in real life, not the movies), they are rarely flattering 😂
If getting the rod out was a problem, You might just order a T-post puller from your nearby Tractor Supply (They had those in Ramadi, didn't they?) Doesn't solve the compaction issue though.
Yep, having worked with soil I laughed when the dude just undid the metal retaining rod. Not to mention soil likes to expand when it gets wet, so good luck pulling that thing out when it's bursting at the seams after a few rains.
@@JohnMaxGriffin hes technically right but the FAB family is a group of... literal bombs coming in at 100kg (smallest) to 1000kg (largest) which the HESCO is clearly not designed to counter. in other words, if you have a HESCO barrier being hit with a hundred kilogram bomb (or higher) on a military installation, then alot of things have gone wrong.
This barrier works when country employing it has industrial advantage. You must have heavy equipment available to utilise it at fullest. While doing same with sandbags would be difficult. So its excels at specific situation.
automatic sand bag machine used for flood fighting in small municipalities can do 1000 sand bags per hour.. so apples to oranges when they show marines filling single bags one at a time. there's also concrete T-wall that goes up in the same amount of time if fill is unavailable for both. While HESCO was neat addition while deployed it was only successful when it was used in conjunction with other barriers.. But nice video, brought back some memories..
Like most things, it just ends up being another tool in the kit. I imagine the main advantage was streamlining. Instead of tons of specific/dependant equipment to set up bases, pour concrete and such you just need a frontloader, something any decently sized base would already have. You also need zero specific knowledge, I've seen some people do some bad concreting due to not understanding different grades and cure times as well.
I have literally lost count of how many times HESCO barriers have saved my life. I am not even exaggerating when I say that. We used to get mortared rocketed pretty much every few days on my 2nd Iraq deployment in 2005. It became so routine that we'd be smoking and joking on the back porch of the house we used for our TCP & come sunset be like, ""Welp, it's about that time again." And then we'd just go inside and let the HESCO's do their job. They truly are one of the most simple, effective, and utterly amazing inventions out there. Thanks Jimi.
No gal was ever mentioned in this video and the odds that a gal would have been the one to come up with this idea is pretty close to zero. They showed multiple videos of the guy who came up with the idea, and he was obviously a guy.
That long 'barrier would still take a massive amount of dirt fill! Without heavy machinery, how long would it take men with shovels to fill even one of the sections? Even with heavy equipment, the type of soil you have to work with would make a lot of difference, for instance, very rocky soil would be very difficult to tamp down especially with just your boots!
@@_gungrave_6802 It is like they're programmed to do it whenever they see the term gal mentioned, like Pavlov's dogs, just stupider. They really can't help outing themselves.
@@actionjksn The commenter was obviously talking about the container deployment technique, not the HESCO Barriers themselves, so your last point of the multiple videos of the guy is moot.
Hesco barriers and sand bags each have their niche; I don't see sand bags going away anytime soon. A couple of points I want to bring up. I designed a number of FOB's in western Afghanistan. If you desire Hesco fortification, need to 1) properly prepare it's base (think proper soil compaction, crushed rock or concrete) to prevent eventual collapse of the barriers due to runoff and soil erosion, and 2) do not fill with rock. rocks/gravel are brittle and will fragment when struck. Hescos makes good versatile fast fortification, enough to withstand truck bombs, when prepared right. However, not easily removable as our contractors have found out.
Ah. The mighty HESCO barrier. Brought back memories of Iraq and Afghanistan. Cool video. Although, so you know, the HESCO would often erode in rainy areas. Their side would split and fill dirt would pour out. Still they are a great invention. Second only to the 20 foot concrete T-barrier.
We had stacked 55 gallon drums filled with dirt in Vietnam. This was used around the barracks only. They barely saved lifes mortars were the worst because could walk into barracks. Bunkers had sand bags that were same ones used for flooding in the states. Rockets could go through sand bags over bunkers and did killing Men inside. One killing 30 men in bunker. These need heavy equipment to fill not available in the field. We filled sand bags in the field with equipment only shovel required. They weren't very good at protecting us.
The need for heavy equipment, plus incompetence and hubris, is how you got Wanat. When the bobcat broke down there was not way you properly fill the Hescos, and the bobcat was too small to properly construct the position even if it had continued working, they needed a significantly larger loader or a HMEE to fill above 4 ft.
I'm now wondering how fast you could fill sandbags if you loaded a concrete truck with only sand. I'm also thinking how practical a single sand tube 200 feet long of foot square cross section would be for flood control. Possibly 2 ft by 2 ft 50 feet long instead? Fill in any gaps with traditional sand bags and there you go.
My dad works at a power plant and they used those long bags to protect from flooding. It's basically a giant sausage stuffer in a way.@willythemailboy2
@@willythemailboy2 The practicality would be hindered by its mass. Sand weighs around 100lb per cubic foot. A single sandbag can hold a bit more than 1 cubic foot, but is usually only filled halfway or less to be both easily movable by hand & to be malleable when placed (consider them to be beanbags, not bricks). Often about 40-50 lbs seems to be the sweet spot. Now, lets consider your 2x2x50 super sand bag. Area of circle = 1/2 x pi x r x r. A = 0.5 x 3.14 x 1 x 1 = 1.57 square feet. Now, since this is continuous and will need to be moved into place, each person will need to be carrying about 2 linear feet, but we're also only going to be filling this halfway so that its just as pliable as a normal sandbag. These then cancel out. And so you're left with each person hauling 1.5 to 1.6 cubic feet of sand. 150-160 pounds. Per person. Even if you put another person on the other side & have half the people walk backwards (or everyone shuffle sideways), they still need to carry 75-80 lbs in their forearms. Repeatedly, until the barrier is complete. Or you could just fill the whole thing in place without moving it. But then you could make it a lot bigger. Maybe cube shaped, with an open top. A HESCO.
I really liked the sandbox defense. It's practical, it's simple, it's cheap, and it's efficient. This sandbox fortification could easily be prop up and turn into military styled base In matter of hours. The material needed to fill these sandbox are already readily available. It's possibly one of the best invention I've seen.
2009 Kandahar Afghanistan, There were regular rocket attacks at night. One night a round came through a tent and broke a guy's alarm clock then went clear through a hesco barrier like it was nothing (didn't detonate). It skittered around on the ground and went into a bomb shelter. When the guys finally had gotten out of bed after the air raid alarm and into the shelter they smelled something odd. It was night and no lights in the shelter. Someone had a flashlight and they shined it on the ground and there was this steaming katusha round there on the floor. They all bailed out of the shelter quick fast and in a hurry and called the EOD people who came and did their thing.
I always wonder how many lives are 'saved' due to poor munitions manufacturing or storage. Can't imagine turning on a flashlight and seeing a live round just chilling there in front of me.
Wish I had these sand barriers ...years ago. Very easy.. dozer and bag.. They take huge impacts So many new improvements. Retired US Army special forces.
British bases in Iraq/Afghan had a good way of filling sandbags. A pile of sand and sandbags outside the mess tent, nobody (regardless of rank) got in for food without filling one...
Gabions were pretty practical for their usage, they could steepen earthworks and the only stuff they would face were bullet and roundshot in which you just need a bunch of mass Sandbags were cheaper and easier to carry which is why they made a resurgence
Heavier to transport but not as much of an issue with modern logistics and heavy lift transport planes and helicopters, and the wider availability of front loaders. Sandbags are still the backup option when manpower is the only thing available, but for larger fortifications HESCO are absolutely incredible.
HESCO don't work in a real war like in Ukraine because normal artillery destroys them. HESCO works when you are occupying a country and fighting insurgents.
Sorta, they resist to that stuff pretty well, they are better for setting up bases and defensive positions far behind the line, the time to use it on the front of Ukraine makes its use impractical, and normal artillery destroys anything it hits close enough too, but even then it’s made of thick material and filled with sand a meter or more thick
I've saw the HESCO-like structure being used in Ukraine, just in different way - to reinforce the trench walls, so they wouldn't collapse when bombarded by artillery. I guess they don't put any above the ground, as they would be easy to spot, target and destroy. And once the front wall falls, I imagine the tank shells, RPG's, 30mm explosive rounds, impact grenades, etc. fired directly against the still-standing back wall would detonate, sending shock wave and shrapnel to anybody in the remains of the corridor.
You know, it wouldn't be pretty, or desireable; but these Hesco barriers could be used in a pinch to make some rather sturdy temporary housing for the destitute and otherwise homeless folk out there. Just line up some rows to build up a barrier as walls, then put a heavy duty fabric overtop as a roof, with some draping over the sides to provide a secondary layer against the elements, and to provide a doorway much like a tent is setup. (It is temporary after all.) They'd be sturdy enough to withstand some severe weather, warm enough to keep people safe during all the non-winter months in colder climates, and would otherwise be able to house many people in a single unit until they can be sorted out with some better accommodations made available when capable. Again, it's nothing special, or flattering. It's temporary, but versatile enough to suit the need. And if winter does arrive before they can be emptied out, that's when the trailer units get brought into action. The people who work up in the bush that use those campsites with the container like housing; that's what I am talking about.
@@kelvinsantiago7061 I was referencing to the Bahr operation (1973) lol. Egyptian combat engineers used some very big hoses (water cannons) to blast away Israeli sand wall.
almost every castle or fort in the history of warfare was relying heavily on building walls out of dirt (or walls out of wood and stone filled with dirt).
as a civil engineer it reminds me of rock filled gabions for retaining walls or shoreline protection .. and in the desert there's no shortage of sand & dirt for backfill ..
I'm not sure if you go into it but heseldine was an absolute dynamite human being, just a good man who treated his workers right, loved his country and his community. Unfortunately his life gets overshadowed by his death.
Sand bags are still used. Hesco barriers are part of the tools used to build up fortifications, but sandbags still have their place. Things like Hesco barriers have been around for hundreds of years. Hesco barriers are just modern Gabion barriers, which have been used since at least the 15th century. So these sort of fortifications predated sandbags already, but sandbags are still just as useful as they were before.
Jimmy: *Invents HESCO Barrier to stop floods, but it ends up becoming a military product *Donates to charity, buys Segway corporation, rides one off a cliff to his death *Refuses to elaborate, leaves
In the Civil War many confederate ships were known as "Cottonclads" because bales of cotton backed the iron armor plate, was effective against most projectiles of the day.
Hescos are great for larger bases or larger defensive lines, but sand bags are really good for small units that don’t have organic engineering assets like front loaders and or are in remote terrain. If someone is air assaulting or parachuting in, it is very easy to have each man packed 5 empty sandbags into their rucks and then fill them to enhance individual fighting positions or create bunkers for heavier weapons.
Sand bags and HESCO barriers are diffrent, HESCO can replace sand bags in a lot of places however if you where let's say, reenforcing an existing building, HESCO barriers would take ay more effort and any hole you can shoot out of would be 1.4 m × 1.1 m wide and not work as cover.
@@rogerjensen5277 They have a metal pin that runs down one of the corners. You can attach a hook and have the loader pull the pin upwards, basically it just opens up and the dirt falls out. You can put the pin back in when done.
They seem good for defending bases from insurgents, or reinforcing back lines to form a defense should the front line move, but I don't see how they'd actually be good on the front lines given that they seem pretty hard to deploy while under fire. sandbags give you cover one sandbag at a time, HESCO barriers only provide cover once you fill it. You might as well dig a trench at that rate.
I was thinking along those lines myself. I was also thinking you could use willow saplings/shoots and build a living house with 2' (or whatever) thick walls. Good insulation, I think. It would probably work with black locust, too which I've heard people claim they've seen black locust fence posts start growing leaves and branches. I kinda believe it. Southern Engineering for the win. "It ain't perfect but if it works it works."
I have a feeling that these barriers would serve for generations on end like the 1911 or the M2 Browning, this thing was built for one purpose and the role it serves will never go away.
I think most of the emplacements of them are intended to be semi-permanent. Even when they do need to be taken down, the process of deploying, filling, letting them sit in the elements, and then disassembling them tends to damage the material significantly enough that you wouldn't really want to reuse it vs just getting new ones. Plus unless you really need to remove them to make room for something else or for environmental reasons, the labor and time required probably isn't worth the value of what's recovered.
I wonder if that could be used in home building. Adjust the size to about 3-4 feet thick, and use spray on concrete with fiber inclusion, and a solid tamping of the layers.... It could be a solid idea in some areas.
You lose a lot of floor area, as floor area is typically measured to the outside of the wall. But in areas that have big daytime temperature swings they would be ideal. Might have to use some kind of finer mesh screen like hardware cloth to keep varmints out however. And a healthy roof overhang to keep it all dry. Windows might be problematic as the wall is quite thick. But point most of a window wall to the equator (usually south) and it might be good. Not for a minimal area subdivision though.
1. Can’t imagine filling a HESCO by hand. 2. I remember all the super hype about a new secret item that was going to change the world, the Segway,how’d that pan out.
Funny thing is they still fill them with sand bags anyways, lol! We did on the OP in the mountains cause we couldn’t get equipment in the mountains. We had bobcats but they aren’t worth crap. They are nothing but big targets anyways.
I actually had a idea of using these to build the outer wall of a house, with a little bit of jiggery you could get a heavy duty wall with great insulation and storm security.
20 minutes to erect and fill 10m of hesco sounds very optimistic. That is going to require dozens of rounds trips of the front loader to the fill source. Even if the fill source is only a few meters away, you still have to turn around twice each trip, so there is no way you can do more than a couple buckets per minute under the most favorable real-world conditions.
HESCO only works if you have wide open areas, and heavy equipment that can fill them. This wouldnt work very well in jungles/forests due to limited mobility and difficult terrain. Sandbags is carried and placed by men, and can stack in horse carts/trucks. Fit the tool to the job. Hesco made some areas more efficient, but sandbags can be deployed anywhere, in any condition, with a man that is there. That is why sandbags will never fade away.
The sandbags are not to be underestimated. Their purpose is to be highly mobile, easily placed field fortification. You get dozens of bags in small space and you get them transported with the troops themselves and make the small protection where required easily, inside buildings, on the hard rock surfaces etc. They are never meant for permanent fortifications as western military like to use them to utilize them as infantry exerciser utility. You get people shovel, carry and place those bags, no need to run, do push-ups etc. And they take small space and can be replaced where required. You can't do anything like that with those permanent fortification systems that requires heavy equipment and safe areas in first place.
I'm envisioning a thinner version of this barrier to build housing! Add a thumper for rammed earth inside and waterproof stucco for cladding and walla! After the walls are all done, simply pour a mixture of concrete for the floors, on a stable non-clay foundation of course.
I'm not an engineer but it would seem to me that these barriers could be defeated by use of strips of detonation cord attached vertically to cut sections out of several barrier panels at once, then artillery/tank rounds with a short-delay fuse would blow thru most of the dirt allowing troops to invade fairly easily and provide them with some protection against small arms at the same time! These panels provide no over-head protection and don't allow for gun ports! Having inner walls made of these should reduce damage from artillery shrapnel but would also serve to increase over-pressure in each confined space! If no heavy equipment is available to fill these barriers, then how long would it take for men with shovel to fill them? Where would they get the dirt from? Maybe from just outside the barriers so that they would be making a moat at the same time; one that could potentially be filled with flammable liquids quickly in a last ditch defense!
Hesco is a worse protection to sandbags. When something hits a bag inside the sandbags, the bag will catch the projectile and move the force to a next bag till it fully stops. Hesco with just sand wont protect much, unless you fill it with huge rocks inside. To increase the protection to the max, you would have to place hesco next to another hesco.
If you watch the video he points that out exactly, hesco barriers are for bases and long term fortifications. Sandbags are still used by troops as they can be carried to the field and filled.
My brother has a really cool channel about inventions in history. Go check it out: www.youtube.com/@inventionsinhistory2
did you use ai for that comment aswell?
Self inflating foamcrete T-Walls come next. Just hook up a garden hose, pull the ripcord, & it grows and inflates itself into a 12' tall T-Wall barrier ...
that was a really fascinating story -- I cannot believe the man got killed on his own segway lol jeez
Hesco barriers are for bases. Sandbags are still used by the infantry. Hesco barriers require heavy equipment to place them. Infantry troops don't have that luxury. I am reminded of the time when I was a private in the 82nd. We were going into the field and my platoon sergeant was assigning tasks. He tells me "You will carry 4 sand bags. I was freaked out because sand bags are heavy and I was the M-60 machine gunner. The M-60 and ammo is already heavy. I went to him afterwards and told him that I would try but I didn't know if I could carry that much weight. He looked puzzled at first, then burst out laughing. "Hey, Dumbass, they don't have sand in them when you are carrying them. You fill them when needed." I should have felt foolish, but I just felt great relief.
this is the most infantry assumption ive ever seen. Assuming they will be full while you have to carry them.
100% the most WSL answer 😂
Helmet +100 Def but also -100 Int.
This is the grunstest story of all grunts.
This reminds me of the story in ww2 when the Gurka regiment was told they were going to be flown into hostile territory and then they would jump out of the plane.
They assumed they were going without parachutes..... for a full week and were making requests for changing the landing spot to an open field so they had a higher chance of survival. But they never refused😂
😂😂😂
Dude THANK YOU. It is surprisingly hard to find good info on these despite them being so practical
what? there are 5+ year old videos on official hesco group yt channel.
@@TheMrKotmanulYes, I’ve seen them. That’s all there is and it’s lacking. You’d think there would be 30 minute long features on these things
it is a gabion cage with cloth bag, that is it...
600 years of intense R and D into explosive penetration and exotic armor to counter it...............LUMP O DIRT! Checkmate.
These are just modern Gabion barriers, which have been around about as long as cannons.
Big piles of dirt always win.
Imagine them filled with gravel, sounds pretty effective to me.
@@sebastianbauer4768 Sand is much more effective than gravel. So is dirt. Gravel would send, well, gravel flying everywhere as shrapnel when hit with mortars or artillery.
@@Mittens_Gaming interesting, I didn’t consider artillery, good point
the major flaw being it works very poorly in wet areas, it needs a dry base and dry fill; if the structure built gets waterlogged you can forget the re-use or dismantle part.
So use sand bags for those places
I built and deconstructed these all over Africa in 2019 , they NEVER come apart in the Sahara , sahel or jungle , just use the gas powered chop saw , or 20-36 inch bolt cutters they work really well when you don't have any mogas . Also if your gonna pour concrete in them , which you can , do 1 foot at a time so they don't bulge, sweel or leak out the bottom , mixing a lot of crush and run in works good . Also you can send the exterior side of the cloth and grass and vines will grow on it , don't forget to wire claymores on the sides before you seed and plant vines on the sides .
Re-use is Secondary Positions have to be hold over long duration.
It's not major Flaw, it's private Parts!!!
Hear me out. What if we take a fueler; the m978. Take the fuel our of the equation, replace it with concrete, and 3d print the barrier. That way if its wet it should be able to print a foundation itself, given the fortifications lend curing time
I spent many hours around Ramadi in a loader, both filling and removing HESCOs. The idea of pulling the rod and dumping the dirt out is a nice thought, and _might_ work if you're making a promo video and it was only filled an hour ago. In practice, by the time you're told to remove the things, they've been in place for months or years and seen at least a couple good rains. At that point, they may as well be concrete for most purposes. You couldn't even push them with a D7, most of the time. My method was to simply attack them with a clamshell bucket until they ripped apart, while softening the dirt. Ram them, pinch the top and pull, scrape vertically with the teeth-whatever it took. You ended up with a pile of dirt and HESCO scraps all mixed in, which you could load into a dump truck (or...not).
They called you...The HESCO Hunter 😅
@@rickskellig4652 Ha, I would have preferred that over most of the nicknames I earned. Just like pilots' callsigns (in real life, not the movies), they are rarely flattering 😂
@@hibob841 It wouldn't be military humor if it was flattering.
If getting the rod out was a problem, You might just order a T-post puller from your nearby Tractor Supply (They had those in Ramadi, didn't they?) Doesn't solve the compaction issue though.
Yep, having worked with soil I laughed when the dude just undid the metal retaining rod. Not to mention soil likes to expand when it gets wet, so good luck pulling that thing out when it's bursting at the seams after a few rains.
Don't forget that properly filled HESCO barriers excel at absorbing shockwaves.
Just not from anything from the Russian FAB family.
@@laurencekelly5081 🤡
@@laurencekelly5081Lol what makes you say that
@@JohnMaxGriffin hes technically right but the FAB family is a group of... literal bombs coming in at 100kg (smallest) to 1000kg (largest) which the HESCO is clearly not designed to counter.
in other words, if you have a HESCO barrier being hit with a hundred kilogram bomb (or higher) on a military installation, then alot of things have gone wrong.
@@laurencekelly5081There's nothing special about FABs compared to other bombs of the same size and explosive content.
As someone who spent too much time filling sandbags, I applaud such thinking.
This barrier works when country employing it has industrial advantage. You must have heavy equipment available to utilise it at fullest. While doing same with sandbags would be difficult. So its excels at specific situation.
Dude, you keep up this kind of quality in videos, you'll be 100k in no time.
automatic sand bag machine used for flood fighting in small municipalities can do 1000 sand bags per hour.. so apples to oranges when they show marines filling single bags one at a time. there's also concrete T-wall that goes up in the same amount of time if fill is unavailable for both. While HESCO was neat addition while deployed it was only successful when it was used in conjunction with other barriers.. But nice video, brought back some memories..
Like most things, it just ends up being another tool in the kit. I imagine the main advantage was streamlining. Instead of tons of specific/dependant equipment to set up bases, pour concrete and such you just need a frontloader, something any decently sized base would already have. You also need zero specific knowledge, I've seen some people do some bad concreting due to not understanding different grades and cure times as well.
But how many T wall segments can you fit in a Chinook?
My dog, rescued from Afghanistan, is named Hesco.
I honestly want to buy some of these for my house. I think they're nice and practical for making some simple walls.
do you live in afghanistan?
Ive bought some for my homestead's fortifications.
@@odoroussmegma2191 No, lmao, but I live in California. So its the same shit honestly.
@@markoredano9141 Where did you buy them at?
@@BlyatBear Alibaba
I have literally lost count of how many times HESCO barriers have saved my life. I am not even exaggerating when I say that. We used to get mortared rocketed pretty much every few days on my 2nd Iraq deployment in 2005. It became so routine that we'd be smoking and joking on the back porch of the house we used for our TCP & come sunset be like, ""Welp, it's about that time again." And then we'd just go inside and let the HESCO's do their job. They truly are one of the most simple, effective, and utterly amazing inventions out there. Thanks Jimi.
2:44 I'm in that photo, in the back of the chinook. Was the last flight in/out of FOB Shawqat and I had to drop some something off for the closedown.
How cool, man
U made it in a Video bro
Ive emplaced using sandbags and hesco and I'm a fan of hesco!!!
Probably the only modular item in the military that actually works as advertised!
Whoever thought of that container deployment technique is definitely a work smarter not harder kind of guy/gal.
No gal was ever mentioned in this video and the odds that a gal would have been the one to come up with this idea is pretty close to zero. They showed multiple videos of the guy who came up with the idea, and he was obviously a guy.
That long 'barrier would still take a massive amount of dirt fill! Without heavy machinery, how long would it take men with shovels to fill even one of the sections? Even with heavy equipment, the type of soil you have to work with would make a lot of difference, for instance, very rocky soil would be very difficult to tamp down especially with just your boots!
@@actionjksn That is a fairly sexist thing to say man.
@@_gungrave_6802 It is like they're programmed to do it whenever they see the term gal mentioned, like Pavlov's dogs, just stupider. They really can't help outing themselves.
@@actionjksn The commenter was obviously talking about the container deployment technique, not the HESCO Barriers themselves, so your last point of the multiple videos of the guy is moot.
That was an interesting segue into the scooter story.
Yes, the story proved the scooter was misnamed. Move without interruption, the Segway did not...
"slow clap" nicely done 😂
Get back to work Gray.
Were you tempted to spell it Segway?
@@krashd Yes, lol.
Hesco barriers and sand bags each have their niche; I don't see sand bags going away anytime soon. A couple of points I want to bring up. I designed a number of FOB's in western Afghanistan. If you desire Hesco fortification, need to 1) properly prepare it's base (think proper soil compaction, crushed rock or concrete) to prevent eventual collapse of the barriers due to runoff and soil erosion, and 2) do not fill with rock. rocks/gravel are brittle and will fragment when struck. Hescos makes good versatile fast fortification, enough to withstand truck bombs, when prepared right. However, not easily removable as our contractors have found out.
Ah. The mighty HESCO barrier. Brought back memories of Iraq and Afghanistan. Cool video. Although, so you know, the HESCO would often erode in rainy areas. Their side would split and fill dirt would pour out. Still they are a great invention. Second only to the 20 foot concrete T-barrier.
Bremer wall is iconic, but HESCO is honestly better protection (assuming same height)... larger footprint though.
We had stacked 55 gallon drums filled with dirt in Vietnam. This was used around the barracks only. They barely saved lifes mortars were the worst because could walk into barracks. Bunkers had sand bags that were same ones used for flooding in the states. Rockets could go through sand bags over bunkers and did killing Men inside. One killing 30 men in bunker. These need heavy equipment to fill not available in the field. We filled sand bags in the field with equipment only shovel required. They weren't very good at protecting us.
The need for heavy equipment, plus incompetence and hubris, is how you got Wanat. When the bobcat broke down there was not way you properly fill the Hescos, and the bobcat was too small to properly construct the position even if it had continued working, they needed a significantly larger loader or a HMEE to fill above 4 ft.
One things for certain, you'll never run out of material to fill them.
Might explain why video games depict them.
Only you will struggle if the soil is frozen
In the '93 flood, the city manager of Columbia MO had crews filling sandbags using highway salt trucks. Fast.
I'm now wondering how fast you could fill sandbags if you loaded a concrete truck with only sand. I'm also thinking how practical a single sand tube 200 feet long of foot square cross section would be for flood control. Possibly 2 ft by 2 ft 50 feet long instead? Fill in any gaps with traditional sand bags and there you go.
@@willythemailboy2grain bags could be repurposed for that idea (albeit they are a bit wider than what you had in mind).
My dad works at a power plant and they used those long bags to protect from flooding. It's basically a giant sausage stuffer in a way.@willythemailboy2
@@willythemailboy2 The practicality would be hindered by its mass. Sand weighs around 100lb per cubic foot. A single sandbag can hold a bit more than 1 cubic foot, but is usually only filled halfway or less to be both easily movable by hand & to be malleable when placed (consider them to be beanbags, not bricks). Often about 40-50 lbs seems to be the sweet spot.
Now, lets consider your 2x2x50 super sand bag.
Area of circle = 1/2 x pi x r x r.
A = 0.5 x 3.14 x 1 x 1 = 1.57 square feet.
Now, since this is continuous and will need to be moved into place, each person will need to be carrying about 2 linear feet, but we're also only going to be filling this halfway so that its just as pliable as a normal sandbag. These then cancel out. And so you're left with each person hauling 1.5 to 1.6 cubic feet of sand. 150-160 pounds. Per person. Even if you put another person on the other side & have half the people walk backwards (or everyone shuffle sideways), they still need to carry 75-80 lbs in their forearms. Repeatedly, until the barrier is complete.
Or you could just fill the whole thing in place without moving it. But then you could make it a lot bigger. Maybe cube shaped, with an open top. A HESCO.
The Hesco barrier is brilliant, and will be around for a long time 😁👌👌❤️❤️
I really liked the sandbox defense. It's practical, it's simple, it's cheap, and it's efficient. This sandbox fortification could easily be prop up and turn into military styled base In matter of hours. The material needed to fill these sandbox are already readily available. It's possibly one of the best invention I've seen.
Rammed earth goes back a long ways.
I thank Hesco barriers at Base in Mali, I would probably not be alive if it weren´t for those barriers
I knew about the Segway guy falling off the cliff while riding one. I had no idea the same guy invented these barriers. Wild!
2009 Kandahar Afghanistan, There were regular rocket attacks at night. One night a round came through a tent and broke a guy's alarm clock then went clear through a hesco barrier like it was nothing (didn't detonate). It skittered around on the ground and went into a bomb shelter. When the guys finally had gotten out of bed after the air raid alarm and into the shelter they smelled something odd. It was night and no lights in the shelter. Someone had a flashlight and they shined it on the ground and there was this steaming katusha round there on the floor. They all bailed out of the shelter quick fast and in a hurry and called the EOD people who came and did their thing.
I always wonder how many lives are 'saved' due to poor munitions manufacturing or storage. Can't imagine turning on a flashlight and seeing a live round just chilling there in front of me.
@@Stealth86651I’m sure faulty ammo might not kill someone when they are fired, but they may kill another person later down the line.
Wish I had these sand barriers ...years ago. Very easy.. dozer and bag..
They take huge impacts
So many new improvements.
Retired US Army special forces.
this video gives me back pain
British bases in Iraq/Afghan had a good way of filling sandbags. A pile of sand and sandbags outside the mess tent, nobody (regardless of rank) got in for food without filling one...
Always wondered what they were called. Hell of an innovation!
Sorry to hear about his death.
Gabions were pretty practical for their usage, they could steepen earthworks and the only stuff they would face were bullet and roundshot in which you just need a bunch of mass
Sandbags were cheaper and easier to carry which is why they made a resurgence
I was wondering how to spell gabions to look it up. Thanks. 👍
Heavier to transport but not as much of an issue with modern logistics and heavy lift transport planes and helicopters, and the wider availability of front loaders.
Sandbags are still the backup option when manpower is the only thing available, but for larger fortifications HESCO are absolutely incredible.
HESCO don't work in a real war like in Ukraine because normal artillery destroys them. HESCO works when you are occupying a country and fighting insurgents.
Sorta, they resist to that stuff pretty well, they are better for setting up bases and defensive positions far behind the line, the time to use it on the front of Ukraine makes its use impractical, and normal artillery destroys anything it hits close enough too, but even then it’s made of thick material and filled with sand a meter or more thick
I've saw the HESCO-like structure being used in Ukraine, just in different way - to reinforce the trench walls, so they wouldn't collapse when bombarded by artillery.
I guess they don't put any above the ground, as they would be easy to spot, target and destroy.
And once the front wall falls, I imagine the tank shells, RPG's, 30mm explosive rounds, impact grenades, etc. fired directly against the still-standing back wall would detonate, sending shock wave and shrapnel to anybody in the remains of the corridor.
Of course they work. They don't prevent artillery but do prevent shrapnel propogation, also counter battery fire exists.
Protection is better than no protection.
@@ghostmantagshome-er6pb : that's what she said.
Outstanding! Interesting topic, well presented.
Thank You.
it was so much fun to fill the hesco barriers, especially when we didnt have construction equipment around...
Hesco mesh looks like one of those foldable laundry baskets.
lol imagine losing a war to a sandcastle made of laundry baskets 😂
Those Hesco things are now used as a household item to store shoes vertically.
Sand bags will never be gone because you can carry them easily in your pack and set up fortifications on the move
Been using Hesco since the late 80's
We had them in Bosnia early 90’s Canadian continent
You know, it wouldn't be pretty, or desireable; but these Hesco barriers could be used in a pinch to make some rather sturdy temporary housing for the destitute and otherwise homeless folk out there.
Just line up some rows to build up a barrier as walls, then put a heavy duty fabric overtop as a roof, with some draping over the sides to provide a secondary layer against the elements, and to provide a doorway much like a tent is setup. (It is temporary after all.)
They'd be sturdy enough to withstand some severe weather, warm enough to keep people safe during all the non-winter months in colder climates, and would otherwise be able to house many people in a single unit until they can be sorted out with some better accommodations made available when capable.
Again, it's nothing special, or flattering. It's temporary, but versatile enough to suit the need.
And if winter does arrive before they can be emptied out, that's when the trailer units get brought into action. The people who work up in the bush that use those campsites with the container like housing; that's what I am talking about.
Imagine telling your commander that the attack failed cause the enemy build a giant sandcastle!.
Just use a hose to wash it away :D
@@VuLe-wi9kv in a desert!?.
@@kelvinsantiago7061 I was referencing to the Bahr operation (1973) lol. Egyptian combat engineers used some very big hoses (water cannons) to blast away Israeli sand wall.
@@VuLe-wi9kv ahhh didn't know about that.
almost every castle or fort in the history of warfare was relying heavily on building walls out of dirt (or walls out of wood and stone filled with dirt).
I think there awesome, I’ve seen them from news reports and movies but never knew what they were. Now I do. Thanks for the vid. Very encouraging to me
as a civil engineer it reminds me of rock filled gabions for retaining walls or shoreline protection .. and in the desert there's no shortage of sand & dirt for backfill ..
I'm not sure if you go into it but heseldine was an absolute dynamite human being, just a good man who treated his workers right, loved his country and his community.
Unfortunately his life gets overshadowed by his death.
Sand bags are still used. Hesco barriers are part of the tools used to build up fortifications, but sandbags still have their place. Things like Hesco barriers have been around for hundreds of years. Hesco barriers are just modern Gabion barriers, which have been used since at least the 15th century. So these sort of fortifications predated sandbags already, but sandbags are still just as useful as they were before.
Everything you said was already mentioned in the video.
@@jonathanmueller2849 basically just repeated what the guy said in the vid.
Jimmy:
*Invents HESCO Barrier to stop floods, but it ends up becoming a military product
*Donates to charity, buys Segway corporation, rides one off a cliff to his death
*Refuses to elaborate, leaves
"yeah the guy liked saving lives"
Me: but he could not save himself 💀
In the Civil War many confederate ships were known as "Cottonclads" because bales of cotton backed the iron armor plate, was effective against most projectiles of the day.
That is the coolest most informative military vid. More plz
Hescos are great for larger bases or larger defensive lines, but sand bags are really good for small units that don’t have organic engineering assets like front loaders and or are in remote terrain. If someone is air assaulting or parachuting in, it is very easy to have each man packed 5 empty sandbags into their rucks and then fill them to enhance individual fighting positions or create bunkers for heavier weapons.
They came with this little hammer/knife tool. Somewhere I have one still.
Nice to know even soldiers steal from work :p
Tactically relocated
@@krashd Device-matched tools that outlive the device are up for grabs.
@@krashd if every "delivery" comes with a toolset, i bet those in charge dont mind or are even thankful to get rid of them!
Sand bags and HESCO barriers are diffrent, HESCO can replace sand bags in a lot of places however if you where let's say, reenforcing an existing building, HESCO barriers would take ay more effort and any hole you can shoot out of would be 1.4 m × 1.1 m wide and not work as cover.
The irony of him falling off a barrierless pathway
They can also be emptied by lifting them up with the same wheel loader, as the internal material just falls out of the bottom.
Wouldn't that destroy the wire mesh?
@@rogerjensen5277 They have a metal pin that runs down one of the corners. You can attach a hook and have the loader pull the pin upwards, basically it just opens up and the dirt falls out. You can put the pin back in when done.
A couple good rains and the filler may as well be concrete. Hescos are cheap enough you just destroy them
They seem good for defending bases from insurgents, or reinforcing back lines to form a defense should the front line move, but I don't see how they'd actually be good on the front lines given that they seem pretty hard to deploy while under fire. sandbags give you cover one sandbag at a time, HESCO barriers only provide cover once you fill it. You might as well dig a trench at that rate.
not to mention an individual soldier can carry 20 to 50 unfilled sandbags to thier fox hole cant say the same for a hesco barrier
Some earth moving equipment can be armored.
@@garywheeler7039 Yeah but they're not very readily available when contact with the enemy is made
this video is proof of your hard work and talent!
Fun fact you can make a poor man’s Version out of cattle panels and tarps
I was thinking along those lines myself. I was also thinking you could use willow saplings/shoots and build a living house with 2' (or whatever) thick walls. Good insulation, I think. It would probably work with black locust, too which I've heard people claim they've seen black locust fence posts start growing leaves and branches. I kinda believe it.
Southern Engineering for the win. "It ain't perfect but if it works it works."
@@MyName-tb9oz they used use willow sapling version during the civil war and in The Crimean war not the modern one
There is a HESCO Barrier set up at West Point Museum or at least the sides of one that shows a warning sign that was used in Iraq.
I've filled a few sandbags, and I approve of this video.
hard to replace something so incredibly strait forward and practical.
what do we have? dirt/sand
what do we need? box
boom, done
Years ago I have seen something similar for emergency housing after an earthquake where the steel mesh was filled with crushed rubble.
I have a feeling that these barriers would serve for generations on end like the 1911 or the M2 Browning, this thing was built for one purpose and the role it serves will never go away.
That's funny that they mentioned that barrier in my State. Was going to mention it as well. They finally took it all down around 2022-2023 hah
I've NEVER seen a barrier disassembled.
I think most of the emplacements of them are intended to be semi-permanent. Even when they do need to be taken down, the process of deploying, filling, letting them sit in the elements, and then disassembling them tends to damage the material significantly enough that you wouldn't really want to reuse it vs just getting new ones.
Plus unless you really need to remove them to make room for something else or for environmental reasons, the labor and time required probably isn't worth the value of what's recovered.
I wonder if that could be used in home building. Adjust the size to about 3-4 feet thick, and use spray on concrete with fiber inclusion, and a solid tamping of the layers.... It could be a solid idea in some areas.
You lose a lot of floor area, as floor area is typically measured to the outside of the wall. But in areas that have big daytime temperature swings they would be ideal. Might have to use some kind of finer mesh screen like hardware cloth to keep varmints out however. And a healthy roof overhang to keep it all dry. Windows might be problematic as the wall is quite thick. But point most of a window wall to the equator (usually south) and it might be good. Not for a minimal area subdivision though.
Great system if you have the time and equipment to set them up. If not get out your old school pioneer gear.
If I invented that I’d be watching this from my Viking 120’ yacht in the keys
'Inventing' something is easy. It's actually giving a solid case and making a marketing for it, that about equally as challenging.
They scan like a great thing for any FOB that can justify the loader but a PITA for anything smaller.
1. Can’t imagine filling a HESCO by hand.
2. I remember all the super hype about a new secret item that was going to change the world, the Segway,how’d that pan out.
What ordinance can those walls stop?? You showed some firing from the front, but not what happened at the rear.
Funny thing is they still fill them with sand bags anyways, lol! We did on the OP in the mountains cause we couldn’t get equipment in the mountains. We had bobcats but they aren’t worth crap. They are nothing but big targets anyways.
I love these! Can they be used in a private field though?!
I actually had a idea of using these to build the outer wall of a house, with a little bit of jiggery you could get a heavy duty wall with great insulation and storm security.
20 minutes to erect and fill 10m of hesco sounds very optimistic. That is going to require dozens of rounds trips of the front loader to the fill source. Even if the fill source is only a few meters away, you still have to turn around twice each trip, so there is no way you can do more than a couple buckets per minute under the most favorable real-world conditions.
Nice, now I can start building my fortification the the garden. 🏰
It also comes with small muli tool, if your lucky to find one. That's the first thing to go.
Rip sandbags, you will forever be in my heart.
Isn’t it still being used? Like in a fewer quantity
In Poland we still use sandbags in flooding prevention. I guess that these rapid-to-build barriers could save some damage.
HESCO only works if you have wide open areas, and heavy equipment that can fill them. This wouldnt work very well in jungles/forests due to limited mobility and difficult terrain. Sandbags is carried and placed by men, and can stack in horse carts/trucks.
Fit the tool to the job. Hesco made some areas more efficient, but sandbags can be deployed anywhere, in any condition, with a man that is there. That is why sandbags will never fade away.
What it we used expanding foam instead of sand. A couple of rebars dug in the middle like tentpole for stability.
Not enough density to stop blast or shrapnel.
Seems like something that would be great under very specific conditions.
The shipping conex deployment is genius!
The sandbags are not to be underestimated. Their purpose is to be highly mobile, easily placed field fortification. You get dozens of bags in small space and you get them transported with the troops themselves and make the small protection where required easily, inside buildings, on the hard rock surfaces etc.
They are never meant for permanent fortifications as western military like to use them to utilize them as infantry exerciser utility. You get people shovel, carry and place those bags, no need to run, do push-ups etc. And they take small space and can be replaced where required. You can't do anything like that with those permanent fortification systems that requires heavy equipment and safe areas in first place.
I'm envisioning a thinner version of this barrier to build housing! Add a thumper for rammed earth inside and waterproof stucco for cladding and walla!
After the walls are all done, simply pour a mixture of concrete for the floors, on a stable non-clay foundation of course.
Gabion Basket.
Very well done - Thanks!
instead of sandbags, these are metal reinforced sand boxes, ofc they are better!
that LONG placement straight out of a container is truly impressive!
It was originally called ‘HESCO Bastion’. Did the American military not understand the word ‘bastion’?
Just wondering if it is legal for civilians to purchase and install for neighbors problems
If not, chainlink and tarps do the samr
I'm not an engineer but it would seem to me that these barriers could be defeated by use of strips of detonation cord attached vertically to cut sections out of several barrier panels at once, then artillery/tank rounds with a short-delay fuse would blow thru most of the dirt allowing troops to invade fairly easily and provide them with some protection against small arms at the same time! These panels provide no over-head protection and don't allow for gun ports! Having inner walls made of these should reduce damage from artillery shrapnel but would also serve to increase over-pressure in each confined space! If no heavy equipment is available to fill these barriers, then how long would it take for men with shovel to fill them? Where would they get the dirt from? Maybe from just outside the barriers so that they would be making a moat at the same time; one that could potentially be filled with flammable liquids quickly in a last ditch defense!
Assume you would put wire and land mines in front of the barrier to discourage exactly what you outlined.
You would be shot and killed before you got near the barrier, bases have guard towers you know.
Each assembly has a small knife included in the kit.
"These soldiers"
Shows Marine Camo
WALTZING MATILDA INTENSIFIES
Hesco barriers have been in use for 30 years now. It's almost as bad as a video titled _Goodbye Jeeps? This is how the US drives troops now._
They did in fact... stop using jeeps.
Been using them for 20+years now...
About 40
It was Camp Bastion although it is long since gone.
Hesco is a worse protection to sandbags. When something hits a bag inside the sandbags, the bag will catch the projectile and move the force to a next bag till it fully stops.
Hesco with just sand wont protect much, unless you fill it with huge rocks inside. To increase the protection to the max, you would have to place hesco next to another hesco.
Seems Russia could have used these Hesco barriers around their ammunition storage
You need heavy equipment and the infrastructure that comes from that. Sandbags require bags and grunts with entrenching tools..
If you watch the video he points that out exactly, hesco barriers are for bases and long term fortifications. Sandbags are still used by troops as they can be carried to the field and filled.
Great presentation. Thank you.
They're a useful tool - it'll be interesting to see how they evolve. Might make some good border barriers around Kharkiv.
A hesco saved my life in Khan Younis, Gaza 4 months ago.