The Goliath was the first robot used to detonate enemy minefields during the Battle of Kursk. It was a remote wire guided mini-tank carrying one hell of a charge of explosive. the Germans drove it into the minefield detonated it and the shock waves induced sympathetic detonation of mines.

In Afghanistan they are using dogs (which my son says are incredible), drones, helicopters, robots and for the command detonated IEDs there are ECM kits on the vehicles.

What is sparsely reported in the western press, primarily because it does not fit in with their agenda, is that the vast bulk of IEDs set are detected and rendered safe, local villagers provide an enormous amount of information. The more IEDs that are discovered and defused the more you get to know about those planting them.

The other odd thing about the western press is the way in which they have hyped up the IED. The IED is in effect a "Booby-Trap" device, and no army or resistance force has ever won a war using them. They are an indication of a force that is being forced into conceeding territory, as the Taleban are currently being forced to do in Helmand at the moment.