Angry in the Great White North

Two defused car bombs in London, followed by a stunning attack on the airport in Glasgow, Scotland -- Britain is on edge and for good reason:

Two men rammed a flaming sport utility vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses said. Police said two suspects were arrested.

The airport - Scotland's largest - was evacuated and all flights suspended, a day after British police thwarted a plot to bomb central London, discovering two cars abandoned with loads of gasoline, gas canisters and nails.

In Glasgow, the green SUV barreled toward the building at full speed shortly after 3 p.m., hitting security barriers before crashing into the glass doors and exploding, witnesses said. Two men jumped out of the burning vehicle, one of them engulfed in flames, they said.

"The car came speeding past at about 30 mph. It was approaching the building quickly," said Scott Leeson, who was nearby at the time. "Then the driver swerved the car around so he could ram straight in to the door. He must have been trying to smash straight through."

Leeson said bollards - security posts outside the entrance - stopped the driver from barreling into the bustling terminal at Glasgow's airport.

The latest report I heard was the total civilian casualty toll was one person with a leg injury. The airport will be closed for two days, maybe three at the most.

We all see bollards everywhere, but few people know the proper name. I recall bollards sprouting like mushrooms in 1991 in the days after Operation Desert Storm started. Those short and humble posts, sometimes doubling as flower boxes or supports for benches, designed to stop the sort of attack we've seen in Glasgow today.

The requirements for so-called "anit-ram" bollards are defined by the US State Department. Basically, a 15,000 pound vehicle is driven at the barrier while carrying a payload of 55-gallon drums filled with sand in an open flatbed. After the crash, the farthest distance past the barrier reached by the dislodged payload can't exceed three feet. The speed at which the truck hits the barrier defines the "K" rating of the barrier (assuming it successfully stops the vehicle and payload, of course):

If a barrier stops a 15,000-pound truck traveling at a certain speed, AND the front edge of the truck's cargo bed does not penetrate more than one meter beyond the pre-impact inside edge of the barrier**, then it is given a rating according to the table below.

Speed at Impact / Barrier Rating
30 mph / K4
40 mph / K8
50 mph / K12

For example, if a barrier stops a 15,000-pound truck traveling at 40 mph and the front of the cargo bed penetrated one foot beyond the impact point, the barrier receives a K8 rating.

** Note in the most recent version of the standard, it is the distance travelled by the payload and not the cargo bed that is the important measurement.

Because it is so cool, here are videos of bollards in action:

If the bollards at the entrance of the Glasgow airport were even half as effective as these (and I'm willing to bet they were nothing less than 100% effective), then these terrorists are either monumentally ignorant or hopelessly optimistic.

Which is why I wonder if al Qaeda has been reduced to deploying their second stringers and jihadi wannabees. Having seen these videos, in which attempts to defeat the bollards under ideal conditions for the attacker -- straight run-up to the bollard, no secondary defenses (curbs, walls, etc), and driving a large cargo truck instead of a smaller SUV -- result in decisive wins for the bollard, I would reject this sort of plan out of hand as a pointless waste of resources. Not to mention the only thing I could be certain of is that my cell would be rolled up by the authorities.

In the mean time, let's hear it for the humble bollard!