Footage of a Turkish military vehicle being struck by an improvised explosive device shows the real power of IEDs. The several ton vehicle is tossed to the side and flipped like a hot wheels car.

Improvised Explosive Devices, also known as IEDs, are one of the most terrifying weapon systems that exist on the battlefield today. What's terrifying about them isn't just their explosive ability, or their effectiveness against armored vehicles. It's the abundance in which organizations can craft the devices and, ease of which they can emplace almost anywhere a military convoy may be travelling.

The keyword in IED is improvised. These devices are often made from common materials you can find just about anywhere. The creators of these devices are so intelligent, that for the longest time they were able to rig cordless phone bay-stations to them in order to allow the person detonating the device a wireless command detonation process. After several years of facing off with this rudimentary detonation process, counter-measures were put in place that stopped those devices from working, forcing new innovations in the IED making space to be made.

In this video, we're looking at a command-wire detonation device. Most likely, the person with the camera is sitting at the other end of a long wire. That wire, when actuated by the detonator, causes the IED to explode. Judging from the way the Turkish vehicle is tossed, the IED was also very large, as the Turkish Military has been facing this same IED threat for almost as long as NATO forces that operated throughout both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. If you watch closely in the video, you can see a small line of dust get kicked up along the command wire as the device explodes.