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The first thing any bad actor would do is unhook the trailer and hook it up to their own truck and drive away.

snypher 5y ago
I'm not sure you can just pull the hitch pin. The trailer itself is also designed to blow it's axles if required.
justin66 5y ago
The first thing they'd have to do is either trick the convoy and its screening vehicles into a roadblock and assault the convoy, or use IEDs to stop the convoy and assault what's left. A number of people have commented on how the semi has its own countermeasures, but it honestly would take an awful lot of effort to even get to the point that such a thing is necessary.
- iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
  Wikipedia says all LEO or military authorized to assist the convoy are given a countersign. This is to prevent tricking into a roadblock like you suggest. It also means that legitimate LEO who try to assist will be fired upon by the convoy. If that happens they are just supposed to take cover until the authorized ones show up and take over.
  - justin66 5y ago
    > Wikipedia says all LEO or military authorized to assist the convoy are given a countersign. This is to prevent tricking into a roadblock like you suggest. I wasn't suggesting anything in particular, but I think the sort of roadblock you'd use to slow down a convoy like this would involve a staged accident to force a detour of the convoy to a less secure route. An awful lot needs to go wrong for that to even be possible, and at the end of the day there's still combat with heavily armed law enforcement needed to get near the cargo. It seems pretty futile, since the end result of applying even an overwhelming (and somehow previously undetected) force to the convoy is probably going to be a ruined road, a ruined semi, and a difficult to open, boobytrapped vault on the road that weighs so much you'd need a crane to move it.
  - wolverine876 5y ago
    Forget what Wikipedia says about confidential security information. Is there a basis in reality for that?
542354234235 5y ago
So, if this is such an obvious thing, why wouldn’t you think there are countermeasures for that? As people have said, the trucks have (or very likely have) axels that self-destruct. They also could have a trailer hitch that self-destructs if you attempt to disconnect it. The hitch could also be custom made to be too large/small/wrong shape for a traditional hitch. The lines that connect to the air brakes (that lock up without air pressure) could be custom made to not fit, or self-destruct, or both. The cab could have a kill switch that destroys or disables the engine. And of course, we don’t actually know which of these are actually used, and what additional security measures there are. So any bad actor would have to gain access to detailed security plans without it being discovered or attack blind and hope they have accounted for everything and can overcome known and unknown security. Seems a bit more complicated than just unhooking the trailer and driving off.

I'm not sure you can just pull the hitch pin. The trailer itself is also designed to blow it's axles if required.

The first thing they'd have to do is either trick the convoy and its screening vehicles into a roadblock and assault the convoy, or use IEDs to stop the convoy and assault what's left. A number of people have commented on how the semi has its own countermeasures, but it honestly would take an awful lot of effort to even get to the point that such a thing is necessary.

iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
Wikipedia says all LEO or military authorized to assist the convoy are given a countersign. This is to prevent tricking into a roadblock like you suggest. It also means that legitimate LEO who try to assist will be fired upon by the convoy. If that happens they are just supposed to take cover until the authorized ones show up and take over.
- justin66 5y ago
  > Wikipedia says all LEO or military authorized to assist the convoy are given a countersign. This is to prevent tricking into a roadblock like you suggest. I wasn't suggesting anything in particular, but I think the sort of roadblock you'd use to slow down a convoy like this would involve a staged accident to force a detour of the convoy to a less secure route. An awful lot needs to go wrong for that to even be possible, and at the end of the day there's still combat with heavily armed law enforcement needed to get near the cargo. It seems pretty futile, since the end result of applying even an overwhelming (and somehow previously undetected) force to the convoy is probably going to be a ruined road, a ruined semi, and a difficult to open, boobytrapped vault on the road that weighs so much you'd need a crane to move it.
- wolverine876 5y ago
  Forget what Wikipedia says about confidential security information. Is there a basis in reality for that?

542354234235 5y ago

So, if this is such an obvious thing, why wouldn’t you think there are countermeasures for that? As people have said, the trucks have (or very likely have) axels that self-destruct. They also could have a trailer hitch that self-destructs if you attempt to disconnect it. The hitch could also be custom made to be too large/small/wrong shape for a traditional hitch. The lines that connect to the air brakes (that lock up without air pressure) could be custom made to not fit, or self-destruct, or both. The cab could have a kill switch that destroys or disables the engine. And of course, we don’t actually know which of these are actually used, and what additional security measures there are. So any bad actor would have to gain access to detailed security plans without it being discovered or attack blind and hope they have accounted for everything and can overcome known and unknown security. Seems a bit more complicated than just unhooking the trailer and driving off.