Like piling up sandbags, only easier and faster.

• Author: Foster, Sharon
• Position: Tech talk

With an eye on the growing homeland security market, a British manufacturer is offering a fortification system that is comparable to sandbags, but faster to build.

The "Concertainer" was first used by the British Army in the 1991 Gulf War. Made by Hesco Bastion Ltd., of West Yorkshire, the fortification system is equivalent to approximately 1,500 sandbags and can be erected and filled by two men and a loader. Concertainer can be filled with sand, rubble, rocks and even snow.

The walls can protect command posts, hospitals...