Army Maj. Gen. Michael L. Oates, former commander of the 10th Mountain Division, has been nominated to receive a third star and take over as head of the Joint IED Defeat Organization.

If confirmed by the Senate, Oates would replace Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, who is slated to retire on Nov. 13.

Oates is coming to the job as IED attacks in Afghanistan are up compared with last year.

The Defense Department is shipping MRAP-All Terrain Vehicles to Afghanistan to provide troops protection against IEDs and allow them to go off road, but the insurgents in Afghanistan are also using bigger and bigger bombs.

Recently, insurgents used a 1,000-pound bomb made from fertilizer against a Stryker in southern Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said on Wednesday.

“There's not an armored vehicle you could build that would likely protect you against a 1,000-pound fertilizer bomb,” Morrell said. “Even if it doesn't penetrate the hull, those inside of it are going to suffer a concussive blast that is clearly going to be a real danger to them.”

Metz told reporters last week that adding more armor to vehicles will not solve the problem.

“A land submarine is not going to work,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R.-Calif., has advocated using unmanned aerial drones to provide 24-hour surveillance of hotspots where IED attacks occur, similar to Task Force ODIN in Iraq.

Metz said commanders face a much different challenge in Afghanistan.

“You’re sitting there in Afghanistan and it looks about like the moon sometimes,” he said last week. “I mean, it’s huge open spaces, not much vegetation. It’s an unbelievably tough, rugged terrain, and so putting surveillance to cover it all is a massive challenge.”