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| A Landmine is a type of self-contained explosive device silent killers spread across our world | |
| They claim a new victim on average every 22 minutes, young children are often unable to play in safety. In some countries the numbers of people who have lost limbs to landmines and unexploded ordnance are almost epidemic in their proportion. Landmines represent a severe impediment to socio-economic development. Long after the cessation of hostilities these silent killers remain to terrorize and claim innocent victims. Landmines contribute to the fact that non-combatants now account for almost 90% of all casualties of modern warfare. | |
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History The basic concept behind the landmine has appeared through military history. Some sources report that Zhuge Liang, of the kingdom of Shu of China, invented a landmine type device in the third century AD. Forces in ancient Rome sometimes dug small foot-sized holes, covered and armed with a sharpened spike. In the Middle Ages in Europe, small, 4-pronged spiked devices called caltrops or crows' feet could be scattered on the ground to delay the advance of an enemy. In Europe in the early 18th century, improvised landmines or booby traps were constructed in the form of bombs buried in shallow wells in the earth and covered with scrap metal and/or gravel to serve as shrapnel. Known in French as fougasse, the term is sometimes still used in the present day to describe such devices. This technique was used in several European wars of the 18th Century, the American Revolution, and the American Civil War. The first modern mechanically fused high explosive anti-personnel landmines were created in Imperial Germany, circa 1912, and were copied and manufactured by all major participants in the First World War. In World War I, landmines were used notably at the start of the battle of Passchendale. Well before the war was over, the British were manufacturing landmines that contained poison gas instead of explosives. Poison gas landmines were manufactured at least until the 1980s in the Soviet Union.The United States was known to have at least experimented with the concept in the 1950s. Nuclear mines have also been developed, both land and naval varieties. An example is the British Blue Peacock project. |
Triggering Mechanisms |
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| A landmine can be triggered by a number of things including pressure, movement, sound, magnetism and vibration. Anti-personnel mines commonly use the pressure of a person's foot as a trigger, but tripwires are also frequently employed. Most modern anti-vehicle mines use a magnetic trigger to enable it to detonate even if the tires or tracks did not touch it. Advanced mines are able to sense the difference between friendly and enemy types of vehicles by way of a built-in signature catalogue. This will theoretically enable friendly forces to use the mined area while denying the enemy access.Many mines combine the main trigger with a touch or tilt trigger to prevent enemy engineers from defusing it. |
Landmine designs tend to use as little metal as possible to make searching with a metal detector more difficult; landmines made mostly of plastic have the added advantage of being very inexpensive. Some types of mines used by the U.S. Army and many other forces are designed to self-destruct after a period of weeks or months to reduce the likelihood of civilian casualties at the conflict's end. However, these self-destruct mechanisms are not absolutely reliable, and most landmines laid historically are not equipped in this manner. |
Landmine Varieties |
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Anti-Tank Mines (AT) Anti-tank mines are designed to immobilise or destroy vehicles and their occupants. Anti-tank mines can produce either a mobility kill (M-Kill) or a catastrophic kill (K-Kill). An M-Kill destroys one or more of the vehicle's vital drive components (for example, breaking a track on a tank) thus immobilising the target. An M-Kill does not always destroy the weapon system or injure the crew. In a K-Kill, the weapon system and/or the crew are destroyed. Anti-Tank mines are typically larger than anti-personnel mines and require more pressure to detonate. The high trigger pressure (normally 100 kg (250 lb) prevents them from being set off by infantry. More modern anti-tank mines use shaped charges to cut through armour. These were first deployed in large numbers in World War II. Anti-Personnel (AP) Mines Anti-Personnel mines are designed to kill or incapacitate their victims. Such mines require the commitment of medical resources on the part of the affected enemy force, may degrade unit morale, and can damage unarmoured vehicles. Some types of AP mines may break or damage the track on armoured vehicles. AP mines can be classified into three main types: Blast Mines, AP Fragmentation Mines and AP Bounding Mines. AP Blast Mines A typical AP Blast mine can be classified as "pressure activated munition", the primary purpose of which is to incapacitate via the direct blast wave of the explosive charge. A typical AP Blast mine will have the following components: Mine Casing : The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it from its environment. Early landmines such as the ones found in the WWII era had casings made of steel and could be found with an electronic mine detector. Today, most AP Blast mines have a casing made out of plastic which makes them immune from electronic mine detectors. Pressure Plate/Detonation Mechanism: The detonation mechanism is designed to set off the detonation charge either by striking it with a firing pin or passing an electric charge through it. Most AP Blast mines use a spring-loaded detonation mechanism that strikes the detonator charge when activated. Detonator : The detonator charge is a highly sensitive explosive that will explode easily if sudden pressure is applied to it or an electric charge is applied through it. Main Charge : The main charge of an AP blast mine consists of stable explosive that is itself detonated by the detonator charge. This is necessary, as making a mine out of highly sensitive "Detonator Charge" explosive would make it dangerously susceptible to explosion. In most AP blast mines TNT or Tetryl is used. On a U.S. M-14 AP Blast mine, around 31 grams of Tetryl is used, while up to 200 grams of TNT is used in a Russian PMN mine. Deployment of AP Blast Mines : AP Blast Mines are typically used to deny an area for use by military forces or civilians. They are normally buried under 5 to 10 cm of soil or in some cases put under leaves or rocks. |
When a subject activates an AP blast mine by stepping on one, the mine's main charge will explode and release a blast wave consisting of hot gases (the by-product of the explosion). This blast wave will send a huge compressive force upwards, bringing the mine casing and bits of the soil covering the mine along with it. When the blast wave hits the surface, it will quickly transfer the force into the subject's footwear and foot. This results in a massive compression force being applied to the subject's footwear and the foot's soft tissue and bone. In most cases, these will be crushed and torn off by the blast wave.The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of the blast mine's main charge, the depth and type of soil it was laid in and how the victim contacted it. Different types of soil will result in different amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject's extremities, with saturated "clay-like" soil transferring the most. Larger main charges result in a release of significantly more energy, driving the blast wave further up a target's foot and leg and causing greater injury. Small landmines such as the Chinese Type 72 or the U.S. M-14 will result in a "traumatically amputated" foot up to the ankle, while large Russian PMN Blast mines with 200 g of TNT are so powerful that activating them will likely result in the injury of both of the subject's legs. Secondary injuries from a blast mine will be caused by the material that has been torn loose by the mine's explosion. The material consists of the soil and stones that were on top of the mine, parts of the subject's footwear and the small bones in the subject's foot. This debris is projected upwards at great velocity and can become embedded in the wounds of the target, shredding tissue and encouraging infection. Footwear, including combat boots or so-called "blast boots", does little to mitigate the effects of the mine, and the loss of a foot is the typical outcome of activating an AP Blast. Anti-Personnel Fragmentation Mines AP Fragmentation mines are a type of area denial munition designed to incapacitate or kill. When activated, the mine is designed to explode and project lethal metal fragments into its victim. Most AP Fragmentation mines are triggered by a tripwire. When a subject disturbs the wire, the mine will explode and release a shower of metal fragments into its surroundings. Any subject caught in its blast will likely suffer multiple shrapnel wounds over his or her body. Anti-Handling Devices (AHD) Anti-Handling Devices perform the function of a mine fuse if someone attempts to tamper with the mine. They are intended to prevent moving or removing the mine, not to prevent reduction of the minefield by enemy dismounts. An AHD usually consists of an explosive charge that is connected to, placed next to, or manufactured in the mine. The device can be attached to the mine body and activated by a wire that is attached to a firing mechanism. U.S. forces can employ AHDs on conventional AT mines only. Other countries may employ AHDs on AT and AP mines. |
Laying Minefields |
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| Minefields may be laid by several means. Mine-scattering shells may be fired by artillery from a distance of several tens of kilometres; mines may be ejected from cruise missiles, or dropped from helicopters or airplanes. Armoured fighting vehicles equipped to lay mines have also been built. The preferred, but most labour-intensive, way is to have trained personnel bury the mines, since this will make the mines practically invisible and reduce the number of mines needed to deny the enemy an area. | Often anti-tank minefields are scattered with anti-personnel mines to make clearing them manually more time-consuming; and anti-personnel minefields are scattered with anti-tank mines to prevent the use of armoured vehicles to clear them quickly. Some anti-tank mine types are also able to be triggered by infantry, giving them a dual purpose even though their main and official intention is to work as anti-tank weapons. |
Demining (Detecting and removing) |
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Whereas the placing and arming of landmines is relatively inexpensive and simple, the process of detecting and removing them is typically expensive, slow, and dangerous. This is especially true of irregular warfare where mines were used on an ad hoc basis in unmarked areas. Anti-personnel mines are most difficult to find, due to their small size and the fact that many are made almost entirely of non-metallic materials (specifically to avoid detection from metal detectors). New detection systems are being developed in response to this, including the use of rats because certain rats have a highly developed sense of smell and are light enough that they do not trigger the mines (see APOPO Landmine Removal Rats). |
Ironically, the laying of land mines inadvertently proved a positive development in Argentina and The Falkland Islands. This is because the mine fields laid by the sea during the Falklands War have become favourite places for penguins, which are too light to detonate the mines, and are therefore able to breed safely in areas where humans do not enter. These odd sanctuaries have proven so popular and lucrative for ecotourism that there has been some effort to prevent having the mines removed by offering to finance mine removal in regions with human populations where mines are a persistent danger, such as in Cambodia. |
Countries that still produce landmines apart from the U.S.A! |
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| Quotes... |
| -David Gowdey Department of Humanitarian Affairs (UN) "There is a growing realization that the global problem with uncleared landmines is, in fact, a steadily increasing humanitarian problem of enormous proportions." -Carol Bellamy Executive Director of Unicef "Anti-personnel landmines are killing the children whose lives we are helping to save. Such weapons should be outlawed once and for all." -Kofi Annan Secretary General to the UN "Landmines, booby-traps and other improvised explosive devices aggravate and prolong the horrendous consequences of armed conflict, threatening our societies and future generations." |
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