Clearing hidden killers. (Ground Warfare).

Few weapons are as wasteful as mines; millions of which have been buried to disable tanks or to injure soldiers. Yet sown with care, they can protect vulnerable areas, especially where resources for defence are limited. But after the conflict is over and the armies gone, mines remain to kill and maim innocent civilians years after peace has been declared.

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Consequently, international pressure has mounted to ban their further use, while efforts to clear long-contaminated areas are co-ordinated by the United Nations. But while many nations have agreed to the ban, rebel forces around the world continue to sow mines with impunity. Moreover, it must be said that some of the new class of 'cargo' bombs and shells are surely a form of mine in all but name; especially when they fail to explode initially.

Industry and research organisations face a challenge to find ways to detect and destroy mines without risking the lives of demining teams. Some bizarre proposals have emerged from this research but it is fair to say that mine detection and destruction is never going to become a highly profitable activity for leading defence companies.

The subject of mine detection will be considered in Issue 5 later this year, as this report focuses on the diverse methods of disposal, which generally fall into two distinct categories; those intended for use during a conflict to clear a path through enemy lines, while the second and by far the greater effort is devoted to the decontamination of land after peace has been declared.

The first category can be further divided into two; those systems carried by one or more soldiers to breach minefields for infantry, while trailer- or vehicle-mounted systems take care of threats of a heavier nature. Both employ similar systems in which a rocket tows a line, hose or 'ladder' packed with explosives to breach a path through anti-personnel or anti-tank mines.

The Somchem division of Denel produces a range of man-portable systems that have been the subject of developments designed to reduce weight and the time needed for deployment. As a result, the 50AP one-man system is, at 25 kg, some ten kilos lighter than earlier versions and can be fully set up in less than a minute, having previously taken more than six minutes. This is roughly in line with the systems produced in Germany by Comet, although its 18 kg one-man system produces 'step holes' rather than a continuous path.

For towed trailer or vehicle-mounted use, RO Defence's Giant Viper has been supplied to several armies but the flail system fitted to a tank and originally developed during the Second World War can do the job at less speed. Add-ons, such as flails or mine ploughs, make economic sense because they can be fitted to otherwise obsolete main battle tanks and brought into service quite quickly.

Nevertheless, the trend has been toward the use of dedicated mine clearance vehicles typified by the Aardvark JSFU produced in Scotland. This employs a chain flail to clear both anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, and has been sold to many countries for operation in all kinds of terrain including areas of heavy undergrowth. Although basically a half-track vehicle to facilitate use over all terrain, the tracks can be replaced by large wheels when it is required to clear hard surfaces such as runways or roads.

Three years ago, Aardvark supplied Hagglunds with its flail system for installation on an armoured mine clearing vehicle (AMCV) based on a Leopard 1 chassis. Also equipped with explosive and electronic mine clearing systems, the AMCV was followed by a further six examples for the Norwegian Army to clear a four-metre-wide path through minefields.

The Aardvark JSFU has also stimulated the design of similar vehicles such as the wheeled Sisu RA-140 DS, which has a maximum clearance speed of 12 km/h but can be driven at 70 km/h between tasks. It therefore does not require a transporter and can be air-lifted. Indeed, the ability to be carried into operational zones by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter is one of the virtues claimed for the tracked Nodeco Minecat, which is also promoted as a multi-purpose, rather than dedicated mine clearance vehicle.

Developed in Norway with technical inputs from a British firm, the Minecat is modelled on a commercial Bobcat 863 skid steer chassis and intended for additional use as an engineer platform in terrain denied to larger and heavier systems. However, an unusual feature of the Minecat is the facility to completely remove the cab to form an armoured control point from which the vehicle may be operated remotely by a line-of-sight system.

Clearly, remotely controlled systems offer the highest level of protection for the operator and Kaman Services has successfully modified M60 A3 tanks to function thus. Fitted with a mine roller and dubbed the Panther Remote System, this allows operators to control the vehicle from up to three kilometres away. The Panther can be operated from within the vehicle or converted to remote use in only five minutes. The original system was deployed during the Gulf War but seven examples were later refurbished for mine-clearing duties in Bosnia.

A dedicated demining vehicle produced by Bofors also makes use of a roller fitted with tungsten carbide teeth that either 'chew' mines into harmless pieces or ignite them. Damaged plates and teeth can be replaced in the field and, like the Panther, the vehicle can be operated remotely. The Bofors vehicle is based on the Leopard 1 tank chassis, as is the Mine and Obstacle Clearing tank developed by Krauss Maffei-Wegmann (KMW).

This German vehicle is an all-singing, all-dancing solution that makes use of a full-width mine plough, as well as an electromagnetic mine clearing device and a rocket-propelled explosive hose system. When required to clear mines from roads, the KMW vehicle can be fitted with a wedged-shaped mine pulsator attachment that permits a clearing speed of 20 km/h, in this way pushing exposed mines containing up to six-kg of explosive charge off the clearing lane.

A clear lane marking system can pneumatically shoot coloured rods into the ground at pre-selected intervals and a dozer blade fitted to the rear of the vehicle can be used to remove barriers and other obstacles as well as for digging and levelling work. Operation Desert Storm emphasised the need for such a combat engineering vehicle for which United Defense developed the tracked Grizzly, which includes mine clearing among its roles.

But the economic case for using an existing tank chassis led Technopol to develop the Belarty UOS-155, which is based on surplus Russian T-tanks. This employs a flail system fitted to a hydraulic boom that is extended when the vehicle is stationary. After the area has been cleared and the boom retracted, the UOS-155 is moved on for the process to be repeated, but while this may be a low-cost solution, it is also slow.

Sweden is unusual in having planned to make use of roads as runways should the need to disperse its combat aircraft arise, but faced with the threat of mines dropped from the air, the need for a special mine-clearance system was perceived. The result was the Hurricane system developed by Boa Defence in collaboration with the Swedish Army School of Engineering and the Defence Materiel Administration.

Although intended specifically for clearing hard surfaces such as roads and runways, the Hurricane can also clear a path through snow, barbed wire and dense vegetation. The system employs horizontally rotating blades that operate at such a speed that the high impact destroys the mine's fuze system in less than two milliseconds while disintegrating the mine. The hydraulically powered Hurricane unit can be fitted to an AFV chassis, armoured wheeled loader or combat engineer tractor.

The Swedish Mine Fighter (SMF) is a more recent development from New Swede Construction and is unusual in employing spikes of hardened steel fitted closely together in modules of various sizes. It is claimed that the spikes are so closely fitted together that not even an anti-personnel mine on end would escape its probe. The demining modules can be produced for operation from a range of construction equipment such as a bulldozer or an excavator.

During trials at the Swedish Army Mine Clearance Centre, the SMF did not suffer damage while clearing Type DM11 small plastic mines, as the design disperses explosive forces on detonation. When faced with larger ordnance, a metal detector linked to a control unit will automatically lock movement of the tool and mark the spot with red dye. Intended to clear areas after a conflict, a full-size SMF will clear 500 AP mines before a full service is required.

Metal probes are an integral part of an unmanned wheeled mine-clearing vehicle design from Rheinmetall, on which a system of rotating discs serves to raise and lower them into the ground to detonate pressure activated mines in a similar way to the SMF. The vehicle is also designed to detonate mines by simulating the acoustic, magnetic and infrared signatures of manned AFVs for which it is intended to clear a path through minefields.

The mine ploughs designed by Pearson Engineering for use on many different types of tank have proved to be extremely effective in the service of British and other armies when operated in a wide variety of climatic and terrain conditions. Available in three different widths that can be adapted one to another in less than half an hour, the company's mine ploughs have become an integral part of a number of mine clearing systems produced by vehicle manufacturers in several countries.

While there is obviously a place for dedicated mine clearing vehicles designed for the job, add-ons such as mine ploughs, flails and other devices have the great advantage of being able to press almost any MBT into such service via relatively simple transformation. Thus, the means of dealing with most types of mine threats can be transported with comparative ease.