Doing a video essay of humanitarian minefield clearing.  Talked to a few people at RONCO Consulting (not associated with Ron Popeil) and got some cool tape of dog teams training on minefields and actual fieldwork.  Any Combat Engineers out there?

What do you want to know, I might be able to help.

How are minefields plotted by soldiers and what are the various means of planting them.  Yeah, 3rd world countries are going to plant them by hand, but what mechanized means are there of sowing minefields?  We use CBU's sometimes or Artillery shells to sow mines?  

What are the various 3rd world mine threats, who makes em?  Soviet toepoppers?

US made air and artillery delivered mines have built in self destruct, which works most of the time.
Its that hand laid stuff, which gets buried, that is the hardest to find and clear. And the problem is that 3rd world armies DONT map their mine fields.  The US Army does, and they pick up their mines, and destroy what they dont pick up.
Much of the minelaying in the third world is DELIBERATELY done to cause terror amongst civilians and to deny the civilian population the use of agricultural land, forcing the civilians to ally with one side or the other in order to get relief supplies.

US hand emplaced minefields are recorded on DA form 1355.  Each minefield has a central reference point, and the location of the minefield edges, and the location of each mine is recorded.  US Army Combat Engineers rarely bury a minefield, as it is too labor intensive and uses tremendous amounts of time, which is often the limiting factor in obstacle emplacement.

The US Army mechanically distributes mines by either Field Artillery, by the Volcano system (vehicle or helicopter mounted) which is an engineer asset, or the MOPMS system.

All mechanically emplaced mines are self destruct mines, and can be set for 4 hour, 48 hour, or 15 day diration.  MOPMS is a 4 hour mine, but can be reset electronically 4 times.  The reliability of the self destruct is 99.9xxx percent.

I'm not up on the Threat capabilities, but the USSR had several methods of mechanical mine emplacement, and their force structure was heavy on those assets.

They told us in boot camp that ya don't use metal objects to probe for mines, and that you really should be careful not to step on one.  They make excessive noise followed by extensive collateral damage (I have no idea what that means.  Just my 2 pennies worth.

Jarhead94

And your point is Osprey??

I don't want to speak for 'Osprey', but I think He means if you step on one of these evil toys, you'll get very good at hopscotch..

          Gib187th

Conventional AP and Anti-Armor mines are emplaced by hand.  However, the newer generation of FASCAM (Family of Scatterable Mines) surface mines can be laid by towed trailer and helicopter, such as the Volcano system.  In addition, there's the Field Artillery version, which is less accurate and more expensive.

Basically, the FASCAM mines can resemble larger hockey pucks.  In the towed version, they are magazine fed through an electronic device which sets the arming and detonating parameters.  Then, they pass through a device which is remarkably similar to the thing I used to launch my Hot Wheels cars.  The mine rolls between two spinning rubber wheels which launch the projectile.  It lands on the ground and awaits a soldier, vehicle, or the preset detonation time.  The helicopter system is similar, but an ejection system launches them out of tubes pointing out of a helicopter.

Arty mines are similar, but the projectile is less accurate and efficient.  However, you can slap a hasty minefield down in areas where you don't own the land.

The Soviets perfected the "butterfly mine" but the US also uses "toe poppers."  Very small, but will blow a GI boot (and foot) to hell.

While "mine-proof" boots may keep the foot in one piece, possibly preventing the need for amputation, the human leg WILL NOT withstand the blast and will break, if you're lucky.

SJ
It is not a matter of accuracy with both RAAMS and ADAMS, we know from any aimpoint that most low angle RAAMS submunitions are going to land within a 100 x 100 of the aimpoint and 200 x 200 with RAAMS high angle or ADAMS low angle or high angle.  It is just a matter of only having 9 RAAMS submunitions and 36 ADAMS submunitions per round and in order to achieve goals for low, medium or high density ( at least any 1 mine per 64m x 64m up to 4 mines per 32m x 32m or more) requires a lot of rounds.

How does a "mine proof" boot work? And how well do they work? Are they something a infantryman can wear or are they so heavy that only engineer/EOD types can wear them as a practical matter?

I am curious cause Afganistan is supposed to be the most mined country on earth, but one of our guys has yet to be injured by one.  How is that possible?

Garand,

I was in on some testing the military did on mines using Cadavers while at Ft. Sam.  Let me know if this was part of your testing.  I don't want to get into the details here...send me an email if you like.

medcop