SHCHERBAKOV Grigory Nikolaevich, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor
METHODS OF MINE DETECTION — AS APPLIED TO THE PROBLEM OF HUMANITARIAN DEMINING RELEVANCE OF THE PROBLEM
One of the unsolved problems with which humanity entered the third millennium is the problem of “humanitarian demining”.
After the end of World War II, numerous military conflicts continued to arise in all regions of the world, generated by national liberation and civil wars, international and interethnic confrontations.
All these conflicts were inevitably accompanied by the widespread use of landmines by the opposing sides, and from year to year the activity and scale of their use steadily increased.
As a result, according to official UN data, in all regions of the world, in the territories of 64 countries, about 110 million mines have been installed and approximately 100 million of them are in warehouses ready for immediate use.
The increased use of land mines, according to foreign experts, is mainly due to the following reasons:
— high efficiency — the ability to disable heavy combat vehicles and transport vehicles, hit manpower and inflict serious injuries on personnel requiring long-term and expensive treatment (treatment of one person wounded by a mine costs an average of 5,000 US dollars);
— simplicity of design, allowing the use of low-skilled personnel, whose training requires little time;
— low cost of ammunition production, a number of anti-personnel mines cost 3 US dollars per unit, and anti-tank mines — 75 dollars, while the total cost of neutralizing one mine was 300 — 1000 dollars);
— the presence of a vast international market for land mines (a total of over 700 models of mines were noted, most of which cost $0.5-30);
— the ability of developing and exporting countries to supply buyers with large quantities of simple and cheap mines (the total industrial output was 10 million mines per year, which annually received $100-200 million in revenue from their sale).
The problems associated with the ever-more complex mine situation are aggravated by the danger of population explosions on unexploded ordnance, of which there are more and more on the battlefield and in areas of air and missile and artillery strikes.
This is especially typical for the territories of Kuwait (where up to a third of cluster air and artillery submunitions with impact fuses on loose sandy soil did not work), Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia. Such munitions pose an even greater danger than mines and contribute to the growth of casualties among the local population.
According to experts from the International Red Cross, mines kill about 800 people every month worldwide, mostly civilians; since 1975, over a million people have been killed or injured by mines.
Of particular concern is the discrepancy between the rate of mine clearance and the scale of mine installation: 2 to 5 million new mines are installed to replace the 100,000 mines removed each year.
At this rate of mine clearance, the number of unremoved mines by the end of the century increased from 110 million (the cost of removing which is estimated at least at 33 billion dollars) to 135 million.
METHODS OF DETECTING MINES AND EXPLOSIVE DEVICES
Mine as a search object
Based on their purpose, mines are divided into: anti-tank (PTM), anti-personnel (PPM), anti-vehicle, object, special.
Anti-personnel mines are the most difficult to detect.
Anti-personnel mines affect enemy manpower with a shock wave (high-explosive mines) or with pre-prepared fragments in the form of balls, cylinders, arrows, or fragments formed by crushing the casing (fragmentation mines) flying out of the mine body.
The charge of a high-explosive mine contains 30–200 g, and a fragmentation mine contains from 75 g to 0.5 kg of explosive substance (HE).
Detonators are mainly of the pressure and tension type, and can also be combined. Artillery shells adapted for detonation are sometimes used as anti-personnel mines.
Anti-personnel mines are also used to create “booby-surprises” and “booby-traps”.
Anti-vehicle mines are designed to mine roads, railways and airfields. The mine charge can be designed not only to destroy vehicles, but also to destroy the road. Mines are set to a combat position after a certain (specified) time, and explode from the impact of passing vehicles on their response element.
Object mines are designed to destroy bridges, tunnels and other structures. They are installed inside the object to be destroyed in special mine wells (chambers) or in the ground.
There are special mines — narrow-purpose ammunition (magnetic and signal mines, etc.).
When the ground freezes, some mines may explode from the excess pressure of the ice, while many other mines are deactivated and may not explode even if stepped on. During the spring snowmelt and heavy rains, the soil becomes semi-liquid, and some mines may “migrate.”
Some mines may actually move up to several meters from their planting site. They remain armed, ready to detonate. This happens most often in mountainous conditions.
A frog mine is a jumping high-explosive antipersonnel mine. This mine can be shaped like a beer can, is installed shallowly in the ground and is equipped with a tension and/or pressure fuse, or an electric fuse.
When the fuse is triggered, the mine jumps out of the ground to a height of 1…2 m and then explodes. A frog mine is capable of hitting several people within the radius of the fragments.
Reliable search for anti-personnel mines is the main task in the problem of humanitarian demining.
The telltale signs of mines and explosive devices (ED) are determined by a number of factors. The main factors that are present almost always:
— the presence of explosives;
— the presence of a locally located mass of metal (even in the so-called “non-metallic” Yugoslav mines there is up to 0.1 g of aluminum);
— the characteristic shape of the mine;
— heterogeneity of the host environment (disturbance of the soil surface, road surface, building wall, disturbance of the color of vegetation or snow cover, etc.).
Additional unmasking factors that may not always be present:
— the presence of a wire control line;
— the presence of a clock mechanism or electronic timer;
— the presence of a seismic, magnetic or optical target sensor;
— the presence of an antenna with a radio receiving device.
Thus, a mine can be detected mainly due to three factors:
— the presence of a concentrated mass of explosives;
— characteristic design of the mine (shape, case material, etc.);
— violation of the homogeneity of the surrounding background (color of vegetation, soil density, etc.).
Continued in Part 2: Methods of detecting mines — in relation to the problem of humanitarian demining, the relevance of the problem. Part 2