1. Land mines

2. Military

3. Humanitarian
    Contamination and clearance  Economics 

4. Conventional detection methods
     Prodders    Metal detectors    Dogs    Mechanical  

5. Detection methods under development
     Electromagnetic    Ground penetrating radar    Electrical impedance tomography    X-ray backscatter    Biological    Honey bees    Rats   Other mammals   Plants    Bacteria    Nuclear    Acoustic    Drones  

6. Personal protective equipment

7. Removal methods
     Humanitarian    Military  

8. Case study

9. See also

10. References

11. Further reading

12. External links

Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. There are two distinct types of mine detection and removal: military and humanitarian.

Minesweepers use many tools in order to accomplish their task. Tools have historically included many trained animals, including dogs and rats, but most often in the modern world minesweepers rely on metal detectors or vehicles with a wide variety of mechanical tools attached to them. Other methods have been developed to detect mines, including the use of trained marine mammals, bacteria, acoustics, and other more exotic methods.

Land mines

Land mines overlap with other categories of explosive devices, including unexploded ordnance (UXOs), booby traps and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). In particular, most mines are factory-built, but the definition of landmine can include "artisanal" (improvised) mines.^[1] Thus, the United Nations Mine Action Service includes mitigation of IEDs in its mission.^[2] Injuries from IEDs are much more serious,^[3] but factory-built landmines are longer lasting and often more plentiful.^[4] Over 1999–2016, yearly casualties from landmines and unexploded ordnance have varied between 9,228 and 3,450. In 2016, 78% of the casualties were suffered by civilians (42% by children), 20% by military and security personnel and 2% by deminers.^[5]

There are two main categories of land mine: anti-tank and anti-personnel. Anti-tank mines are designed to damage tanks or other vehicles; they are usually larger and require at least {{convert|100|kg|lb}} of force to trigger, so infantry will not set them off. They have a lot of metal and so are relatively easy to detect.^[6]

Anti-personnel mines are designed to maim or kill soldiers. There are over 350 types, but they come in two main groups: blast and fragmentation. Blast mines are buried close to the surface and triggered by pressure. A weight between {{convert|4|and|24|lb|kg}}, the weight of a small child is usually enough to set one off. They are usually cylindrical with a diameter of {{convert|2|-|4|in|cm}} and a height of {{convert|1.3|-|3.0|in|cm}}. Fragmentation mines are designed to explode outwards, in some cases "bounding" upward and exploding above the ground, resulting in casualties as much as 100 metres away. Their size varies and they are mostly metal, so they are easily detected by metal detectors. However, they are normally activated by tripwires that can be up to 20 metres away from the mine, so tripwire detection is essential.^[7]

The casing of blast mines may be made of metal, wood or plastic.^[8] Some mines, referred to as minimum metal mines, are constructed with as little metal as possible - as little as {{convert|1|g|oz}} - to make them difficult to detect.^[9] The chemistry of the explosives is another target for detection. Common explosives used in land mines include TNT ({{chem|C|7|H|5|N|3|O|6}}), RDX ({{chem|C|3|H|6|N|6|O|6}}), pentaerythritol tetranitrate ({{chem|O|12|N|8|C|4|H|8}}), HMX ({{chem|O|8|N|8|C|4|H|8}}) and ammonium nitrate ({{chem|O|3|N|2|H|4}}).^[10]

Land mines are found in about 60 countries. Deminers must cope with environments that include deserts, jungles and urban environments. Antitank mines are deeply buried while antipersonnel mines are usually within about 6 inches of the surface. They may be in regular or irregular patterns, placed by hand or scattered from airplanes. In urban environments, fragments of destroyed buildings may hide them; in rural environments, soil erosion may cover them or displace them. Detectors can be confused by high-metal soils and junk. Thus, demining presents a considerable engineering challenge.^[11]

Military

In military demining, the goal is to create a safe path for troops and equipment. The soldiers who carry this out are known as combat engineers, sappers, or pioneers.^[12] Sometimes soldiers may bypass a minefield, but some bypasses are designed to concentrate advancing troops into a killing zone.^[13] If engineers need to breach a minefield, the enemy may concentrate fire on them, and supporting fire may be needed to suppress it and to obscure the site with smoke.^[14] Under heavy fire, it may be necessary to clear an obstacle in 7-10 minutes to avoid excessive casualties, so manual breaching may be too slow.^[15] However, some risk of casualties is accepted, and operations may need to take place in bad weather or at night.^[16] For successful breaching, good intelligence is required to determine factors like the locations of minefields, types of mines and how they were laid, their density and pattern, ground conditions and the size and location of enemy defenses.^[13]

Humanitarian

Humanitarian demining is a component of mine action, a broad effort to reduce the social, economic and environmental damage of mines. The other "pillars" of mine action are risk education, victim assistance, stockpile destruction and advocacy against the use of anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions.^[17] It is done for the benefit of civilians, not the military, and the aim is to reduce risks for deminers and civilians as much as possible. In some situations, it is a necessary precondition for other humanitarian programs.^[18] Normally, a national mine action authority (NMAA) is given the primary responsibility for mine action, which it manages through a mine action center (MAC).^[19] This coordinates the efforts of other players including government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), commercial companies and the military.^[20]

The International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) provide a framework for mine action. While not legally binding in themselves, they are intended as guidelines for countries to develop their own standards.^[21] The IMAS also draw on international treaties including the Mine Ban Treaty, which has provisions for destroying stockpiles and clearing minefields.^[22]

In the 1990s, before the IMAS, the United Nations required that deminers had to clear 99.6% of all mines and explosive ordnance. However, professional deminers found that unacceptably lax because they would be responsible if any mines later harmed civilians. The IMAS standards call for the clearance of all mines and UXOs from a given area to a specified depth.^[23][24]

Contamination and clearance

As of 2017, antipersonnel mines are known to contaminate 61 states and suspected in another 10. The most heavily contaminated (with more than 100 square kilometres of minefield each) are Afghanistan, Angola, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Chad, Iraq, Thailand and Turkey. Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty are required to clear all mines within 10 years of joining the treaty, and as of 2017, 28 countries had succeeded. However, several countries were not on track to meet their deadline or had requested extensions.^[25]

A 2003 RAND Corporation report estimated that there are 45-50 million mines and 100,000 are cleared each year, so at present rates it would take about 500 years to clear them all. Another 1.9 million (19 more years of clearance) are added each year.^[26] However, there is a large uncertainty in the total number and the area affected. Records by armed forces are often incomplete or nonexistent, and many mines were dropped by airplane. Various natural events such as floods can move mines around and new mines continue to be laid.^[27] When minefields are cleared, the actual number of mines tends to be far smaller than the initial estimate; for example, early estimates for Mozambique were several million, while only 140,000 mines have been cleared. Thus, it may be more accurate to say that there are millions of landmines, not tens of millions.^[28]

Before minefields can be cleared, they need to be located. This begins with non-technical survey, gathering records of mine placement and accidents from mines, interviewing former combatants and locals, noting locations of warning signs and unused agricultural land, and going to look at possible sites. This is supplemented by technical survey, where potentially hazardous areas are physically explored to improve knowledge of their boundaries.^[29] A good survey can greatly reduce the time required to clear an area; in one study of 15 countries, less than 3 percent of the area cleared actually contained mines.^[30]

Economics

By one United Nations estimate, the cost of a landmine is between $3 and $75 while the cost of removing it is between $300 and $1000.^[31] However, such estimates may be misleading. The cost can vary considerably since it depends on the terrain, the ground cover (dense foliage makes it more difficult) and the method; and some areas that are checked for mines turn out to have none.^[32]

Although the Mine Ban Treaty gives each state the primary responsibility to clear its own mines, other states that can help are required to do so.^[33]

In 2016, 31 donors (led by the United States with $152.1 million and the European Union with 73.8 million) contributed a total of $479.5 million to mine action, of which $343.2 million went to clearance and risk education. The top 5 recipient states (Iraq, Afghanistan, Croatia, Cambodia and Lao PDR) received 54% of this support.^[34]

Conventional detection methods

The conventional method of mine detection was developed in World War II and has changed little since then.^[35] It involves a metal detector, prodding instrument and tripwire feeler.^[36] Deminers clear an area of vegetation and then divide it into lanes. A deminer advances along a lane, swinging a metal detector close to the ground. When metal is detected, the deminer prods the object with a stick or stainless steel probe to determine whether it is a mine. If a mine is found, it must be detonated safely.^[35]

Although conventional demining is slow (5-150 square metres cleared per day), it is reliable, so it is still the most commonly used method.^[37] Integration with other methods such as explosive sniffing dogs can increase its reliability.^[38]

Demining is a dangerous occupation. If a mine is prodded too hard or it is not detected, the deminer can suffer injury or death. The large number of false positives from metal detectors can make deminers tired and careless. According to one report, there is one such incident for every 1000–2000 mines cleared. 35 percent of the accidents occur during mine excavation and 24 percent result from missed mines.^[41]

Prodders

In World War II, the primary method of locating mines was by prodding the ground with a pointed stick or bayonet. Modern tools for prodding range from a military prodder to a screwdriver or makeshift object.^[39] They are inserted at shallow angles (30 degrees or less) to probe the sides of potential mines, avoiding the triggering mechanism that is usually on top. This method requires the deminer's head and hands to be near the mine. Rakes may also be used when the terrain is soft (e.g., sandy beaches); the deminer is further away from the mine and the rake can be used to either prod or scoop up mines from beneath.^[40]

Metal detectors

Portable metal detectors were developed by the Polish officer Józef Kosacki during World War II;^[41]{{page needed|date=March 2019}} the Allied Forces used his invention, known as the Polish mine detector, to clear German mine fields during the Second Battle of El Alamein.^[42]{{page needed|date=March 2019}}^[43]

Although metal detectors have become much lighter, more sensitive and easy to operate than the early models, the basic principle is still electromagnetic induction. Current through a wire coil produces a time-varying magnetic field that in turn induces currents in conductive objects in the ground. In turn, these currents generate a magnetic field that induces currents in a receiver coil, and the resulting changes in electric potential can be used to detect metal objects. Similar devices are used by hobbyists.^[44]

Nearly all mines contain enough metal to be detectable. No detector finds all mines, and the performance depends on factors such as the soil, type of mine and depth of burial. An international study in 2001 found that the most effective detector found 91 percent of the test mines in clay soil but only 71 percent in iron-rich soil. The worst detector found only 11 percent even in clay soils. The results can be improved by multiple passes.^[45]

An even greater problem is the number of false positives. Minefields contain many other fragments of metal, including shrapnel, bullet casings, and metallic minerals. 100–1000 such objects are found for every real mine. The greater the sensitivity, the more false positives. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre found that, over a six-year period, 99.6 percent of the time (a total of 23 million hours) was spent digging up scrap.^[45]

Dogs

That dogs can smell landmines was first demonstrated in the 1970s.^[46] They are up to a million times more sensitive to chemicals than humans,^[47] but their true capability is unknown because they can sense explosives at lower concentrations than the best chemical detectors.^[48] Well-trained mine-detection dogs (MDDs) can sniff out explosive chemicals like TNT, monofilament lines used in tripwires, and metallic wire used in booby traps and mines.^[49] The area they can clear ranges from a few hundred to a thousand meters per day, depending on several factors. In particular, an unfavorable climate or thick vegetation can impede them, and they can get confused if there is too high a density of mines. The detection rate is also variable, so the International Mine Action Standards require an area to be covered by two dogs before it can be declared safe.^[50]

Preferred breeds for MDDs are the German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois, although some Labrador Retrievers and Beagles are used. They cost about $10,000 each to train. This cost includes 8-10 weeks of initial training. Another 8-10 weeks is needed in the country where the dog is deployed to accustom the dog to its handler, the soil and climate, and the type of explosives.^[49][50]

MDDs were first deployed in Afghanistan, which still has one of the largest programs.^[50] Over 900 are used in 24 countries.^[51] Their preferred role is for verifying that an area is cleared and narrowing down the region to be searched.^[50] They are also used in Remote Explosive Scent Tracing (REST). This involves collecting air samples from stretches of land about 100 meters long and having dogs or rats sniff them to determine whether the area needs clearing.^[50][52]

Mechanical

Mechanical demining makes use of vehicles with devices such as tillers, flails, rollers, and excavation.^[53] Used for military operations as far back as World War I, they were initially "cumbersome, unreliable and under-powered",^[54] but have been improved with additional armor, safer cabin designs, reliable power trains, Global Positioning System logging systems and remote control. They are now primarily used in humanitarian demining for technical surveys, to prepare the ground (removing vegetation and tripwires),^[55] and to detonate explosives.^[54][53]

Tiller systems consist of a heavy drum fitted with teeth or bits that are intended to destroy or detonate mines to a given depth. However, mines can be forced downwards or collected in a "bow wave" in front of the roller.^[53] They have trouble with steep slopes, wet conditions and large stones; light vegetation improves the performance, but thicker vegetation inhibits it.^[56] Flails, first used on Sherman tanks, have an extended arm with a rotating drum to which are attached chains with weights on the end. The chains act like swinging hammers.^[53] The strike force is enough to set off mines, smash them to pieces, damage the firing mechanism or throw the mine up. A blast shield protects the driver and the cabin is designed to deflect projectiles.^[53] Mine flail effectiveness can approach 100% in ideal conditions, but clearance rates as low as 50–60% have been reported.^[57]

First used in World War I with tanks, rollers are designed to detonate mines; blast-resistant vehicles with steel wheels, such as the Casspir, serve a similar purpose. However, those used in humanitarian demining cannot withstand the blast from an anti-tank mine, so their use must be preceded by careful surveying. Unlike flails and tilles, they only destroy functioning mines, and even those do not always explode.^[58][53]

Excavation, the removal of soil to a given depth, is done using modified construction vehicles such as bulldozers, excavators, front-end loaders, tractors and soil sifters. Armor plates and reinforced glass are added. Removed soil is sifted and inspected. It can also be fed through an industrial rock crusher, which is robust enough to withstand blasts from antipersonnel mines. Excavation is a reliable way of clearing an area to a depth that other mechanical systems cannot reach, and it has been used in several countries. In particular, the HALO Trust estimates that their excavation program destroys mines about 7 times faster than manual deminers.^[59][53]

A 2004 study by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining concluded that the data on the performance of mechanical demining systems was poor, and perhaps as a result, they were not being used as the primary clearance system (with the exception of excavators).^[60] However, by 2014, confidence in these systems had increased to the point where some deminers were using them as primary clearance systems.^[61]

Mechanical demining techniques have some challenges. In steep, undulating terrain they may skip over some of the ground. Operators can be endangered by defective mines or mines with delay charges that detonate after the blast shield has passed over; shaped charge mines that are capable of piercing most armore; and intelligent mines that are off to the side and use a variety of sensors to decide when to fire a rocket at an armored vehicle.^[53] One answer is to use remote controlled vehicles such as the Caterpillar D7 MCAP (United States) and the Caterpillar D9 (Israel).

Detection methods under development

Universities, corporations and government bodies have been developing a great variety of methods for detecting mines.^[63] However, it is difficult to compare their performance. One quantitative measure is a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, which measures the tradeoff between false positives and false negatives. Ideally , there should be a high probability of detection with few false positives,^[64] but such curves have not been obtained for most of the technologies.^[63] Also, even if field tests were available for all technologies, they may not be comparable because performance depends on a myriad of factors, including the size, shape and composition of the mines; their depth and orientation; the type of explosive; environmental conditions; and performance of human operators. Most field tests have taken place in conditions that favor the performance of the technology, leading to overestimates of their performance.^[63]

Electromagnetic

Ground penetrating radar

GPR can be used with a metal detector and data-fusion algorithms to greatly reduce the false alarms generated by metallic clutter. One such dual-sensor device, the Handheld Standoff Mine Detection System (HSTAMIDS) became the standard mine detector of the U.S. Army in 2006. For humanitarian demining, it was tested in Cambodia for a variety of soil conditions and mine types, detecting 5,610 mines and correctly identifying 96.5% of the clutter. Another dual detector developed by ERA Technology, the Cobham VMR3 Minehound, had similar success in Bosnia, Cambodia and Angola. These dual-sensor devices are relatively light and cheap, and the HALO Trust has begun to deploy more of them around the world.^[11]

Electrical impedance tomography

X-ray backscatter

In X-ray backscatter, an area is irradiated with X-rays (photons with wavelengths between 0.01 and 10 nanometres) and detecting the photons that are reflected back. Metals strongly absorb x-rays and little is reflected back, while organic materials absorb little and reflect a lot.^[70] Methods that use collimators to narrow the beams are not suitable for demining because the collimators are heavy and high-power sources are required. The alternative is to use wide beams and deconvolve the signal using spatial filters. The medical industry has driven improvements in x-ray technology, so portable x-ray generators are available. In principle, the short wavelength would allow high-resolution images, but it may take too long because the intensity must be kept low to limit exposure of humans to the radiation. Also, only mines less than 10 centimetres deep would be imaged.^[71]

Biological

Honey bees

Honey bees can also be trained, in 1–2 days, to associate the smell of a target chemical with food. In field trials, they detected concentrations of parts per trillion with a detection probability of 97–99 percent and false positives of less than 1 percent. When targets were placed consisting of small amounts of 2.4-DNT mixed with sand, they detect vapor plumes from the source several meters away and follow them to the source. Bees make thousands of foraging flights per day, and over time high concentrations of bees occur over targets. The most challening issue is tracking them when a bee can fly 3–5 kilometres before returning to the hive. However, tests using Lidar (a laser scanning technique) have been promising.^[73]

Bees do not fly at night, in heavy rain or wind, or in temperatures below {{convert|4|C|F}},^[74] but these limitations are similar to those of dogs.^[73] So far, most tests have been conducted in dry conditions in open terrain, so the effect of vegetation is not known.^[74] Tests have commenced in real minefields in Croatia and the results are promising, although after about three days the bees must be retrained because they are not getting food rewards from the mines.^[75]

Rats

Some mammals are far more sensitive to chemical odors than humans, and they are also better at picking out smells in the presence of other odors. While many landmines use TNT as the explosive, its scent tends to be suppressed by burial. However, mammals are more likely to smell an impurity, 2,4-Dinitrotoluene (DNT), that is given off by TNT.^[47]

Like dogs, giant pouched rats are being trained to sniff out chemicals like TNT in landmines. A Belgian NGO, APOPO, trains rats in Tanzania at a cost of $6000 per rat.^[76][77][78] These rats, nicknamed "HeroRATS", have been deployed in Mozambique and Cambodia. APOPO credits the rats with clearing more than 100,000 mines.^[79]

Rats have the advantage of being far lower mass than the human or dogs, so they are less likely to set off mines. They are just smart enough to learn repetitive tasks but not smart enough to get bored; and unlike dogs, they do not bond with their trainers, so they are easier to transfer between handlers. They have far fewer false positives than metal detectors, which detect any form of metal, so in a day they can cover an area that would take a metal detector two weeks.^[80] Experiments with electrode-guided rats suggest that demining could one day be accomplished by guiding "ratbots" into areas that humans are unable to reach.^[81]

Other mammals

Engineer Thrishantha Nanayakkara and colleagues at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka have come up with a method where a dwarf mongoose is trained to detect landmines by smell and guided by a remote-controlled robot.^[82][83]

During the Angolan Civil War, elephants fled to neighboring countries. After the war ended in 2002, they started returning, but Angola was littered with millions of landmines. A biologist noticed that the elephants soon learned to avoid them. In a study in South Africa, researchers found that some elephants could detect TNT samples with a high sensitivity, missing only one out of 97 samples. They were 5% more likely to indicate the presence of TNT than dogs, but 6% less likely to miss a sample (the more important measure of success). While researchers do not plan to send elephants to minefields, they could sniff samples collected by unmanned vehicles in a preliminary screening of potential minefields.^[84][85]

Plants

The mustard Arabidopsis thaliana, one of the best-studied plants in the world, normally turns red under harsh conditions. But using a combination of natural mutations and genetic manipulation, scientists from Danish biotechnology company Aresa Biodetection created a strain that only changes color in response to the nitrous oxide that leaks from landmines and other explosives. The plants would aid demining by indicating the presence of mines through color change, and could either be sown from aircraft or by people walking through demined corridors in minefields.^[86][87] In September 2008, Aresa Biodetection ceased development of the method,^[88] but in 2012 a group at Cairo University announced plans for large-scale testing of a method that would combine detection using Arabidopsis with bacteria that would corrode metal in mines and rose periwinkle, sugar beet or tobacco plants that would absorb nitrogren from the TNT that was released.^[89]

Bacteria

A bacterium, known as a bioreporter, has been genetically engineered to fluoresce under ultraviolet light in the presence of TNT. Tests involving spraying such bacteria over a simulated minefield successfully located mines. In the field, this method could allow for searching hundreds of acres in a few hours, which is much faster than other techniques, and could be used on a variety of terrain types. While there are some false positives (especially near plants and water drainage), even three ounces of TNT were detectable using these bacteria. Unfortunately, there is no strain of bacteria capable of detecting RDX, another common explosive, and the bacteria may not be visible under desert conditions. Also, well-constructed munitions that have not had time to corrode may be undetectable using this method.^[90]

Nuclear

There are two principal techniques to detect land mines through nuclear reactions. Both rely on the use of neutrons.

The first such technique relies on the fact that the vast majority of explosives used in land mines are very nitrogen rich when compared with other materials. To detect such anomalies one may make use of the nuclear reaction

¹⁴(n, γ)¹⁵N (10.8 MeV)

In practice a detection system using this reaction works by subjecting the mine to thermal neutrons while searching for the characteristic gamma ray emitted from the excited state in nitrogen-15; these photons will only be observed when an object containing nitrogen is being subjected to the neutron irradiation.^[91] One possible neutron source is californium-252 which undergoes spontaneous fission. A better neutron source is to use a sealed tube electrostatic D-T neutron generation tube, this has the advantage that the tritium is much less radiotoxic than the californium so in the event of an accident such as an explosion, the nuclear mine detection equipment would pose a smaller threat to humans. This type of explosive detection has been proposed for use in airport security and for the detection of explosives in trucks coming into military bases.^[92]

An alternative way of spotting land mines through nuclear reactions with the help of neutrons is that of measuring the thermalization of neutrons. In this technique the soil is irradiated by fast neutrons and the flux of thermal neutrons scattering back is measured. The motivation for this technique is that explosives contain much higher concentrations of hydrogen, which is a very effective moderator of neutrons.^[93]

Acoustic

It is possible to detect land mines by directing sound waves at the area to be demined, which causes the land mines to vibrate, and then using a laser to search for vibrations on the surface by means of the Doppler shift - this technique is termed scanning laser doppler vibrometry. Such devices have been constructed, e.g., at the University of Mississippi,^[94] at MIT^[95] and by the Kayser-Threde Company.^[96]

Drones

The Dutch Mine Kafon project, led by designer Massoud Hassani is working on a drone system that can quickly detect and clear land mines. The unmanned airborne de-mining system called Mine Kafon Drone uses a three step process to autonomously map, detect and detonate land mines. It flies above potentially dangerous areas, generating a 3D map, and uses a metal detector to pinpoint the location of mines. The drone can then place a detonator above the mines using its robotic gripping arm, before retreating to a safe distance. The firm claims its drone is safer, 20 times faster and up to 200 times cheaper than current technologies and might clear mines globally in 10 years.^[97][98][99] The project raised funds on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter with their goal set at €70,000 and receiving over €100,000 above it.^[100]

Personal protective equipment

Deminers may be issued personal protective equipment (PPE) such as helmets, visors, armoured gloves, vests and boots, in an attempt to protect them if a mine is set off by accident. IMAS specifies standards for such equipment but draws attention to its limitations and states that at close quarters, antipersonnel fragmentation mines and antitank mines overmatch PPE currently available.^[101] PPE can afford significant protection against antipersonnel blast mines, and these are more common. Related technologies that have been developed to improve safety include large, pillow-like pads strapped to the bottoms of shoes that distribute weight and dull the impact of footsteps, as very slight disturbances of the ground can tip off old, unstable, or intentionally sensitive mine triggers. First developed in 1954 by the British as overshoes that are first inflated by the combat soldier, this specialized footwear has become a needed item for some demining operations.^[102]

Removal methods

Humanitarian

In demining, once an object has been detected it is removed by one of the following methods:

• Manual disarmament.
• Remote burning of the explosive. Where possible, it is better to burn the explosive without detonation. Diethylene triamine (a close relative of ethylenediamine) reacts with TNT to generate heat. The compound that results from this reaction can then be combusted without detonation.^[103] It has been reported that this amine is hypergolic with TNT, Tetryl, Composition B and other TNT based explosives, but it does not react in the same way with RDX or PETN-based explosives. Other nitrogen-containing organic ligands (e.g. pyridine, diethylamine and pyrole) are known to be hypergolic with TNT.^[104]
• Setting the mine on fire while avoiding high-order detonation. This can be done by cutting holes in the mine without detonating its contents.^[105]

Military

Some removal methods that are not applied in humanitarian demining, but are common in military demining, include:

• Mine plows, mounted on Sherman and Churchill tanks in World War II, shove the soil aside ahead of a vehicle. They are quick and effective for clearing a lane for vehicles and are still attached to some types of tank, but are not used in humanitarian demining because the mines are merely pushed to the side.^[53]
• The Bangalore Torpedo of World War II — the predecessor to the mine-clearing line charge that clears a path through a minefield. This can also be done using the Antipersonnel Obstacle Breaching System or Giant Viper, a hose-pipe filled with explosives and carried across a minefield by a rocket.^[106]
• Helicopters dragging a plow to overturn or detonate mines. This has the problem of bringing down the helicopter when the plow snags onto objects such as large rocks, but has been corrected by use of pressure-sensitive plow rakes which release when over-pressured. This does, however, affect its effectiveness as mines planted in hard ground or near rocks will not be detonated.
• The Nazi Germans used captured civilians who were chased across minefields to detonate the explosives. According to Laurence Rees, "Curt von Gottberg, the SS-Obergruppenfuhrer who, during 1943, conducted another huge anti-partisan action called Operation Kottbus on the eastern border of Belorussia, reported that 'approximately two to three thousand local people were blown up in the clearing of the minefields'."^[107]

Case study

Along the China-Vietnam border are numerous minefields. These are the legacy of border clashes in the 1980s. The mines are mainly anti-personnel, and have kept large areas of arable land from use by local farmers. A typical demining process deployed by the Chinese is as follows. Firebreaks are dug around the minefield to be cleared. Then engineers would set the minefield on fire with flamethrowers. Key factors of this burning process are: thick vegetation covering the minefields; most anti-personnel mines are buried very close to the ground level; the mines are made of mostly either wood, thin metal or plastic. This burning process would usually destroy about 90% of the mines, as the mines are either detonated or melted. Mines which have trip wires would have these wires burned off. Demining teams then would plow the area with mine detectors. When the teams have cleared the mines, they would walk over the field hand in hand themselves to show to the locals that all the mines have been cleared.^[108]

See also

• Aftermath: The Remnants of War (film)
• Bomb disposal
• Counter-IED efforts
• Land mines in Central America
• Mine Action Information Center
• Mines Advisory Group
• Mine clearance agency
• MineWolf Systems

References

Further reading

• {{cite book |title=A Guide to Mine Action |date=March 2014 |publisher=Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining |location=Geneva, Switzerland |isbn=978-2940369-48-5 |edition=5th |url=https://www.gichd.org/fileadmin/GICHD-resources/rec-documents/Guide-to-mine-action-2014.pdf |accessdate=26 March 2019|ref={{harvid|GICHD Guide to Mine Action}}}}
• {{cite journal|title=A Study of Mechanical Application in Demining|publisher=Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining|year=2004|url=http://www.gichd.org/fileadmin/pdf/publications/Mechanical_study/Mechanical_study_complete.pdf|format=PDF|accessdate=July 23, 2007 |ref={{harvid|Mechanical Application in Demining}}}}
• {{cite book |last=Fisher|first=Mark |chapter=7. Explosives detection using ultrasensitive electronic vapor sensors: Field experience |editor-last1=Woodfin |editor-first1=Ronald L. |title=Trace Chemical Sensing of Explosives |date=2006 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9780470085196}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Habib |first1=Maki K. |title=Controlled biological and biomimetic systems for landmine detection |journal=Biosensors and Bioelectronics |date=30 August 2007 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1–18 |doi=10.1016/j.bios.2007.05.005}}
• {{cite report |editor-last1=MacDonald |editor-first1=Jacqueline |editor-last2=Lockwood |editor-first2=J. R. |title=Alternatives for Landmine Detection |date=2003 |publisher=RAND Corporation |location=Santa Monica, CA |url=https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1608.html |docket=MR-1608 |isbn=0-8330-3301-8 |accessdate=19 March 2019 |ref=harv}}
• {{cite news |last1=Miles |first1=Richard B. |last2=Dogariu |first2=Arthur |last3=Michael |first3=James B. |title=Using Lasers to Find Land Mines and IEDs |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/optoelectronics/using-lasers-to-find-land-mines-and-ieds |accessdate=19 March 2019 |work=IEEE Spectrum |date=31 January 2012}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Robledo |first1=L. |last2=Carrasco |first2=M. |last3=Mery |first3=D. |title=A survey of land mine detection technology |journal=International Journal of Remote Sensing |date=2009 |volume=30 |issue=9 |pages=2399–2410 |doi=10.1080/01431160802549435}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Richard G. |last2=D'Souza |first2=Natasha |last3=Nicklin |first3=Stephen |title=A review of biosensors and biologically-inspired systems for explosives detection |journal=Analyst |date=2008 |volume=133 |pages=571–584 |doi=10.1039/B717933M}}

External links

Studies

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20050213120534/http://www.nuke.hun.edu.tr/~lo/ak-drug.pdf Drug and explosive detection] (pdf)
• [https://www.nolandmines.com Humanitarian Mine Action] (blog by Andy Smith)

Government programs

• [https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/policies/fragility-and-crisis-management/links-between-security-and-development/landmines-and-small_en Anti-Personnel Landmines, Small Arms and Light Weapons] (European Commission)
• [https://www.gichd.org/resources/other-resources/project-archives/detail/projects/international-test-and-evaluation-program-for-humanitarian-demining-itep/#.XIfkky3sZSM International Test and Evaluation Program for Humanitarian Demining]

NGOs

• [https://danishdemininggroup.dk Danish Demining Group]
• Mines Advisory Group

• Maria Pavelić
• Maria Pavlovna (disambiguation)
• Maria Pavlovna (Marie of Mecklenburg)
• Maria Pavlovna (Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
• Maria Pavlovna of Russia
• Maria Paziun
• Maria Peale
• Maria Pearson
• Maria Perceval
• Maria Perekusikhina
• Maria Perini
• Maria Petipa
• Maria Petkova-Vergova
• Maria Petkovic
• Maria Petković
• Maria Petraccini
• Maria Petraliphaina
• Maria Petronella Woesthoven
• Maria Petrova (gymnast)
• Maria Petrovykh
• Maria-Pia Casilio
• Maria Pia Casilio
• Maria Pia de Laredo
• Maria Pia delle Grazie of the Two Sicilies
• Maria Pia de Saxe-Coburgo-Bragança