Anti-personnel mine

[
Valmara 69 bounding type Anti-personnel mine.]

Anti-personnel mines are a form of mines designed for use against humans as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles.

This type is designed to injure (as opposed to killing) as many victims as possible in order to increase the logistical (mostly medical) support required by such an enemy force. Some types of anti-personnel mines can also damage the tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires of wheeled vehicles.

The mines can be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines, which may or may not be bounding mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban land mines culminating in the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, although this treaty has not yet been accepted by a number of countries including the USA, Russia, People's Republic of China and India.

Use

Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank mines in static "mine fields" along national borders or in defense of strategic positions as described in greater detail in the land mine article. What makes them different from most anti-tank mines, however, is their relatively smaller size, which enables large numbers to be simultaneously deployed over a large area. This process can be done manually, via dispensers on land vehicles, or from helicopters or aircraft. Alternatively, they can be dispensed by cargo-carrying artillery shells.

Other uses specific to anti-personnel mines, are where they are deployed on an ad hoc basis in the following situations:

*When laying an ambush.
*Protecting a temporary base.
*To evade pursuit (e.g. M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition)
*To protect equipment by employing the mines as booby traps.
*To booby trap other mines as a form of anti-handling device

Blast mines

Typically, anti-personnel blast mine are pressure activated i.e. they are triggered when the victim steps on it. Their primary purpose is to blow the victim's foot or leg off, disabling them.

Effect

When a person steps on a blast mine and activates it, the mine's main charge detonates, creating a blast shockwave consisting of hot gases travelling at extremely high velocity. The shockwave sends a huge compressive force upwards, ejecting the mine casing and any soil covering the mine along with it. When the blast wave hits the surface, it quickly transfers the force into the subject's footwear and foot. This results in a massive compression force being applied to the victim's foot. In most cases, the victim's foot is blown off by the blast wave.

The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of the mine's main charge, the depth, type of soil it was laid in and how the victim contacted it e.g. stepping on the mine using all or part of the foot. Different types of soil will result in different amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject's foot, 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, in some cases even described as severe as traumatic amputation of the foot up to the knee.

Secondary injuries from a blast mine are often be caused by the material that has been torn loose by the mine's explosion. This consists of the soil and stones that were on top of the mine, parts of the victim's footwear and the small bones in the victim's foot. This debris creates wounds typical of similar secondary blast effects or shrapnel. Special footwear, including combat boots or so-called "blast boots", is only moderately protective against the destructive effects of blast mines, and the loss of a foot is a typical outcome.

Blast mines have little effect on armoured vehicles, but can damage a wheeled vehicle if it runs directly over the mine. Small blast mines will severely damage a tire, rendering it unrepairable while some types could also damage adjacent running gear.

Components

Mine casing

The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it from its environment. Early land mines such as the ones found in the World War II era had casings made of steel or aluminium and could be found with an electronic mine detector. However, any mines manufactured after the 1950s generally use plastic casings to hinder detection by electronic mine detectors.

Pressure plate/Fuze mechanism

The fuze mechanism is designed to set off the detonator either by striking it with a spring-loaded firing pin, compressing a friction sensitive pyrotechnic composition, or by passing an electric charge through it. Most mines employ a spring-loaded striker that hits a stab detonator when activated by the victim. Typically, the detonator contains a tiny pellet of lead azide. The fuze is the most complicated component in any landmine, though the amount of effort required to design and manufacture a simple fuze mechanism is quite low. For example, the retraction mechanism inside a cheap plastic ballpoint pen could easily be adapted to function as a basic anti-personnel landmine fuze after minor modifications. It follows that any factory capable of manufacturing retractable ballpoint pens could easily manufacture such fuzes.

Booster

The booster charge is a highly sensitive explosive that will explode easily when subjected to the shock of the detonator. Typically, a pea-sized pellet of RDX is used. The purpose of the booster is to amplify the shock of the detonator and initiate the main explosive charge.

Main charge

The main charge consists of a stable explosive that is detonated by the booster charge. This is necessary, because making a mine out of highly sensitive detonator or booster explosive would be more expensive, and make the device more sensitive and thereby susceptible to accidental explosion. In most AP blast mines TNT, Composition B or phlegmatised RDX are used. On a U.S. M14 mine, 29 grams of tetryl is used, while 240 grams of TNT is used in a Russian PMN mine.

Deployment

Anti-personnel blast mines are the most common type of land mine and typically deployed on the surface (hidden by leaves or rocks) or buried under soil at depths of 10 – 20 mm. They are activated by pressure i.e. when the victim steps on them, but could also be a vehicle driving over them.

They were designed for use as area denial weapons. Weapons of this type are supposed to deny opposing military forces access to a specific area.

Fragmentation mines

While blast mines are designed to cause severe injury to one person, fragmentation mines (such as the World War II era German S-mine) are designed to project fragments across a wide area, causing shrapnel wounds to nearby personnel.

Fragmentation mines are generally much larger and heavier than blast mines, and contain a large amount (often several kilograms) of ferrous metal. As such, they are relatively easy to detect.

Effect

These mines are deemed more effective than purely "blast effect" mines, because the shrapnel effect covers a greater area, potentially injuring more combatants.

The shrapnel from these mines can even disable some armoured vehicles, by puncturing their tires and - in the case of soft-skinned vehicles - also penetrating the skin and damaging internal components or injuring personnel. Because fragmentation mines generally contain a much larger charge than blast mines, they can cause severe damage to an unarmoured vehicle which runs directly over one.

Types

take

These mines (such as the Russian POMZ) are entirely above ground, having a fragmenting warhead mounted on a stake at a suitable height, concealed by vegetation or rubbish and triggered by one or more tripwires.

Bounding

Bounding mines are buried, with a lifting charge which throws the mine out of the ground followed (after a very short delay) by the main charge fragmenting at the optimal height. Bounding mines may be triggered by direct pressure, tripwire, or both.

Directional

Directional fragmentation weapons (such as the M18 Claymore) differ from other types in that they are designed to direct their fragments only in limited arc. They are placed so that the blast will be directed at the target area and away from friendly forces. This design also allows forces to protect themselves by placing these types of mines near their own positions, but facing the enemy. They are triggered in a conventional manner with either tripwire or command detonation. They are generally referred to as "claymore mines" from the US mine of this type.

Examples

;World War II anti-personnel mines
*S-mine ("Bouncing Betty") - infamous German bounding mine; widely copied after the war.
*Glasmine 43 - German mine made largely from glass, to make it difficult to detect.
*PDM-6 and PMD-7 - Russian World War II mines, made from wood.;Post-War, US anti-personnel mines
*Gravel mines, 1960s – 1970s. Simple, small mine with no moving parts. Millions were dropped during the Vietnam War.
*M16 - improved version of the German S-mine.
*BLU-43 ("Dragontooth"), 1970s. Air-dropped mine used during the Vietnam War.
*GATOR mine system, modern dispersal system, includes AP ("BLU-92/B") and anti-tank mines.
*M18 Claymore - directional mine.
*M86 Pursuit Deterrent Munition, tripwire triggered bounding mine that automatically deploys its own tripwires. It is intended to be dropped by special forces when evading a pursuing enemy. ;Post-War, Russian anti-personnel mines
*PFM-1 ("butterfly mine", NATO: "Blue Parrot"), modern.
*POMZ - tripwire triggered, stake-mine.
*MON-50 - Russian directional mine; a copy of the American M18 Claymore.
*PMN mine - one of the most commonly encountered mines during de-mining operations.
*MON-200 - large mine with a 12kg TNT charge. Also effective against light vehicles.;Post-War, British anti-personnel mines
*HB 876 mine - 1970s – 1999. An air dropped mine used as part of the JP233 runway attacking system. Each attack with a JP233 also dropped 215 HB 876s that were intended to make repair of the damaged runway slow and dangerous.;Yugoslav anti-personnel mines
*MRUD - Directional mine similar to the M18 Claymore.

External links

* [http://www.dhushara.com/book/explod/mine/mine.htm Typical antipersonnel landmine injuries. Warning: graphic photographs]
* [http://rtc.mvbc.com.au/about_landmines/gruesome_injuries.jpgLandmine injury. Warning: graphic photograph]

ee also

*Anti-tank mine
*Bounding mine
*Demining
*Land mine situation in Chechnya
*Land mine situation in Nagorno Karabakh
*List of landmines
*Mine clearance agencies