Pentagon Poised To Resume Production Of Antipersonnel Mines

Ok so remind me again: How will a stupid treaty, with no real "teeth", get rid of the million of land mines already out there? Of all the treaties out there now, this one has to rank in the top 10 most useless wastes of time. You know how easy and cheap a mine is! OH I know we can have this treaty that will stop them from ever being used again and the children can run free! LOL Stupid! I will add this to my long list of: "Why this world is screwed".

great post northwolf.

didn't know they had vehicles for clearing out mines. is this a practice they use in post-war areas that are suspected of having land mines? if there are such equipment out to do such thing there should be more instances were these vehicles are put into play to get rid of these unknown mines

there are several types of mineclearing vehicles in use, some for combat some for after the war/non frontlline use.



These only clear routes for tanktracks




Explosive clearing can be done by using rocket propelled clearing systems
(Python) or simple pipeclearer (bangalore?) the used in Finnish army is 20m long and it blasts 70cm wide pathway to minefield as seen below..



This is better picture of the Raisu (not to be used in intese battles)



It's allso possible to clear minefields by using artillery, mortars or FAEs

And the second most used way of clearing mines



Most common way:



[edit on 11-8-2005 by northwolf]

[edit on 11-8-2005 by northwolf]

I remember they had to burn and destroy a lot of sick cows in Europe, and some African country really wanted to have those cows (alive) instead. They wanted to send them out to clear minefields. Their request was refused...

WTF

Why do they want Antipersonnel mines? I was hoping these horrable weapons of terror were going away!

These mines often hit innocent people who are helpless against them. The US lead the fight to get rid of these man-made monsters of war. Why the hell does Blockhead Bush what them back? Does he take pleasure in seeing innocent children torn apart? Is his mind so #en twisted that he finds it amusing?

People like Bush make me sick!

Tim

We should make about 100 billion of them and saturate the US-mexico boarder with them.

That would be a great use fo them.

Ghost - Thats real typical., Damn Bush Bashers! You sound as bad as that dumbass lady thats always on the news, the one that keeps wanting to talk to bush about her son that died in Iraq. god she's anoying.

The mines that are still treats arew from awhile back, when they just opened up the back of the plane and literaly dumped them by the thousands out the back. I'm glad that the US is trying to make them smarter.

I agree with you 100% AMM.
I would love to see the US/Mex border with a million of these mines.

Originally posted by Murcielago
Ghost - Thats real typical.

, Damn Bush Bashers! You sound as bad as that dumbass lady thats always on the news, the one that keeps wanting to talk to bush about her son that died in Iraq. god she's anoying.

If you Had read my post, you would know why I'm mad! Here he runs his mouth about how Evil terrorist are (which is 100% True)! He raves like a mad man about the evils of WMD's. But he want more of the weapons that do this:

Here a young boy from Afganastan who was crippled by a mine:



and another:



And Another:



This child is barely alive:



These images don't mean anything to you? Seriously, How in the Hell can you be so Cold? Can you really look at these images and say this is only about politics? Why do you seem to think it's ok to use weapons like this. I don't know how these pictures make you feel, but I feel hurt looking at these kids.

Tim

Tim come on man you’re smarter than that, we’re not proposing making mines and dropping them nilly willy everywhere. The ones we are proposing would be detectable and should we use them in a war they would be graphed and mapped so that once a conflict is over its easy to clear and remove them. I don’t think the US would have much use for dropping land mines on village’s however it would be great use where enemy tanks and vehicles operate.

But I totally agree about saturating the US/Mexico border with land mines. If the Illegals don’t want to stay away then we have to make them stay away.

might as well as ban bullets and bombs since they tend to make people lose arms , how do expect us to win a war if u prevent troops from doing their job. killing is killing. i hate mines as well but they are a necessity. like the DMZ in Korea.

Originally posted by deltaboy
might as well as ban bullets and bombs since they tend to make people lose arms

, how do expect us to win a war if u prevent troops from doing their job. killing is killing. i hate mines as well but they are a necessity. like the DMZ in Korea.

and while were at it we can add cars, alcohol, sugar (for diabetics), power tools, all machinery and heavy equipment to the list since they can all cause people to loose limbs too

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Tim come on man you’re smarter than that, we’re not proposing making mines and dropping them nilly willy everywhere. The ones we are proposing would be detectable and should we use them in a war they would be graphed and mapped so that once a conflict is over its easy to clear and remove them.

I never said they were! If you look at modern war, it is often in and aroud civilian areas. Look at the wqar in Iraq. It isn't on a battle feild in the open desert, it is in the streets and allies of small town ans villages. War is changing the World war two battle feilds with the big tanks and open spaces are gone. We fight insurgents and terrorist who hide behind kids.

Really Westpoint, I feel like you're insaulting both my intelligence and your own. In Viet Nam, for example, we could bomb large area of jungle. In Iraq carpet bombing would be a disaster because of all the civilians.

Tim

I googled for some info on Spider and found this :

The Spider's Munition Control Unit (MCU) is a pedestal fitted with six munitions launchers each covering a sector of 60 degrees, and a communications module which links the Spider with its remote operator.

The MCU communicates with the Remote Control Unit (RCU) by direct wireless link, or via field communications repeaters. On operator command, the Spider autonomously deploys trip wires corresponding to each sector. When a trip wire is activated, a signal is sent from the sensing MCU to the Remote Control Unit (RCU).
Based on that signal, the operator's own observation of the field, and other situational awareness and guidance from the chain of command, the operator can direct the detonation of the grenades associated with the trip wire detection. The operator may delay this action, to allow more intruders to penetrate further into the kill-zone and deploy multiple charges for maximum effect.

Munitions include self-activated grenades, operator activated claymores or various non-lethal munitions. The MCU is powered by a replaceable battery and can sustain continuous operation for 30 days. The system can be recovered and replenished with new grenades after an engagement. The Spider can be deactivated on command, to enable safe recovery or passage of friendly forces. The RCU uses a rugged laptop computer equipped with a touch screen to provide full control of an area up to 1,500 meters deep. Each RCU enables the monitoring and activation of a single or multiple charges.

For me it looks like this is very sophisticated system that cannot work after 30 days (when battery runs out). Also it is not land mine in classic sense (you step on it and it explodes). It looks like it will be very safe to the civilians after the conflict. All the fuss about it is typical example of hystery when some people hear word LANDMINE!!! and start to react without obtaining some info about it.

BTW US was ready to sign antilandmines treaty - just with exception for North Korea border.

www.defense-update.com...

[edit on 30-8-2005 by longbow]

Virtually all casualties of minefields result from poorly mapped mines. Most western countries have long been signatories of the Geneva Convention which demands that minefields be well mapped.

Most minefields that pose a significant risk to human life (i.e. ones in populated areas) were laid by dictatorships or none democratically accountable resistance organisations.

So far many western countries have sighed anti landmine treaties. The joke is that they were never the problem because their forces would tidy the landmines up (excluding Britain in the Falklands in a few uninhabited areas and where compensation for loss of land use has even been paid).
Countries like France and once upon a time Britain were a problem when they exported landmines to almost anybody who would pay for them. This is why so many active African landmine fields are of mines that come from the west.

So the moral of the story is that it’s not the weapons we exported that were morally wrong, rather the irresponsible-ill financed people we sold them to. This is the problem with today’s arms industry not the weapons but the buyers.
Personally I’m against supplying weapons to any non democratic power, and I think we should take charge of the clearance costs caused by our past irresponsibility, just as China must one day for its today.

And yes the spider mine does seem like quite a responsible design. If truly concerned about immoral weapons type "depleted uranium" on Google this is a mildly radioactive metal which is currently being used in Iraq by both Britain and the U.S. Its half life is 4.2 billion years. Because it vaporizes on impact the metal once inside the human body releases radiation at point blank range causing birth defects and other problems.
300 tonnes was used in the first gulf war, at least 1500 in this one.

But in my book landmines used responsibly are just like any other weapon and that’s the sad truth about all weapons. And unlike DU landmines used irresponsibly don't last 4.2 billion years.

I think I'll diversify and invest in a prostetic company if the govt. goes ahead with this. Just what we need is another generation of amputees and and people being shredded to bits.