Anti-personnel mine
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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 of land mine is normally designed to injure - as opposed to killing - as many enemies 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 tyres of wheeled vehicles.
The mines can be classified into blast mines or fragmentation mines, the latter of which is often designed to be a bounding mine.
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[edit] Use
Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank mines in static "mine fields" along borders or in defense of strategic positions as described in greater detail on the land mine page. 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 from helicopters or aircraft using, but not limited to, devices such as cluster bombs or even special artillery shells.
Other uses specific to anti-personnel mines, would be where they were deployed singly or in small numbers on an ad hoc basis in situations such as the following:
- 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 mechanism.
[edit] Blast mines
A typical anti-personnel blast mine can be classified as "pressure activated", the primary purpose of which is to incapacitate via the direct blast wave of the explosive charge.
[edit] Effect
When a person steps on a blast mine and activates it, the mine's main charge explodes and releases a blast wave consisting of hot gases (the by-product of the explosion). This blast wave will send a huge compressive force upwards, bringing the mine casing and bits of the soil covering the mine along with it. When the blast wave hits the surface, it will quickly transfer the force into the subject's footwear and foot. This results in a massive compression force being applied to the subject's footwear and the foot's soft tissue and bone. In most cases, these will be crushed and torn off by the blast wave.
The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of the mine's main charge, the depth and type of soil it was laid in and how the victim contacted it. Different types of soil will result in different amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject's extremities, 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 ankle.
Secondary injuries from a blast mine will be caused by the material that has been torn loose by the mine's explosion. The material 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", helps little against the effects of a blast mine, 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 tyre, rendering it unrepairable while some types could also damage adjacent running gear.
[edit] Components
[edit] Mine casing
The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it from its environment. Early landmines such as the ones found in the World War II era had casings made of steel and could be found with an electronic mine detector. Today, most anti-personnel blast mines have plastic casings to prevent detection by electronic mine detectors.
[edit] Pressure plate/detonation mechanism
The detonation mechanism is designed to set off the detonation charge either by striking it with a firing pin or passing an electric charge through it. Most mines use a spring-loaded detonation mechanism that strikes the detonator charge when activated.
[edit] Detonator
The detonator charge is a highly sensitive explosive that will explode easily if sudden pressure or an electric charge is applied to it.
[edit] Main charge
The main charge consists of stable explosive that is itself detonated by the detonator charge. This is necessary, as making a mine out of highly sensitive "detonator charge" explosive would make it dangerously susceptible to explosion. In most AP blast mines TNT or tetryl is used. On a U.S. M-14 AP blast mine, around 31 grams of tetryl is used, while up to 200 grams of TNT is used in a Russian PMN mine.
[edit] 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 – 40 mm. They are activated by pressure which is normally a person stepping 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 tyres 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.
[edit] Types
[edit] Stake
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.
[edit] 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.
Examples of bounding mines:
- S-mine (Bouncing Betty), World War II era German mine.
- M16 mine, US mine.
- OZM, Russian family of mines (OZM-3, OZM-4, OZM-72)
- PROM-1, Yugoslavian mine.
[edit] 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:
- M18 Claymore, US
- MON-50 and MON-90, Russia
- MRUD, Yugoslavia
[edit] Examples
- Historic
- S-mine (Bouncing Betty), World War II era German bounding AP mine.
- US anti-personnel mines
- BLU-43 (Dragontooth), 1970s.
- GATOR mine system, modern dispersal system, includes AP (BLU-92/B) and anti-tank mines.
- Gravel mines, 1960s – 1970s
- M14, 1950s – 1970s
- M16, modern.
- M18 Claymore, modern.
- Russian anti-personnel mines
- PDM-6 and PMD-7, World War II era.
- PFM-1 (butterfly mine, NATO: Blue Parrot), modern.
- POMZ, modern.
- MON-50, modern.
- MON-90, modern.
- MON-100, modern.
- MON-200, modern.
