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Originally Posted by camlans  In today's world of technology, why are there not more advanced methods of detecting land mines?
As this is the biggest killer in Afghanistan, you would think the US and British Army would spend big to fix this deadly killer. |
Part of the issue is "Who placed the mines there"? Typically, western armies place static fields that are mapped and the locations known so that clearing them is not nearly as difficult. They also use self destructing mines which have been available and used for nearly two decades. No point in blocking a pass from the enemy with mines when you plan to use that same pass tomorrow for your counterattack.
Its when small guerilla bands get hold of cheap (sometimes $1 each) mines. They scatter these things like party favors with no care of who uses that particular path.
The problem with non "Smart" mines is that they are cheap to build, easy to deploy, and incredibly difficult to detect, by design. You don't want a mine with an orange flag sticking up from the ground saying, "Here be explosives". That kind of defeats the point. Since it costs about $2,000 each to clear a mine, the return on investment is huge.
Technology advances in mechanical de-mining has made some strides. Several countries are involved in its development. De-mining doesn't get a lot of glamor though. It is happening, you just don't read about it in the news because Engineers are good at it and don't typically blow themselves up in manners that grab the news headlines, thank God.
The United States is deploying a weapon known as "Spider", which is essentially a minefield controlled by an operator. The enemy hits a trip wire but the operator has to tell it to go "boom."
On the other end of the spectrum, Delft University of technology is developing a radar based detection system that can detect mines at a distance, making it much safer for the operators.
