Machines in demining Colombia mine warning sign

1. Machines in demining Colombia mine warning sign

2. Mechanical demining in WW1 Demining machines have been used for more than 100 years. The pictures show early tanks adapted for demining in WW1. They were used to make a path for themselves to drive over and for others to follow during combat.

3. Mechanical demining in WW2 A machine designed for military use only has to detonate or disrupt enough hazards to make it relatively safe for others to follow. In combat situations, leaving munitions and damaged mines behind is acceptable, and taking a few losses can be tolerable. These pictures show WW2 demining machines.

4. Machines in Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) A variety of machines are used in HMA today and some people think that they can clear ground. They believe this because the manufacturers often call them “Clearance machines”. Clearance is defined in the IMAS as meaning that ALL explosive hazards are removed to a specified depth. The hazards shown were all removed from a minefield. No machine could have destroyed them all.

5. Machine limitations This picture shows explosive hazards recovered from an area after it had been processed with a large flail machine. Flailing them ten times would not have broken some of these items. Even if they were broken, their fuzes and explosive content would still have posed a risk to the people who use the land later.

6. International Standards and machines An International Mine Action Standard (IMAS) on Mechanical demining was first issued in 2006 and last updated in 2011. This IMAS separates machines into those intended to detonate hazards, those designed to prepare the ground, and those that are used to detect hazards. Machines that are designed to detect hazards are more theoretical than real so are not covered in this presentation.

7. International Standards and machines 2 The IMAS states that when machines “may leave hazards within the agreed clearance depth, follow-up demining operations shall be carried out before the area is released as cleared”. Also that when a machine is used for Technical Survey, follow-up may not be required because the aim is not to clear the land. The picture shows land flailed by a demining machine during a Technical Survey: would you walk on it?

8. Machines do not leave safe land The primary goal of HMA is to leave safe land for end-users. Machines do not leave safe land but they can make the demining job safer by preparing the area. In some cases, they can also help to find areas that must be cleared - but like all search methods that are not 100% reliable, land cannot be declared ‘clear’ unless the machine is followed-up with thorough search and clearance methods.

9. The real cost of machines The cost of a machine’s purchase and delivery can be doubled by the cost of a transporter to move it around on roads (both machines shown weigh more than 40 tonnes). Other costs include fuel, service and repair costs, plus downtime waiting for the delivery of specialist parts. Further costs are incurred when operating procedures have to be developed and approved, staff trained and a secure storage area provided. The top picture shows the “MineBuster” in Zimbabwe. The bottom picture shows the Oracle system in Libya.

10. The real cost of machines 2 The high costs involved in moving damaged demining machines to specialist repair centres can make repair uneconomic. So the total cost of ownership of a machine is much more than its advertised purchase cost. Before spending money on a machine, buyers should be confident that its use will save money. The pictures show Aardvark flails damaged and abandoned in Libya and Angola.

11. ‘Clearance’ machines Machines that are sold as being able to ‘clear’ ground are usually flails, tillers or rollers. They are all designed to apply ground pressure that is supposed to detonate pressure initiated hazards. This is a MineWolf machine with a tiller attached in Jordan.

12. Demining tillers Tillers process the ground in a way that is intended to maintain a constant depth, but this cannot be achieved on uneven or rocky ground. In soft ground, they can push munitions deeper, making them harder to find with other methods. In dusty conditions, the operator is not able to see obstructions such as barbed wire, metal posts and concrete slabs that can cause expensive damage.

13. Demining flails Flails hit the ground with a force that isintended to exert enough pressure to initiate pressure-operated fuzes. Mostordnance will not detonate with impact pressure and many mines have been designed to require a sustained pressure so that an impact (or an air-blast) does not make them detonate. When there is a detonation, flail chains and hammers are likely to be broken and thrown aside. This is a flail being used to help locate an anti-personnel minefield in Northern Iraq: you chose whether you would walk on the path it left earlier (Slide 7).

14. Demining flails There were no detonations while the flail was used, but damaged mines were left in its path. There is a Valmara-69 lying on its side in the machine’s tracks. It had passed through a defensive minefield of blast and fragmentation mines without detonating anything. The flail raised dust that coated the surroundings and made visible mines hard to see. The top of another Valmara-69 mine is visible in the lower picture. If the International Standards for Technical Survey with machines had been followed, this minefield would still be there.

15. Demining rollers Roller systems are designed to apply very heavy pressure across the entire ground surface. When there are rocks, roots or other obstructions, the pressure cannot be evenly applied. When there are hazards that are not pressure initiated, a roller will not initiate them.

16. Demining rollers 2 These disc rollers follow the ground profile well, but still can only initiate pressure sensitive mines that are near the surface and in good condition. They are not heavy enough to reliably apply enough pressure to initiate an anti-tank mine and if they did, the rollers would be destroyed. If there are detonations, you cannot be sure whether the rollers have detonated all of the mines that are present and you know that they will always leave pin-pull mines and all ordnance hazards behind.

17. Demining rollers as wheels Steel wheels are sometimes used to act as rollers. These are fitted to a mine protected vehicle that is driven back and forth across the area in a pattern intended to achieve full ground coverage. This is a Caspir Mine Protected Vehicle (MPV) with steel wheels in Angola.

18. Demining rollers as wheels 2 The wheels are designed to withstand anti-personnel mine blasts and to be easily replaced if they detonate an anti-tank mine. The picture shows the parts that had to be replaced after an anti-tank mine detonation (no one was injured). The machine was repaired quickly because the manufacturer was in the neighbouring country, but the parts were very expensive – so it was a very expensive way to find one mine.

19. Area preparation with machines Several designs of mini-flail were developed after many deminer fatalities clearing areas with bounding fragmentation mines. Armoured and remotely controlled, they could break tripwires and either initiate or break the fuzes from the bounding mines before the deminers moved in. Unfortunately, the MV4 and Bozena 5 shown are sold as ‘clearance’ machines. They are actually area preparation machines.

20. Area preparation with machines 2 The steel wheels used on this smaller machine are not intended to deliberately detonate mines. The wheels protect the machine if it happens to drive over anti-personnel mines while cutting undergrowth and preparing the surface of the ground for manual demining. This remotely controlled demining machine is sold for area preparation, not for ‘clearance’. It is the APT machine made in Italy.

21. Using machines from outside the area When a machine is not protected against the mines that may be present, the machine can stand outside the hazardous area with an implement reaching in. Long reach machines may cut the vegetation or prepare the ground by processing it in some way. The pictures show a tree-shear used in Mozambique and a vegetation mulcher in Angola.

22. Machines that prepare an area, then move forward When a long-reach tool processes the ground and provides confidence that no large explosive hazards are present, anti-personnel mine proof machines can then drive forward to process the next area. The picture shows the Arjun raking back-hoe machine that has been widely used for area preparation in Sri Lanka and has proven unexpectedly good at exposing large and small mines. This machine could not have withstood an anti-tank mine detonation, so it was used in a way that successfully avoided their initiation.

23. Mechanically Assisted Demining It is never acceptable to leave explosive hazards behind during Humanitarian Demining, so machines cannot be used instead of clearance. They have often provided useful support to clearance and can make manual search and clearance safer and faster. So Mechanically Assisted Demining describes what they do very well, despite the MAD acronym.

24. Common problems with machines The pictures show mines that had been left after machines had processed the ground. Those making money out of the machines know this, but still market them as ‘clearance’ machines. So the first problem with demining machines is the way that they are described and marketed, which is often deliberately misleading, so dishonest and immoral.

25. Damaged explosive hazards Explosive hazards may also be damaged by demining machines. This machine broke most of the shallow anti-tank mines in a minefield, leaving some in a very sensitive condition. The mines had been laid in a disciplined pattern with anti-personnel mines around each anti-tank mine but the pattern was destroyed by the flail and very few of the mines detonated.

26. Issues with the weight of machines Even small machines may be too heavy to work in areas where the ground is soft or wet because they become bogged down and unable to move. This is an MV4 in the rainy season in Sri Lanka. It became trapped in soft ground and had to be towed out using another machine. Even when the flail hammers hit the anti-personnel mines, the ground was so soft that the mines often moved away.

27. Issues with the weight of machines 2 A heavy machine, or the combined weight of a light machine and its transporter, is often greater than rural roads and bridges can take. In many cases, rural roads are in very poor condition and driving them with heavy machines can be either impossible or cause damage. The pictures show rural roads in Angola and in Cambodia.

28. Dust and machines Where the ground is dry, any ground-engaging machine will generate a lot of dust. When the machine has a driver on-board, someone outside has to be in radio contact to tell him where he is. Also, no one can see obstructions that may damage the machine (concrete, barbed wire and metal posts) and the operator may not know when the ground processing tool is damaged. The dust can also cause severe cooling problems and penetrate sensitive electronic systems.

29. Unable to process the ground evenly Because the ground in hazardous areas is rarely flat without rocks or roots and with homogenous soil, machines rarely process every bit of ground in the way intended. The upper picture shows a large Aardvark flail in Angola. The lower picture shows arable land after it has been processed with the flail.

30. Unable to process the ground evenly 2 The area was beside a village on a road that had been disputed. No one knew whether the approach to the village had been mined. The people wanted to use the land for grazing and for growing maize. The picture shows some of the things found during subsequent search and clearance by manual deminers. They include a bounding fragmentation mine with its fuze still in place.

31. The problem with anti-tank mines An anti-tank mine is designed to disable a well armoured battle tank. Some demining machines are designed to detonate these mines but to do so under their tool, not under their tracks or wheels. The shock from the detonations still passes through the entire machine and causes cumulative damage. No machine can really be anti-tank mine-proof. Some can be repaired after anti-tank mine blasts but the cost of the parts and of getting the machine to a specialist workshop may make that uneconomic.

32. Visibility for the driver For safety, the on-board operator is often at the back of the machine and out of direct line-of-sight of where the tool engages the ground. The top picture shows the view from the cab of an Aardvark machine as it works in Angola. The lower picture shows the cab at the back of the machine. The limited vision means that wire, trenches and other obstructions may not be seen until the machine has already engaged them and been damaged.

33. Accidents with large demining machines Even when the manufacturer has claimed that their machine can withstand anti-tank mine blasts, accidents that injure the operator have happened. The pictures show a Hydrema flail that missed an anti-tank with the flail, but detonated it with the wheels under the cab. This machine was sold as being able to withstand stacked anti-tank mines under its wheels. The cab was compromised and the driver injured.

34. Accidents with small demining machines To avoid putting staff at risk, many machines can be remotely controlled. This reduces risk to the operator, but the risk of financial loss if the machine is severely damaged or destroyed remains. The pictures shows two small radio controlled demining machines after anti-tank mine detonations under them. Both are sold as being capable of surviving anti-tank mine blasts. The cost of repair in a remote factory makes this claim a little disingenuous.

35. Machine accident example The photograph shows a Soviet tank with KMT5 military mine-roller system that was used in a minefield with both anti-tank and anti-personnel mines in Angola. The machine was designed to be able to withstand multiple blast of the TM-57 anti-tank mines and detonate all mines in the area it processed.

36. Machine accident example 2 A few TM-57 anti-tank mines detonated but the PMD-6 anti-personnel mines around them were not initiated After it had been used, some of the anti-tank mines had been pressed deeply into the ground, others had the top of the mine compressed – which had made them more sensitive. The photograph shows the machine being used just before the accident. The ground is very wet, which is why it was decided to use the machine

37. Machine accident example 3 This picture was captured from a video being recorded when the tank ran over an anti-tank mine that the rollers had not detonated. The mine detonated under the tank and it was thrown high into the air. The floor armour was breached. The blast entered the tank and killed a deminer inside.

38. Machine accident example 4 This is the same tank today. Someone has painted “Mines Kill” on the side in memory of the local deminer who died. The area it processed had to be searched and cleared properly using manual assets so its use did not save time or money and had increased risk.

39. Risk of damage to the machine 1 We have seen that anti-tank mines present a risk to all demining machines. Also that on soft ground, there is a risk that the machine will get trapped, and that it will push hazards deeper into the ground.

40. Risk of damage to the machine 2 When using any machine with a rotating tool, there is a risk that wire or fibrous roots wrap around parts and break them. Barbed wire is often used in defensive minefields Breakages can mean long down-times waiting for spare parts. The tiller of the Minebuster machine shown here was broken by fibrous tree roots wrapping around it. Months passed waiting for spare parts so a chicken had nested under the spindle.

41. Risk of damage to the machine 3 When using a ground-processing tool, rock, concrete or metal obstructions can damage the tool. When there are detonations under a machine’s ground-engaging tool, there may be loss of chains or teeth and damage to bearings and rotating parts. Flying parts present a hazard to deminers but also risk leaving ground unprocessed. The photograph shows a broken flail-chain and the pressure plate of a mine that was missed in Libya.

42. Risk of failing to leave safe land No machine can clear ground of pressure operated mines, never mind all the other ordnance found in minefields. Sometimes the mines are left on the surface and sometimes they are only found using a metal-detector. The pictures show other mines found after ground had been processed with ‘clearance’ machines.

43. Summing up This presentation has argued: That mechanically assisted demining can reduce risk for deminers and increase the speed of search and clearance. That pretending that machines clear land is a lie that increases risk for the end-users of the land. That using a machine to deliberately detonate multiple anti-tank mines always damages the machine, may be unsafe, and usually adds to the manual work that must be done. That the total cost of using an imported specialist demining machine is often too high for the use of the machine to be cost-efficient.