Landmine Detection

Landmines are quite dangerous, especially in areas like Egypt and Iran. The mines themselves are pretty cheap, but the cost of supplies to clear them can cost up to $1,000. The landmine detection tools need to be efficient and as precise as possible, because one miscalculation means a casualty. This is why today we’ll be weighing the pros and cons of each method.

In WW2, the most common strategy was to prod at the ground at shallow angles ( equal to or less than 30 degrees) with the longest pointed item on hand, hoping that you hit a mine but didn’t set it off, so the soldier could scoop the mine up out of the ground. While the cost of the equipment was cheap, the cost of an unlucky soldier was death, so not a very safe tactic.

Let’s go back to a more recent mine detector: the Husky Mounted Detection System(HMDS). The first problem is the cost, as it costs about $704,034 for one HMDS installed on a Husky vehicle. Although very successful at mine detection, it doesn’t clear the mines. Some of the public information has been classified (fun fact: my uncle used to work at Niitek, a part of the group that makes these detectors, called Chemring, and that’s why I know this.)  so there isn’t much other info on the HMDS.

Now that we’ve looked at a low cost solution and a high cost solution, you decide which is better! Mine fields are a serious problem though, so this is no joking matter.