Guy That Posted a Landmine and Never Posted Again

Landmines - A Resource

Over the years, Steve Kingdom of the netherlands of SJH Projects has been involved in many projects connected with landmines, which has resulted in a collection of useful information and resources. The intention of the content below is to utilise this experience to provide a primer for some of the issues and terms relating to landmines, the protection from them and and associated test methodologies.

Background

Definition

A landmine is an explosive device activated by a person or a vehicle, or command-detonated by electric wire or radio indicate. Well-nigh landmines are laid on or beneath the surface of the footing. Normally manufactured from durable materials such equally plastic, bakelite, concrete, glass or metal, landmines are designed to survive the effects of weather, seasons and time. The purpose of landmines is to disable, immobilise vehicles or kill people. – Dag Hammarskjöld Un Library.

History

The first apply of what we call landmines was in 1862 in the United states of america Ceremonious War. Invented past Confederate Brig. Gen. Gabriel Rains. They were pressure level operated devices named 'Torpedoes', Based on 8" & x" inch shells with pressure initiation. General Sherman claimed that their employ was "not war but murder".

Full general Rains, the 'Torpedo' in action and General Sherman

WW2 and area denial – the onset of what became the established tactic was past Republic of finland in 1939 to slow and aqueduct the much larger advancing Russian forces. Widespread use of such area denial was then undertaken in the Western Desert to put some control on the battlespace. The main threat deployed in these instances was the anti-tank mine merely as these were relatively easy to detect and either lift or defuse, they were protected by smaller, harder to detect anti-personnel landmines

Russian accelerate into Finland, clearing bounding mines in the Western Desert, mine damaged Panzer

The evolution of anti-personnel landmines has been towards a minimum quantity of metal to inhibit detection. The larger, buried blast AP landmines are big enough to very seriously injure or kill those whose step on them. Many still are small in explosive content and are designed to merely wound the victim. A wounded soldier takes up more than resource to evacuate and treat thus contributing to a slowing of the enemy'due south advance.

Since WW2 the landmine has been used around the earth, sometimes in planned, well marked minefields that help with mail conflict clearance, but they take besides been used indiscriminately leaving large swathes of land polluted and too dangerous to occupy or farm by the local population. Treaties have been put in place to ban their manufacture and use but not anybody signed up and millions of legacy landmines are yet out there.

Estimates of over 100 millions mine emplaced worldwide.

71 countries afflicted with landmines.

2000 victims of landmines every month (one victim every 20 minutes)

Landmine Types

Anti-tank, Anti-vehicle and Anti-personnel Landmines

Anti Personnel Landmine Types

Within the classification of AP landmines there are some very dissimilar mechanisms of action and injury.

Bounding Mines:

These are designed to spring up to a top of about ane metre and then fire out steel balls radially to hit the limbs and body of the victim and anyone else within close proximity. Lethality and injury is driven past the fragments more than blast which dissipates quickly in such a costless air, unconfined environs.

Stake and Claymore Mines.

These are both ground based fragmentation landmines. The stake mine acts radially whereas the Claymore is designed to be directional and is mostly used to protect occupied positions or specific route denial. The Claymore can be set up to be victim operated or by demand by troops in defence force.

Buried Blast Mines:

These are the ones that cause the biggest legacy and clearance problem. They are the ones mostly responsible for lower limb injuries and amputations. The charge size spans from the Russian PMN at 240g explosive content which is trying to kill the victim, through to the PMA-two of with100g down to the Yard-14 US landmine with 28g which is designed to wound.

Anti Tank / Anti-Vehicle Landmines

Larger anti-tank/vehicle landmines are designed to target everything up to master battle tanks. They include bones nail mines and the more deadly penetrator types. With these, the explosive charge projects a thick copper disc which deforms to become a very high speed, high mass projectile aimed at the underside of the vehicle. This technology has been adopted to create off road devices to assail the sides of vehicles and has become the ground of a very popular form of IED, being produced on an almost industrial scale.

Basis Furnishings

The ground in which a landmine is buried has a huge effect on how much smash energy it delivers to its victim.

The shock moving ridge will propagate through the landmine from the detonation signal but it will basically act as an expanding sphere of hot gas, driving a shock wave ahead of it. Dry, loose sand will allow the down facing portion of this sphere to penetrate and misemploy with some small-scale reflection back upwards. Hard packed, dominicus broiled globe or saturated clay are very resistant to such down effects and reflect a lot this free energy back upwards amplifying the energy delivered to the victim.

A lot of solid science was done on this field of study by the DRDC in Canada with its pendulum arm. Establishing valid, repeatable ground atmospheric condition was a central gene in setting test standards for the assessment of protection measures for both anti-personnel and anti-tank landmines.

Anti Personnel Landmine Injuries and Handling

Injury Patterns

Injury Distribution

Landmines can cause a variety of injuries, so information technology is important to have an understanding of where the predominant issues lie. The prototype shows the distribution of injuries observed during a HALO study in Kuito, Republic of angola betwixt January and October 1995. It can exist seen that limb injuries are by far the nigh common form.

The ICRC (International Committee for the Red Cross) take a general classification organization for antipersonnel landmine injury patterns.

Pattern I: Injury Mechanism

Robin Coupland ICRC, Proposed mechanism for Design I harm.

Full disruption of foot / ankle circuitous.

Contamination of soft tissues college up.

Propulsion of soil and fragments up tissue planes.

Contusion to muscles.

Amputation Level And Ongoing Role

An in a higher place genu amputation (left) requires about 100% more free energy to walk.

A beneath knee amputation requires nigh xv% more energy to walk and then provides greater quality of life.

Prototype correct is Chris Moon MBE on his style to complete the Marathon des Sables.

Social Factors and Clinical Choices

It is a fact of life that the most appropriate surgical choice will exist informed by social factors. There will be scope for complex, repeated surgeries in advanced facilities and extended recuperation and rehabilitation if the patient is part of a western armed services or highly insured NGO worker. This may 'save' the limb albeit quite likely with some restricted role. A local subsistence farmer could not afford that time away and the loss of earning chapters and so a rapid, appropriate level of amputation and a well fitting prosthetic will permit him to get back to piece of work and looking subsequently his family in a much shorter time frame.

An example of the potential long term reconstruction is the 'Methods of Ilisarov' which is focused on the long bones. After such try it is not unheard of that the apparently healthy looking limb is largely insensate through nerve harm, even to the level that the possessor is eventually driven to request an amputation.

A quality, modernistic prosthetic volition actually provide more mobility and ongoing quality of life. Soft tissue and particularly nervus damage is much harder to treat with electric current medical technology.

Surgical Treatment of Pattern I Injury

As presented by vascular surgeon Eddie Chaloner at the UK Defence EOD Schoolhouse, Dec 2001.

• General resuscitation of the patient with intravenous fluids or blood.
• High dose intravenous Benzyl Penicillin
• Ant-tetanus toxoid
• General Anaesthesia
• General Wash of the legs
• Use of above knee pneumatic tourniquet to minimise claret loss.

• Amputation to a higher place the level of devitalised and contaminated muscle.
• Thorough debridement of soft tissue injuries
• Go out the wounds open
• Bulky absorbant dressing
• Oral antibiotics postal service operatively
• Back to theatre at 5 days post op

• Closure of wounds if make clean with no tension
• Peel grafts to large open areas
• Early physio to forestall knee joint contracture
• Further physio to develop upper body strength until prosthetic fitting
• Adequate prosthetic service with replacement follow upwardly.

Anti Personnel Landmine Protection Measures

The Easily, Torso and Face

The majority of equipment designed for protection against buried AP mines is focused on the needs of those involved in their clearance.

The hands are are closest to the threat and are at risk of 'de-gloving' which involves the peel and tissue being stripped away by the boom. This can exist mitigated past well fitted gloves using a high strength fibre such as an aramid. It is critical nonetheless that such protection must not reduce dexterity and 'feel'. A lot of manual clearance uses prodding and such prodders can become secondary projectiles. Chris Moon MBE lost his hands when the prodder he was conveying was projected upwards through his hand. The integrated prodder and conical shield shown is a feasible approach every bit information technology diverts the boom away from the paw and the materials used provide protection from the fragmentation. In that location will be some rapid loading applied to the hand and lower arm only this manageable and preferable to the alternatives.

The greatest proportion of landmines are in hot countries. To minimise the rut stress to deminers, most protective aprons and ensembles business relationship for this by having an open dorsum. It is assumed that if procedures are beingness followed, the threat will come from in front of the operator. The protection needs to facilitate ease of transition from walking to kneeling and lying prone. The prone position exposes the top of the shoulders to line of site of the blast which is deemed for by large shoulder pads.

The threat to the head and optics is a combination of boom and fragmentation. Even small nail mines have a casing and throw out the clay and stones in which they are buried. Lightweight, rut dissipating helmets provide support to affect resistant visors. These visors need to exist highly scratch resistant so that the operator is not tempted to elevator them (it does happen). If the visor is in a raised position it no longer stops fragmentation and it volition capture blast pressure and rotate the head backwards. How injurious this is depends on the very specific circumstances of the individual event.

Footwear

The challenges associated with the protection of the pes and lower limb from buried blast mines are more complex than for other parts of the body. There is a direct coupling between the foot and charge, creating a load path for a lot of free energy practical instantaneously. This energy needs to be managed whilst also preventing heat, gaseous and fragmentation furnishings. In this example, the fragments can include the mine casing, the soil used to bury it, the sole of the footwear and bones of the foot itself being projected up into the rest of the leg.

Like whatsoever protection system, AP landmine protection footwear needs to residue conflicting demands. These are the protection level provided, the resulting mobility of the user and the financial aspect – the NGO demining community and fifty-fifty the military do non have limitless funds and have to provide the best affordable protection to the greatest number of users. There take been a number of attempts to produce effective mineboots and they have addressed the trade off in dissimilar ways. The models shown below were the key ones when we were actively involved in this area – some of the brand names accept inverse but subsequently an initial surge in creativity, the market and its offering has not evolved much since.

MICS – State of israel

This works on the ground of prevention being better than cure. The weight of the wearer is spread such that the ground pressure is non enough to trigger the device. Information technology too provides some tiptop stand-off between the device and foot. Later versions include some protective materials.

Spring Steel – Serbia

This was sent by allies in a mine action heart and included in a series of tests with human limbs. The protection was provided by a full sole of thin spring steel. It was the only organization tested that made the injury worse than a standard combat boot. The steel sheet finer collected the available energy and delivered information technology all into the construction of the foot. Paradigm right is that limb post exam.

Wellco Boot & Overboot – U.s.a.

An early aspirant, this is now in a second generation. A kicking and overboot of similar sole construction were available. The sole featured a shallow 'V' to deflect blast and that V was filled with crushable honeycomb to absorb some energy through mechanical piece of work. Cadaver tests showed that it provided some protection against the smallest AP mines. The improver of the overboot added protection merely reduced user mobility. The later version had broadly similar performance only was a more robust pattern and a better quality of build.

BFR Boot – Singapore

The BFR boot enjoyed commercial success in the early on days of the expanding marketplace. Looking like a normal combat boot with uppers to adapt local climates and competitively priced information technology provides modest protection from smaller AP mines. It features an aramid fragmentation protection layer and mechanically compressible forefoot and heel department. These sections practice misemploy some free energy through mechanical piece of work. The boot does non feature any shaping of the sole or stand up off over and to a higher place a normal combat kicking, then is reliant on this construction and materials solitary. The trade off existence towards mobility rather than protection is valid if that it is what the customer requires for their particular needs. For general military in a non- specialist mine clearance or combat engineering roles this is understandable. For defended high risk roles, less so.

Anonymate – France

This French entry into the market pushes the sole 'V' shaping and increased stand-off as the key to protection. The outlying blocks are for stability in normal use and detach quite hands nether blast loading so as non to interfere with venting of the hot gases. Reckoner modelling of the flow of soil and gases under explosive loading has been extensive in investigating the performance of this design. Protection is reasonable just it is no longer a design suitable for full general armed services apply.

Zeeman – Germany

This was a later entry into the market and the design was decided upon after assessing the benefits and perceived shortcomings of existing designs. Information technology goes for a materials rather than shape based solution with a manageable stand up off along its length. Although information technology features a traditional looking kicking upper, it is not suitable for infantry type roles. The published testing seen did not use suitably biofidelic limbs or instrumentation but its position in the performance spectrum tin exist broadly assessed from the mechanical limbs used.

PPE100 – United Kingdom

This design is intended for specialist demining high threat use from the outset. It uses nail mitigation material and a fragmentation protection layer in the sole, both of which besides contribute to stand-off. The kicking vanquish, based on a mountaineering boot provides skillful back up to the ankle complex. A removable inner kick provides cushioning and can be replaced to extend the life of the system as a whole. Knee joint loftier integrated gaiters provide fragmentation protection to both the impacted limb and to the adjacent limb (Blueprint 2 Injury). Development testing was undertaken with amputated human being lower limbs, restricted to motion in a single vertical centrality. Different instrumentation was employed to investigate correlations between measurements and clinical consequence. Work on this projection contributed to improvements in design of biofidelic mechanical surrogates. This work too led to the invitation of Steve Holland and Eddie Chaloner onto the NATO Human being Factors in Medicine, Technical Group TG024 to assist ascertain meliorate test procedures.

Med-Eng, Spider Kick – Canada

Built effectually decoupling and stand up off the Spider boot is a modern iteration of an advertisement-hoc design from World War II. There is no direct load path from the landmine to the human foot and the 'leg' that impacts the mine will be blown abroad ensuring disconnection. Larger than one might, think the footplate hinges to aid motion just this is definitely a blueprint that emphasises protection over mobility. Information technology is a deliberate positioning in a niche sector of the market place without compromise. In this, it is very constructive.

Ranking

The slides below are extracted from a presentation given past Steve The netherlands of SJH Projects on behalf of NP Aerospace at the prestigious 'Personal Armour Systems Symposium at the Royal Armouries in Leeds in 2006 The subject was a joint venture that took place at the fourth dimension. The slides show a qualitative ranking of the kick offerings discussed above with respect to their protection level and their mobility. Different examination data was in the public domain for each design and the scientific quality of that testing varied but was enough to depict personal conclusions.

Anti Tank Landmine Impairment and Injury Mechanisms

There are many ways in which hitting an anti tank/vehicle landmine can result in death and injury and some of the primal, predictable ones will be discussed here. Outside of these key bug there is always the unpredictable nature of the road traffic blow you are nigh to have fifty-fifty if yous survive – this can end up in a side impacts, a rollover, burn down and has even resulted in expiry by drowning in irrigation ditches.

The most obvious machinery is that the smash breaches the floor of the vehicle, direct exposing the occupants to very high blast overpressure, rut and fragmentation. The torn and damaged floor structure can contribute to that fragmentation. Just exterior of where the flooring is breached information technology tin can undergo excessive deformation into the lower limbs and back of the occupants.

The next ii mechanisms are in which the floor essentially maintains its integrity but with consequences. A rigid vehicle floor tin can deed similar a thick drum pare and undergo high speed vibration which kicks upwards annihilation that was sitting on the floor such equally poorly stowed equipment. The tools shown in the prototype with the crash test dummy were left on the flooring deliberately to illustrate this point. This has been used to illustrate the importance of discipline in equipment stowage. The rapid, local floor deformation and shock transmission can be enough to cause such tension in the back face of the floor that metallic 'scabs' to come away and be thrown upwards at loftier speed.

A vehicle can exist designed to resist the blast shock wave that would result in hull alienation, and so look as equally if it has defeated the landmine. The impulse of the explosive event might still be sufficient to elevator and throw the vehicle. This rapid upwards acceleration creates a range of potentially lethal homo factors which accept become the focus of a lot of vehicle nail mitigation design, both in terms of the overall structure and internal fit out.

Human Factors and Vehicle Impulse

The NATO document AEP55 Volume 2 (more of which later) gives five Mandatory Survivability Criteria to determine laissez passer/fail in vehicle smash tests.

Lower Leg

Fifty-fifty with the best crash worthy seat available, the lower limbs tin can be exposed to rapid loading through floor deformation and transmitted stupor. Information technology is too worth bearing in heed in that in remote locations, with poor sophisticated medical back up, severe lower leg injuries can be fatal. A mere 'broken leg' can get a much larger outcome.

Measured on the upper tibia load cell of a Hybrid III ATD (crash exam dummy) the load threshold matches an Abbreviated Injury Scale of a moderate injury. The legs of the ATD should be gear up as vertical as the prepare upwardly will allow with feet on pedals where advisable. This maximises the axial load. Bodily injury to an private will depend on bone strength, weight, mental attitude of foot and footwear.

Thoraco-Lumber Spine

The human spine is a complex structure which can take loftier longitudinal acceleration for a brusk duration and lower g values for longer, just information technology non a linear relationship. Called the Dynamic Response Index (z) it is derived from an accelerometer gear up into the base of the spine of the ATD.

Cervical Spine

At that place are 2 very dissimilar criteria relating to the neck. The first is axial pinch, which is like to the DRIz at the lower spine in terms of the acceleration/time human relationship and the second is forward/rearward turning moment (whiplash).

An interesting event with this is the helmet. It is obviously required protect the skull from all the rapid movements and potential impacts that can happen during a landmine upshot. In terms of neck axial loading it does eat up headroom which, depending on the vehicle layout, can increase the take a chance of striking the ceiling and calculation to the axial load.

The mass of the helmet itself will provide some inertia to the combined mass supported past the cervix. This will contribute moderately to the centric load and in a much bigger way to the turning moment at the neck. Tests are conducted with the caput in an upright position but should the occupant exist leaning forward, this whiplash effect would exist much more significant.

Overpressure Effects

For both closed and open topped vehicles, overpressure can be injurious. The mandatory criteria looks beyond the effect on pressure sensitive ears to the more life threatening machinery of chest wall velocity and the transfer of shock to the lungs and other internal organs.

The curt duration of this pressure level loading means that air in the lungs cannot vent though the mouth and nose. Considering of this, the chest wall moves inwards, the internal pressure increases, the chest and abdomen go stiffened then provide increased resistance to farther inward movement. This complex relationship is calculated by an established chest wall velocity prediction calculation that uses input from an external chest mounted pressure level gauge. For simplicity this pressure guess is set on the outer face of any torso armour that the ATD will be wearing.

Anti Vehicle / Tank Landmine Protection Measures

Although landmines have been in widespread apply since WW2 it is merely in more contempo times that protection systems have been properly engineered based on clinical data. The preceding systems tended to exist improvised such as sandbagging vehicle floors or the improver of extra armour plate. In the same way the landmine boots used different approaches, vehicles have done the same.

Floor Shaping

Designing a vehicle around a V hull was pioneered in Southward Africa and information technology continues to be a useful role of the protection matrix. Taking information technology to the extent that the South African'south did,  compromises internal usable space and results in a taller vehicle neither of which are desirable for general armed forces service. The protection levels however were impressive.

Blast Mitigation Materials

Blast mitigation used in connection with ballistic materials, offer a weight advantage over steel and accept been for retrofit solutions both in the NGO demining support support sector and for deployed military vehicles as part of an enhancement parcel. To see more on the SJH Projects XPT material and the Mineshield Click Hither

Seating

One of the most significant advances in protection technology arising from mail nine/11 conflicts is the rapid rise and improvement in blast mitigation seats for vehicles. Featuring integrated four (or more) point harness to proceed the occupant contained they feature a range of solutions to manage the dissentious vertical dispatch discussed above. The seats tend to work on the ground of a controlled plummet that smooths the initial spike in acceleration and then brings the occupant upward to the same velocity equally the vehicle such that the DRIz is not exceeded. Newer generation seats allow the user to dial in their weight so that the maximum benefit is extracted from the protection mechanism.

Footpads

Crushable footpads isolate the foot from the flooring and can exist tuned to trounce at the right rate of loading. This expends energy through mechanical work thereby reducing that delivered into the foot and ankle of the user.

Active Systems

A fast detection and firing organization makes information technology possible, only circuitous, to fire smash energy at an equal and opposite amount to cancel out or at least minimise the vertical impulse on the vehicle. This is an emerging engineering.

Testing and NATO Technical Groups

Historically, the protection of vehicles and personnel confronting smash has been an active surface area of research involvement amongst the NATO members and other cardinal players such as the Australians. The active member countries sometimes worked on joint programmes and sometimes lonely. For each programme the test aims, start conditions, measurement regime and interpretation was adamant locally with valid assumptions. The problems arose in trying to directly compare results from one test with some other performed elsewhere. It also resulted in tests having to be repeated around NATO to meet each members specific criteria. This was hardly efficient and was inhibiting the build up of useful big information sets.

To address this shortcoming, an Exploratory Team meeting ET007 was held at the Queen Astrid War machine Infirmary in Brussels in February 2000. This meeting included the research communities for vehicles and for dismounted personnel at chance of stepping on AP mines. The outcome of this meeting was the setting up of Technical Group 024 (TG-024) which would focus on anti-personnel landmines and TG-025 which would focus on underside blast threats to vehicles. Both would have to address like issues in setting up a suitable test frameworks only did non ever draw the same conclusions.

TG-024

Exam Limb Surrogates

The proliferation of AP landmines in the Balkans wars was the goad for inquiry in AP landmine protection and boot evolution. For the testing of these new products, industry and authorities used a range of surrogates to mimic the alive homo leg.

Mechanical Surrogates

Mechanical surrogates are often unproblematic, robust and most usefully repeatable in their response. They can requite comparative data merely are generally not very useful in correlating a given result to a clinical outcome. They are best used to perform quick and simple sifts of potential boot/overboot construction candidates for examination by more than accurate means at a later stage.

Beast Models

There is no natural mimic of the human foot within the animal kingdom. Useful work was performed by DSTL Porton Down using deer bones to produce a simplified version of the pes, ankle and tibia. Deer bones were selected for the their proportions and mechanical properties. The skeletal associates was bandage within ballistic gelatin – long used as a soft tissue surrogate for defence applications. The human foot like associates does offer the opportunity for some form of clinical comparison and imaging.

Human Cadaver

Piece of work with man cadavers was undertaken past the USAIR (US Regular army Plant of Surgical Research) in San Antonio as office of LEAP (Lower Extremity Assessment Programme). The use of cadavers in this way is simply really practical in the USA. They have the means to overcome the constraints of finance, ethics and cadaver availability. The result of LEAP was a wealth of data that provided clinical consequence reference points for charge sizes, ground weather condition, position under the foot, orientation of the trunk and its applied weight. It likewise pushed the boundaries of techniques for instrumenting organic tissue to capture data that correlates to injuries both in the bones and soft tissues.

Isolated Human Limb

This was the project in which the author was directly involved with the back up of United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland vascular surgeon Eddie Chaloner. He had worked in landmine injury treatment worldwide. This work on amputated man limbs was very constructive but did show upwards the key shortcoming any whatever human tissue piece of work which was variability. The limbs were from a wide range of ages, both genders, size and condition – robust healthy limbs tend not exist removed from their owners. This work did inform key improvements to frangible surrogates after on.

Computer Modelling

During the catamenia covered by TG-024 figurer modelling was starting to be useful and certainly showed promise. Validation tests did bear witness differences which the modellers attributed to shortcomings in the tests – otherwise known as the real world. If reference information of the right quality can be sourced,FEA modelling of this nature will become the default for development work.

Frangible Surrogate Limb

The FSL or 'Frangible Surrogate Leg' is designed to mimic the behaviour of a human leg nether the rapid loading experienced when you footstep on an anti-personnel landmine or are in a vehicle hitting by an IED.

By having bones that break at the same levels and in the same manner every bit homo bones and by taking measurements of the forces experienced, it provides invaluable information to both clinicians and engineers. This data will aid in the development of systems to protect the lower limb for both mounted and dismounted personnel in areas in which landmines and buried IEDs may be constitute.

To see more on the FSL Click Here.

Complex Lower Limb

The Canadian 'Complex Lower Leg' features a double calcaneum which seems less bio-fidelic merely does automatically double the sample size which is most useful for explosive tests.

Exam Weather

One of the cardinal outcomes of TG024 was to concord the arrangements of a exam and so that results tin be more readily repeated, shared, compared and understood. Set charge sizes of PE4/C4 of given proportions are buried in kiln dried sand. Information technology can be argued that fixing both the explosive type and this form of ground are arbitrary, but fixing on any one type is going to be. These parameters exercise occur and most chiefly can be replicated across NATO. The test limb is set up in the fully upright position and the charge is buried under the boot heel which itself is under the guide shaft. This tin displace vertically in guides and features a reaction mass to replicate the upper leg and torso. This mass provides greater solitude and is the worse case for damage to ankle complex and lower leg. The tested limb can exist x-rayed whilst all the same in the boot and further scanned by x-ray or CT imaging at a later date for greater resolution. Assessment by clinical staff on site can compare the injury to a homo limb to readily inform subsequent tests.

TG-024

Testing the underside of military vehicles confronting buried landmines is a complex and expensive business. Not having to repeat information technology to meet the private requirements for each potential customer within NATO is desirable. They key survivability criteria have been discussed higher up and the 50th percentile Hybrid III ATD is the tool of choice. Properly prepare ATDs measure much more than than the mandatory criteria then provide a more than complete tape of the experience from the occupant perspective.

Options for boosted instrumentation effectually the vehicle are non disquisitional, but are often used to better understand the mechanical behaviour of the vehicle as a structure. Typically such additional measurements can include pressure level gauges, strain gauges, accelerometers and displacement gauges. Multiple real time cameras and specialist loftier speed cameras are very useful for assay and determining the order of events, desirable and otherwise.

The outcomes from TG-025 formed the basis the NATO document AEP55 Volume 2: "PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATING THE PROTECTION LEVEL OF ARMOURED VEHICLES – VOLUME 2: MINE THREAT"

Exam Conditions

Basis Preparation

TG-025 adopted a specfically graded mix of sandy gravel with defined compacted density and moisture limits every bit standard 'NATO soil'. The mix is isolated from its surroundings in a robust, lined pit. The pit size is normally 2 10 2 x one.5m deep but can be altered depending on the likely crater size. Detailed preparation, repeated compaction and inspection means that such pits tin can accept a team a couple of days to complete. It has become practice with some 'National Authorities' to have the completed pit fully saturated just before the exam to maximise the blast furnishings.

Charges and Positioning

AEP55 Volume ii links to Stanag 4569 in setting standardised threat levels. Unlike the TG-024 panel, which selected war machine PE as it fill up, TG-025 chose cast TNT. As the power of well-nigh explosives are referred to in terms of their TNT equivalence, this does have an academic simplicity. In practical terms however cast TNT is not simple to obtain, adds pregnant cost and logistical burden and those that have used it will be aware that shrinkage and micro-not bad tin can make it unreliable. Most tests are now conducted with military PE using a TNT equivalence for buried charges.

The depth of burying, position and orientation of the detonator and exactly how the charge is buried in relation to the vehicle wheel or track are carefully divers. In every instance, the National Authority of the country concerned is at liberty to deviate from the standardised procedures but commonly only does so for specific purposes.

Mine Clearance and Disposal

The clearance of legacy landmines and other explosive remnants of war has been a major issue worldwide for many years. Programmes are frequently led by the Un or specialist NGOs, only in the procedure create local skilled jobs which provide earning power until the remediated land is cleared and tin can and then used and farmed every bit it would have been before. Local vegetation and terrain determines whether this process will be mostly manual or where the ground is clearer, mechanical means become possible.

It is not unheard of for stacks of carefully recovered landmines to be taken and recycled past local warlords or others. For this reason and general efficiency, such landmines are usually explosively destroyed in a controlled event. This requires the utilize of explosive stores and the transport of working quantities of detonators. The SJH Projects Detsafe range is used extensively in such programmes.

Article Prepared by Steve Kingdom of the netherlands MIExpE FRGS – Managing director SJH Projects Ltd

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Source: https://www.sjhprojects.com/landmines-all-you-never-wanted-to-know

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