[Admin: split this one from the MOS thread, that's why this first post may seem a bit weird...]

Enemy soldiers are the best way to diffuse mines, mua ha ha. But I heard it was against something called the Geneva Convention, or whatever that thing is. If anyone else has heard of it, let me know.










Joking

Yea I was wondering about that too. Are landmines outlawed? Do any countries still use them anyway? They must (Iraq as I recall, from GWI anyway), or we wouldn't have so many nifty toys to get rid of them. When were they outlawed? Anyone know about this?

Well we still use the M18 Claymore AP mine, but it's a remotely triggered mine rather than a bury and forget one, I don't know if that makes a difference.

Of course, this is getting a little off-topic, but I doubt this is going to spark a full-on discussion .

implaced anti-personnel landmines were banned by an international treaty not signed by the US. but yes a claymore is not covered because it is command detonated.

Anti-personnel mines were banned by the Ottawa Treaty - unsigned, I think, by the US, Russia and China, which means that you're going to find them in any operation theatre. Still, anti-tank mines are still fully legal.

A Claymore can be set to detonate through a tripwire, so it would be banned for the treaty...

The claymore charge itself is not banned.
We use a similar fragmentation charges (?), both anti-personell and vehicles, which is remotely detonated.
When it is detonated by command it is regarded as a one-shot weapon.

But when you put a tripwire on it, then it becomes a mine, and it is banned...

Yes we do still use landmines. The Geneva convention states that any landmines used must be command operated (i.e. remote detonation), and not personnell activated. This is for obvious reasons, but no, landmines are not banned, and are used mainly for things like area protection and ambushes especially

Originally Posted by Ben

Yes we do still use landmines. The Geneva convention states that any landmines used must be command operated (i.e. remote detonation), and not personnell activated. This is for obvious reasons, but no, landmines are not banned, and are used mainly for things like area protection and ambushes especially

Then it's not a landmine, but a weapon..

Anti-tank mines are still allowed.

Well in bosnia canada was demining and lost 6 men so now there making the serbs demine meanwial then "superwise"

Bosnia and minefields, hmmm

Here's a couple of photos I took in bosnia...
Minefields everywhere...
http://www.home.no/novasuper/FN_NATO...r/minefelt.jpg
http://www.home.no/novasuper/FN_NATO.../minefelt2.JPG
And here's one from Lebanon.
http://www.home.no/novasuper/FN_NATO...r/Ny%20A2B.JPG
It's a picture from one of our patrol routes.
Engineers had cleared the paths, everything outside the sticks is considered minefields. (we could see mines sticking out of the ground several places...)

It took weeks after I got back to Norway before I felt comfortable with walking on soft ground again...
Everything outside hard ground down there (Bosnia and Lebanon) was considered unsafe (and in most of the cases it was), so we did never step outside the roads.