Clearing Landmines- Dollars and sense

Yes Buldogg, I see what you mean but I am thinking of soldiers in a combat situation and not post war.

Mines are such terrible weapons, one of the major problems in Kosovo were mines left behind at serbian trenches when they either advanced or retreated. Mines are a personal weapon in some armies. While trenched mines are put in front of the position for better self defence.

Very bad!
 
yes. very bad is right, it stinks having to worry about if they next step you take will be your last, plus they threw mines on the ground like change is on the ground in America.
 
Why not use a more modern version of the flail tank used on the D Day landings?

It worked if I remember correctly on anti personnel and anti tank mines.
 
Why not use a more modern version of the flail tank used on the D Day landings?

It worked if I remember correctly on anti personnel and anti tank mines.

The flail tank or bulldozer with a flail is a sound principal, while this guys invention seems to only work on perfectly flat ground where the wind is blowing the right way.
I definately dont want to put him down im sure it will work well in the desert.
 
I think the easiest way would by some thing like the Viper....The Viper would fire a long length of hose filled with explosive across an area then it would detonated and this would explode all mines around it and would clear then for about 25 yards either side of the explosion.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHszRV5-bd4"]Giant Viper - YouTube[/ame]
 
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Why not use a more modern version of the flail tank used on the D Day landings?

It worked if I remember correctly on anti personnel and anti tank mines.

Funny you should mention it, 1,5 decades ago (last century) I was assisting some blokes I knew in making a compact-version of the "flail-tank" you mentioned.
The consept was supposed to be compact enough to be transported on a regular 8 ton truck/lorry, and be shipped in a standard 20 feet cargo container.

The solution included improved flails and off the shelf components assembeled on a Bobcat miniloader, primarly intended on anti-personel mines, but the rig was supposed to survive an anti-tank mine as well.

We had a lot of fun testing it on fields, digging through the top soil and sparing local farmers the task of plowing, the tests proved that the darn thing could negotiate quite steep slopes as well, but it took some effort to come up with the automatic control system to ensure that the flail dug in at a uniform depth no matter what terrain the machine encountered.

Shrubs and bushes was no problem, but trees took some time to chop throug.
They later did a live test on a Swedish testing ground, chopping up anti-personel mines with splendid apetite.
The Swedes was however reluctant to let it chew on a live anti-tank mine, so they concluded the test by setting off a charge of TNT similar to a mine under the cab of the vehicle.
Surviveability was proven, but it didn't matter much since the macine was remote operated by radio controls.
Later on the sendt a prototype to Bosnia, only to have it seized by a local war-lord.
Then they went down to Iran to field test a production model on ra real minefield, an effort wich was hampered by political difficulties.

Later on the also came up with an even smaller 4 ton version.

While the consept was quite sound, the whole project strandded on production costs, typical for small companies.

There's a video of the 4 tonner here: http://www.novatron.no/video/video_logo.jpg
 
Cost is always the problem 84, but there must be quite a few outdated tanks that could be converted to a flail system. Although transporting them would be a problem.
 
Aye, and production cost are quite high here compared to almost any other country save for maybe Switzerland, but as I searched google it appears that at least one of their "Minecat's" are still operational in southern Lebanon.

The main focus of the project was to make a low-cost mine clearing vehicle that could be transported on any commercial trcuk and be ready for action on short notice.
 
Aye, and production cost are quite high here compared to almost any other country save for maybe Switzerland, but as I searched google it appears that at least one of their "Minecat's" are still operational in southern Lebanon.

The main focus of the project was to make a low-cost mine clearing vehicle that could be transported on any commercial trcuk and be ready for action on short notice.

This approach would be sufficient to clear the mines in countries suited for it. There is still a huge problem with mines in Cambodia and other tropical countries in Africa. UN has an operation going on in Cambodia; it is painstaking operation with a lot of fatalities
 
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