3 ms·

> All US landmines now self-destruct in two days or less, in most cases four hours. Supremely commendable, but it does seem remarkably short windows. I do won

> All US landmines now self-destruct in two days or less, in most cases four hours. Supremely commendable, but it does seem remarkably short windows. I do wonder what troops on the ground, in 'busy', and highly stategic defensive positions, feel about having to re-lay the same mines every two days, let alone four hours: surely the enemy could take severe advantage?

haneefmubarak 4y ago
I'd imagine that this simply means that the DoD expects to use them tactically as opposed to strategically in the field
- ilyt 4y ago
  Right but if enemy takes the terrain do you really want it to be "clear" off mines in a day or two coz they self-detonated ?
  - gigaflop 4y ago
    If the mines are known about, and prevent a location from being used for 2 days, I'd argue that they've done some job of area denial. If someone is sitting next to the minefield waiting for mines to expire, they're not doing as many other soldier-y tasks like shooting people.
wnkrshm 4y ago
You lay those mines with an aircraft or missile, I'd suspect. It's like a sleeping cluster bomb - one of the worst (in terms of humanitarian problems) antipersonal mines out there, the Russian PFM-1 butterfly mine [0] is a cluster munition that simply floats to the ground and stays there. The PFM-1 also has a deactivation mechanism but it didn't work well enough in practice. Deactivation mechanisms are one thing but what the explosives do over time is a big deal, even if the trigger/fuze is guaranteed to be inert after a short time. Explosives can be like mayonnaise, they can separate after a while, forming sensitive mixtures, making the 'inert' mine suddenly dangerous again. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1_mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1_mine
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  > Explosives can be like mayonnaise, they can separate after a while, forming sensitive mixtures, making the 'inert' mine suddenly dangerous again. In the 1970s, there was a Friedkin movie, that used this as a plot point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film)

haneefmubarak 4y ago

I'd imagine that this simply means that the DoD expects to use them tactically as opposed to strategically in the field

ilyt 4y ago
Right but if enemy takes the terrain do you really want it to be "clear" off mines in a day or two coz they self-detonated ?
- gigaflop 4y ago
  If the mines are known about, and prevent a location from being used for 2 days, I'd argue that they've done some job of area denial. If someone is sitting next to the minefield waiting for mines to expire, they're not doing as many other soldier-y tasks like shooting people.

wnkrshm 4y ago

You lay those mines with an aircraft or missile, I'd suspect. It's like a sleeping cluster bomb - one of the worst (in terms of humanitarian problems) antipersonal mines out there, the Russian PFM-1 butterfly mine [0] is a cluster munition that simply floats to the ground and stays there. The PFM-1 also has a deactivation mechanism but it didn't work well enough in practice. Deactivation mechanisms are one thing but what the explosives do over time is a big deal, even if the trigger/fuze is guaranteed to be inert after a short time. Explosives can be like mayonnaise, they can separate after a while, forming sensitive mixtures, making the 'inert' mine suddenly dangerous again. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1_mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFM-1_mine

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
> Explosives can be like mayonnaise, they can separate after a while, forming sensitive mixtures, making the 'inert' mine suddenly dangerous again. In the 1970s, there was a Friedkin movie, that used this as a plot point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorcerer_(film)