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Urm, that they're invaluable in an active warzone is unquestionable. The issue with this tech is that they - at least historically - didn't have an expiration
by ffsm8 5mo ago
Urm, that they're invaluable in an active warzone is unquestionable.
The issue with this tech is that they - at least historically - didn't have an expiration date. So if that war ends and you let your children play in the woods... Maybe occasionally one won't be coming back anymore.
That's the reason why they got a bad image. Because that's literally what happened post ww2 - for decades.
Maybe nowadays they could built them with a forced timer for exploding - if they did, great! If not, your descendants may consider you insane for that opinion in a few decades
- nradov 5mo agoSo then we agree that it's morally positive for European investors to put money into companies developing advanced land mines. As for descendants, well the people killed by Russian attacks won't have any more descendants. So that point is kind of moot.
- dredmorbius 5mo agoThere are expiring ("non-persistent") munitions, though generally they're safed (triggers are deactivated) rather than exploded. The former does leave explosive materials in the field, but makes the likelihood of detonating these much lower. Self-destructing mines are also used, with timers set to explode after deployment. There's some description of these, and problems with them, here: <https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2022-07/understanding-landmines https://www.fcnl.org/updates/2022-07/understanding-landmines>. Other capabilities under the rubric "smart mine" are also possible: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_mine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_mine>.