Demining

Demining is the name for the process of removing land mines from an area. It is also called mine clearance. There are two different processes:

• When the military talks about demining, it wants to clear a path, so that it can get through a minefield safely. There may still be unexploded land mines, but there will be a safe path.
• By contrast, the idea of humanitarian demining is to remove all the mines in a given area. This will make the land safe for use again.

South Korean soldiers searching for land mines in Iraq

A US soldier clears a mine using a grappling hook during training

Dogs can be trained to help with this.They can then be used to narrow down the search and verify that an area is cleared. Mechanical devices such as flails and excavators are sometimes used to clear mines.

There are different methods for detecting land mines.There are tools such as the ground penetrating radar that can be used to find mines, usually combined with a metal detector. Acoustic methods can be used to find cavities created by mine casings. Sensors have been developed to detect vapor leaking from landmines. Animals such as rats and mongooses can safely move over a minefield and detect mines, and animals can also be used to screen air samples over potential minefields. Bees, plants, and bacteria are also potentially useful. Explosives in landmines can also be detected directly using nuclear quadrupole resonance and neutron probes.

Detecting and removing landmines is daangerous. There is not personal protective equipment that protects against all types of landmine. Once found, mines are generally defused or blown up with more explosives, but it is possible to destroy them with certain chemicals or extreme heat without making them explode.

PROM-1 bounding landmine. Normally it is buried so only the prongs are exposed.

Naval minesweeper as a monument in Kotka, Finland

Foerster Minex 2FD 4.500 metal detector used by the French army

Mine detection dog in training (Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan)

Ukrainian sapper with a landmine finder dog Patron after battle during the 2022 Russian invasion

A study found, that honey bees with minimal training will be better at finding mines than rats or dogs.