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mines

Fighting land mines with darts

There's no easy way to clear a path through a minefield. Options range from tracked vehicles pummeling the ground with whirling flails to individual soldiers gingerly poking the ground and then defusing mines one by one. The Defense Department, cognizant of the need for both speed and safety in beach landings and other operations, is looking at another alternative--masses of small darts raining down on suspect terrain.

The April edition of Popular Science offers a quick look at that laboratory project, which falls under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research. (The ONR isn't just about ships … Read more

It's a car, it's a UAV, no - it's UUV

As we see here, there is absolutely no reason why your pool cleaner shouldn't match your car. Too bad British defence giant BAE Systems has other plans for the Talisman -like minesweeping.

Drawing on stealth, aerospace and race car design, BAE developed this unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) in hopes of following up on its success with the unmanned aerial variety. After years of wind tunnel and open-ocean testing the carbon fiber hulled Talisman M is ready for action in water up to 490 feet. "Vectorable" thruster pods allow it to hover and turn on a dime. It … Read more

MIT devices detects land mines from safe distance

Researchers at the Lincoln Lab at MIT have come up with something that can be described as a sound flashlight. It emits powerful, but tightly focused acoustic beams that can penetrate underground.

When the beams hit a mine, the vibrations from the collision push up dirt around the area. That movement of dirt is then registered by a radar device.

"It turns out that mines will vibrate quite differently from anything else," said MIT's Robert Haupt in a prepared statement. "You can determine what types of mines there are--and which countries made them--by their unique signatures.&… Read more