are a form of mines
designed for use against humans as opposed
to anti-tank mines
, which are
designed for use against vehicles.
This type is designed to injure (as opposed to killing) as many
victims as possible in order to increase the logistical (mostly
) support required by such an enemy
force. Some types of anti-personnel mines can also damage the
tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires
The mines can be classified into blast mines or fragmentation
mines, which may or may not be bounding
Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban land mines
culminating in the 1997 Ottawa Treaty,
although this treaty has not yet been accepted by a number of
countries including the USA, Russia, People's
Republic of China and India.
Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank
mines, in static "mine fields" along national borders or in defense
of strategic positions as described in greater detail in the
article. What makes them
different from most anti-tank mines, however, is their smaller
size, which enables large numbers to be simultaneously deployed
over a large area. This process can be done manually, via
dispensers on land vehicles, or from helicopters or aircraft.
Alternatively, they can be dispensed by cargo-carrying artillery
Other uses specific to anti-personnel mines, are where they are
deployed on an ad hoc basis in the following situations:
Typically, anti-personnel blast mine are pressure activated i.e.
they are triggered when the victim steps on it. Their primary
purpose is to blow the victim's foot or leg off, disabling them.
Injuring, rather than killing, the victim is viewed as preferable
in order to increase the logistical (evacuation, medical) burden on
the opposing force.
When a person steps on a blast mine and activates it, the mine's
main charge detonates
, creating a blast
consisting of hot gases
travelling at extremely high velocity. The shockwave sends a huge
ejecting the mine casing and any soil covering the mine along with
it. When the blast wave hits the surface, it quickly transfers the
force into the subject's footwear and foot. This results in a
massive compression force being applied to the victim's foot. In
most cases, the victim's foot is blown off by the blast wave.
The resulting injuries to a human body depend on the size of the
mine's main charge, the depth, type of soil it was laid in and how
the victim contacted it e.g. stepping on the mine using all or part
of the foot. Different types of soil will result in different
amounts of energy being transferred upward into the subject's foot,
with saturated "clay-like" soil transferring the most. Larger main
charges result in a release of significantly more energy, driving
the blast wave further up a target's foot and leg and causing
greater injury, in some cases even described as severe as traumatic amputation
of the foot up to
Secondary injuries from a blast mine are often caused by the
material that has been torn loose by the mine's explosion. This
consists of the soil and stones that were on top of the mine, parts
of the victim's footwear and the small bones in the victim's foot.
This debris creates wounds typical of similar secondary blast
effects or shrapnel
Special footwear, including combat boots or so-called "blast
boots", is only moderately protective against the destructive
effects of blast mines, and the loss of a foot is a typical
Blast mines have little effect on armoured vehicles, but can damage
a wheeled vehicle if it runs directly over the mine. Small blast
mines will severely damage a tire, rendering it unrepairable while
some types could also damage adjacent running gear.
Typical components of an
anti-personnel blast mine.
The mine casing houses the components of the mine and protects it
from its environment. Early land mines, such as the ones used in
the World War 2 era, had casings made of steel or aluminium
. However, by the middle of World War 2,
the British Army was using the first, practical, portable metal
detectors—the Polish mine
. The Germans responded with mines that had a wooden or
glass casing to make detection harder.
Wooden mines had been used by the Russians in 1939, before the
appearance of metal detectors, in order to save steel. Some, like
the PP Mi-D mine
, continued to be used
into the 1980's as they were easy to make and hard to detect. Wood
has the disadvantage of rotting and splitting, rendering the mine
non-functional after a comparatively short time in the
Mines manufactured after the 1950s generally use plastic casings to
hinder detection by electronic mine detectors. Some, referred to as
Minimum metal mines
constructed with as little metal as possible (often around 1 gram,
0.04 oz) to make them difficult to detect. Mines containing
absolutely no metal have been produced, but are uncommon. By
definition, a mine without any metal components in it cannot be
found using a mine detector.
Pressure plate/fuze mechanism
is designed to set off the detonator
either by striking it with a spring-loaded firing pin
, compressing a friction sensitive
pyrotechnic composition, or by passing an electric charge through
it. Most mines employ a spring-loaded striker that hits a stab
detonator when activated by the victim. Typically, the detonator
contains a tiny pellet of lead azide
fuze is the most complicated component in any landmine, though the
amount of effort required to design and manufacture a simple fuze
mechanism is quite low. For example, the retraction mechanism
inside a cheap plastic ballpoint pen
could easily be adapted to function as a basic anti-personnel
landmine fuze after minor modifications. It follows that any
factory capable of manufacturing retractable ballpoint pens could
easily manufacture such fuzes.
More sophisticated examples, such as the Italian SB-33 mine
have a fuze mechanism that detonates
the mine if subject to gradual, steady pressure, but locks the fuze
if subject to a sudden shock. This defeats one of the main methods
of clearing a path through a minefield—detonating the mines with
explosive devices, such as Mine-clearing line charges
The booster charge
is a highly
that will explode
easily when subjected to the shock of the detonator
. Typically, a pea-sized pellet of
is used. The purpose of the booster is to
amplify the shock of the detonator and initiate the main explosive
The main charge consists of a stable explosive that is detonated by
the booster charge. This is necessary, because making a mine out of
highly sensitive detonator or booster explosive would be more
expensive, and make the device more sensitive and thereby
susceptible to accidental explosion. In most AP blast mines
, Composition B
or phlegmatised RDX
are used. On a U.S. M14 mine, 29 grams
of tetryl is used, while 240 grams of TNT is
used in a Russian PMN mine.
Anti-personnel blast mines are the most common type of land mine
and typically deployed on the surface (hidden by leaves or rocks)
or buried under soil at depths of 10 – 20 mm. They are activated by
pressure i.e. when the victim steps on them, but could also be a
vehicle driving over them.
They were designed for use as area
. Weapons of this type are supposed to deny
opposing military forces access to a specific area.
While blast mines are designed to cause severe injury to one
person, fragmentation mines (such as the World War II
era German S-mine
) are designed to project fragments across a
wide area, causing shrapnel
wounds to nearby personnel.
Fragmentation mines are generally much larger and heavier than
blast mines, and contain a large amount (often several kilograms)
of ferrous metal. As such, they are easy to detect if the
environment is not too heavily contaminated with iron.
These mines are deemed more effective than purely "blast effect"
mines, because the shrapnel effect covers a greater area,
potentially injuring more combatants.
The shrapnel from these mines can even disable some armoured
vehicles, by puncturing their tires
case of soft-skinned vehicles—also penetrating the skin and
damaging internal components or injuring personnel. Because
fragmentation mines generally contain a much larger charge than
blast mines, they can cause severe damage to an unarmoured vehicle
which runs directly over one.
Types of fragmentation mine
Yugoslav stake mounted
anti-personnel mine with tripwire, Balkans
These mines (such as the Russian POMZ
entirely above ground, having a fragmenting warhead mounted on a
stake at a suitable height, concealed by vegetation or rubbish and
triggered by one or more tripwires
have a small lifting
charge that, when activated, launches the main body of the mine out
of the ground before it detonates at around chest height. This
produces a more lethal spray of shrapnel over a larger area. One
such¿—the US M16 mine
—can cause injuries up
to 200m (650 feet) away. The steel shrapnel makes bounding mines
easy to detect, so they may be surrounded by Minimum metal mines
to make mine
Russian MON-50 directional AP
Directional fragmentation weapons (such as the M18 Claymore
) differ from
other types in that they are designed to direct their fragments
only in limited arc. They are placed so that the blast will be
directed at the target area and away from friendly forces. This
design also allows forces to protect themselves by placing these
types of mines near their own positions, but facing the enemy. They
are triggered in a conventional manner with either tripwire
or command detonation. They are generally
referred to as claymore mines
from the US mine of this
Other mine types
During World War 2, the Russians produced a flame-mine, or flame fougasse
, called the FOG-1. This was
copied by the Germans to produce the Abwehrflammenwerfer 42
, these devices
were effectively disposable, trip-wire triggered Flamethrowers
. Large numbers of similar devices
were produced by the British in 1940 as improvised weapons
against a possible
German invasion (see British
anti-invasion preparations of World War II
Chemical mines have also been made. They were made by the US and
the Soviet Union during World War 2, but never deployed. During the
Cold War, the US produced the M23
small explosive charge burst the mine open and dispersed the
chemical when the mine was triggered.
- World War II anti-personnel mines
- S-mine (Bouncing Betty):
infamous German bounding mine; widely copied after the war.
- Glasmine 43: German mine made
largely from glass, to make it difficult to detect.
- PDM-6 and PMD-7: Russian World
War II mines, made from wood.
- Post-War, US anti-personnel mines
- Gravel mines, 1960s–1970s. Simple,
small mine with no moving parts. Millions were dropped during the
- M16: improved version of the German
- BLU-43 (Dragontooth), 1970s.
Air-dropped mine used during the Vietnam War.
- GATOR mine system: modern
dispersal system, includes AP (BLU-92/B) and anti-tank
- M18 Claymore:
- M86 Pursuit Deterrent
Munition: tripwire triggered bounding mine that automatically
deploys its own tripwires. It is intended to be dropped by special
forces when evading a pursuing enemy.
- Post-War, Russian anti-personnel mines
- PFM-1 (butterfly mine, NATO:
Blue Parrot), modern.
- POMZ: tripwire triggered, stake-mine.
- MON-50: Russian directional mine; a copy
of the American M18 Claymore.
- PMN mine: one of the most commonly
encountered mines during de-mining operations.
- MON-200: large mine with a 12kg TNT
charge. Also effective against light vehicles.
- Post-War, British anti-personnel mines
- HB 876 mine: 1970s–1999. An air
dropped mine used as part of the JP233 runway
attacking system. Each attack with a JP233 also dropped 215 HB 876s
that were intended to make repair of the damaged runway slow and
- Yugoslav anti-personnel mines
- MRUD: Directional mine similar to the M18