Re: Mines 8 (!)

John Atkinson wrote:

> 3)Regular engineers are not trained to defuze enemy mines.  I have
> only
> one option when dealing with enemy mines, and that is to blow them in
> place.  Special Forces, EOD, et al might disarm them, and guerillas or
>
> long-term veterans may learn to do so, but it's not a real bright idea
>
> generally.  Especially with modern anti-handling devices.  There is an
>
> Italian AHD which is keyed to the magnetic field of the earth.  Move
> the mine 4 feet in any direction after it's armed, and BOOM.	And it's
>
> internal, hence impossible to notice.

Just as an aisde (hopefully I won't get kicked for this...)
Actually what I was getting at before is that in many third world
countries, they take the old mines out of the ground, pull them apart,
and remove the explosive composition within. This is how they get
explosives for their own demolitions since they usually don't have the
funds to buy their own or the resources to make their own. It's
obviously risky (I see lots of hobbled people walking around), but a lot
of these guys, having been around the stuff for so long have an absolute
callous disregard for the danger. Hell I had dudes walk up and actually
drop unexploded 82mm mortar rounds and POM-Z antipersonnel mines in my
lap. (combined with a devilish grin) After about my third shit fit,
combined with threatening to shoot the next guy who screwed with them,
they stopped messing around.

They take the ordnance, remove the fuze, then melt the explosive out of
the casing with either boiling it or open flame. When it pours out and
cools you have have explosives! With some mines like the Russain stuff,
it's literally got just blocks of TNT inside it that you can just pull
out once you've disarmed it. With grenades, once you  ubnscrew teh fuze,
you can jsut scoop the expolisve out with a knife, though it ususlaly
crumbles like old cement and you have to screw with it to make it into
something useful. Other mines (like our claymore) have the putty like C4
in them that you just pull out and shape in your hands just like play
doh.

I'm thinking that given the logistical nightmares of trying to supply
outlying colonies on far flung planets (especially during times of war
between the NAC/ESU whatever), that there will be an even greater
reliance on techniques such as these, and other types of "primitive
tech".	We'll see smallish sized units (bn task force etc) garrisoning
outposts in wild west fashion against all these yahoos, while the big
powers husband their forces for the major fights wherever they may be.
Low tech wars with a sprinking of high tech weapons and gadgetry here
and there. (Except for the major fights)

Los