Re: Mine Probing

>
>
>>>If  I remember correctly the US scat mine is
>>>designed to self distrust
>>>after a fixed time has passed.
>>>
>>True.  All US scatmines have SD feature.
>>
>>John
>>
>
>Which is fine, but still begs the question of how dependable the
>self-destruct mechanism is. 90%, 99%, 99,9% ? Multiply by the number of
>scattered mines and see how many don't self-destruct.
>
>Greetings
>Karl Heinz
>
I think you missed the point. The US scat mine was not developed to make
a
location impassable but it was developed to slow an enemy down.

The idea was that as US forces were being attacked in waves a minefield 
could be
placed between waves which would  delay and disrupt an attack. Since 
this type of
attack is of a very short duration the mines (majority) would be 
destroyed after a
reasonable time had passed. So:
1) Scat mines are rarely used (expensive and takes space better suited 
to less exotic
     munitions).
2) The mines are easily detected and destroyed (sitting on the surface 
and destroyable
    by anyone with a gun or long pole)
3) The majority of the mines will destroy themselves.

Of course if you are facing an enemy  that is coming at you in multiple 
waves that
outnumber your forces then scat mines may be just what you need.

Scott Siebold