166. A comprehensive list of U.S. antipersonnel mine types is included in the DISAM Journal, Spring 1996, p. 140. Reprinted there is the DoD's list of antipersonnel mines covered by the U.S. export moratorium: SecDef Washington DC//USDP:DSAA// message, 151426Z February 1996, "Moratorium on Transfers of Anti-Personnel Land Mines." This source also notes that the U.S. has a variety of "nonstandard and R&D only" antipersonnel mines: XM28 and XM41 gravel; CDU-4 and CBU-39 gravel; CDU-10 and CBU-40 micro-gravel; XM147 canister mine gravel; CDU-5 canister mine; CBU-32 wide-area mine; dragon tooth; and CBU-82/B through 86/B R&D-only dispensers and mines.
167. In identifying U.S. mines, a confusing factor is that the U.S. Army does not require model designations for its FASCAM ("Family of Scatterable Mines") mines MOPMS, PDM, GEMSS, ADAM and Volcano. In each case, the container has the designation and not the mines inside the container. For example, the Volcano container is designated M87. M87 containers hold five antitank and one antipersonnel mines that do not have designations. The M87 Volcano is deployed in the field by the M139 Volcano mine dispenser.
168. Ibid.
169. Honeywell Defense Systems Division brochure, "FASCAM: Family of Scatterable Mines," October 1983.
Below are descriptions of the main U.S. antipersonnel mines.
ADAM (Artillery Delivered Antipersonnel Mine)
ADAM was first fielded with the U.S. Army in Europe in 1983. Thirty-six mines are loaded into a 155mm artillery shell. When the mines fall from the disintegrating shell they release a "tripwire-fired, pop-up fragmenting warhead."168 The mines eject seven tripwires that, when disturbed, trigger the mine to jump four to eight feet in the air and spray shrapnel across a forty-foot area. Mines in the M731 projectile self-destruct in four hours. Those in the M692 projectile self-destruct in forty-eight hours. ADAM projectiles can be fired from a maximum distance of 17,740 meters.169
170. Duncan Lennox (Ed.), Jane's Air Launched Weapons, issue 23 (Jane's Information Group Ltd., Surrey, 1994).
Gator
Gator mines are released from the air in the form of cluster bombs.170 Gator BLU-92/B antipersonnel mines are loaded into Navy CBU-78/B and Air Force CBU-89/B cylinder shaped cluster bomb canisters and dumped from the air. The Navy's CBU-78/B shell contains fifteen BLU-92/B antipersonnel and forty-five BLU-91/B antitank Gator mines. Each Air Force CBU-89/B contains twenty-two antipersonnel Gator mines and seventy-two antitank Gator mines.
171. Honeywell 1983 FASCAM brochure; Tony Capaccio, "Army Mine Program Plagued," Army Gazette, vol. 1, no. 4, April 4, 1986, p. 1. See a second article by the same author: "First, No Mines; Now, No Wheels," Army Gazette, vol. 1, no. 5, April 18, 1986, p. 1.
172. "Fact Sheet on GEMSS," U.S. Armament Research and Development Center (ARDEC), Public Affairs Office, No.112-85, August 13, 1985; "Fact Sheet on GEMSS Auxillary Mine Dispenser," ARDEC, Public Affairs Office, No.113-85, August 13, 1985; "M128 Ground-Emplaced Mine Scattering System," U.S. Army Engineer School, Fort Belvoir, VA (undated, but presumed to be mid-1980s); Honeywell 1983 FASCAM brochure.
GEMSS (Ground-Emplaced Mine Scattering System)
GEMSS was scheduled to be first fielded in June 1985 but production problems led to numerous delays.171 The GEMSS M128 dispenser, towed by a truck, flips one mine out of a tube every two seconds from a distance of thirty to fifty meters.172 The M128 can fire off eight hundred M74 antipersonnel mines and M75 antitank mines per load. These mines are similar to those used in the ADAM system. There are normally five antitank mines to each antipersonnel mine. M74 and M75 mines can be dispensed simultaneously or separately during a mining mission.
173. For a description of the MOPMS 131 system and the scandals surrounding its production, see Andrew Cooper, "Army Smart Mine System: Saga of Waste and Overruns," Defense Week, August 5, 1996, p. 6.
174. "Fact Sheet: Pursuit Deterrent Munition," ARDEC, Public Affairs Office, No. 105-85, August 13, 1985; "A Mine to Deter Pursuit," International Defense Review, September 1991, p.1019; Honeywell 1983 FASCAM brochure.
MOPMS 131 (The Modular Pack Mine System)
MOPMS is the only U.S. smart mine system that deploys mines by means of a hand-held remote control radio unit.173 The mines can be fired out of a box by troops who have already left the scene. MOPMS is the most ambitious example of what mine enthusiasts talk about when they refer to "smart mines" operating in an "intelligent minefield." A MOPMS minefield is deemed to be "intelligent" because, theoretically, it can be "turned on or off" using a switch of a hand-held terminal that resembles a television remote control. The user should be able to turn off the minefield if he must pass through it, and turn it on to entrap or harass the enemy.
Initial Army forecasts spoke of a requirement for 183,000 MOPMS mines. Following a 1979 research and development contract, Hughes Aircraft was contracted in 1987 to produce 50,000 MOPMS mines and 3,000 remote control units. The system was plagued from the start with technical malfunctions, allegations of a breakdown in quality control, and soaring expenses for a product that could not perform to standard. There were no follow-on contracts after the U.S. government canceled a second 1989 contract in 1993 and sued defense contractor Accudyne Corp.
MOPMS mines are loaded twenty-one at a time into a 165-pound styrofoam dispenser. Four of the mines are antipersonnel. Inside the dispenser seven launch tubes each hold three mines. Once the mines have been emplaced by hand, Army personnel use a remote control unit to signal the dispenser from a distance of 300 meters to one kilometer away. The mines, once ejected, take a minute and a half to arm and discharge four forty-foot-long tripwires in four directions. The tripwires are stronger but not much thicker than thread and are programmed to trigger the mine to explode when a minimum of one pound of pressure is applied.
M86 PDM (Pursuit Deterrent Munition)
The M86 PDM is an adaptation of the ADAM modified for hand emplacement.174 The mines, favorites of the U.S. Special Forces, are intended to deter pursuit by the enemy. The M86 is a one-pound bouncing self-destruct explosive device that ejects seven twenty-foot trip wires when armed. Upon detonation the mine jumps four to eight feet into the air and sprays shrapnel in a forty-foot radius. In 1988 the Army procured 15,000 M86 PDM antipersonnel mines. The prime contractor for the mines was Alliant Techsystems. Production was completed in 1990.
175. Peter Koch, "Catching Up in the Field of Mines," Army Times, December 11, 1989, p. 25; "Fact Sheet: The Multiple Delivery System," ARDEC, Public Affairs Office, No. 111-85, August 13, 1985; Volcano brochure from the Office of the Project Manager for Mines, Countermine and Demolitions, Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.; Honeywell 1983 FASCAM brochure; Volcano brochure from Alliant Techsystems, Inc., May 1994.
Volcano (Multiple Delivery Mine System)
The Volcano system uses the Gator mine and is called a multiple delivery mine system because it can be deployed from different vehicles, using the M139 launcher rack, as well as from Blackhawk helicopters.175 The M139 Volcano launcher rack holds up to forty M87 Volcano canisters, each containing six Gator antitank mines and one Gator antipersonnel mine. Ground vehicles towing the Volcano travel five to fifty miles per hour. From the air, mines are dumped five to 150 feet above ground at a speed of 20-200 knots. The resulting minefield has a density of .012 mines per square meter. The average minefield length is 960 meters.
M18A1 (Claymore)
The M18A1, also known as the "Claymore," is one of the most commonly copied and used antipersonnel mines in the world. It can be used either with a tripwire or in a command detonated mode (with an M57 firing device or a pull wire). When fired, the Claymore sends 700 steel balls in a sixty-degree arc across a fifty-meter radius.
Although the Claymore has been classified as an antipersonnel landmine in government and private reference works in the past, the growing success of the mine ban movement has led the DoD more recently to begin referring to the Claymore as a command detonated munition and not a landmine. The U.S. has pledged to use the Claymore only in command detonated mode. Human Rights Watch does not believe that Claymores should suddenly be classified as something other than a landmine. While Claymores operated in a command detonated mode (where a soldier identifies the enemy and explodes the mine remotely) do not pose the dangers to civilians that other mines do, Human Rights Watch remains concerned about the indiscriminate nature of Claymores used with tripwires. Any mine designed to be used with a tripwire should be prohibited.
176. Details about the M-14 are provided by: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of Humanitarian and Refugee Affairs, Mine Facts: An Interactive CD-Rom Database, Washington, D.C. 1996; and Christopher F. Goss and Terry J. Gander (Eds.), Jane's Military Vehicles and Logistics 1995-96, Sixteenth Edition (Surrey: Jane's Information Group, 1995), p. 239.
177. Hambric and Schneck, 1996, p. 29.
178. The figures are provided in a letter from George R. Schneiter, Director, Tactical Warfare Programs, Acquisition and Technology, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, to Rep. Lane Evans, October 27, 1994.
M-14
The M-14 is a small, plastic blast mine that is virtually undetectable because of its small metallic content. DoD reports that copies are made in Vietnam (MN-79) and India (M-14). DoD also reports that countries that have used or still use the M-14 include: Cambodia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Malawi and Zambia. The mine is detonated by applying pressure to a plate, which drives a firing pin into a detonator; the detonator explodes the main charge. There are discrepancies in figures provided by DoD for the overall M-14 stockpile. In 1994 totals of 4,481,208 U.S. Army M-14 mines and 60,000 U.S. Navy M-14 mines were given. But in December 1996 the Humanitarian Demining Project cited a total M-14 stockpile figure of 3.5 million. 177 The discrepency in figures is not related to the proposed destruction of most U.S. dumb mines. 178 The U.S. has said it will reserve one million M-14 and M-16 mines for possible use in Korea
179. Goss and Gander, 1995, p.238; Mine Facts, 1996.
180. The figures are provided in a letter from George R. Schneiter, Director, Tactical Warfare Programs, Acquisition and Technology, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense, to Rep. Lane Evans, October 27, 1994.
181. Hambric and Schneck, 1996, p. 29.
M-16
The M-16, used by the U.S., Angola and Zambia, is shaped like an olive green cylinder. It is often referred to as "bouncing betty"179 because it bounces one meter into the air when pressure is applied to its main plate, dispersing metal fragments in every direction. As with the M-14, DoD has provided conflicting information about total stockpile figures. In 1994 DoD provided totals of 1,396,168 U.S. Army M-16 mines, 143,000 U.S. Navy M-16 mines, and 172,711 U.S. Marine M-16 mines.180 But the figure given in 1996 was markedly different again: 1.5 million M-16 mines.181
