Anti-tank mines are intended for mining the terrain against tanks and other mobile ground military equipment enemy. Anti-tank mine TM-57 - anti-track, consists of a metal case with a pressure cover, an explosive charge and a fuse. The mine can be used with push-action fuses - MV-57, MVZ-57 or the MVSh-57 pin fuse. The MV-57 fuse is used when setting the mine manually, it is transferred to the combat position by removing the safety pins and turning the screw. The MVZ-57 fuse is used when setting a mine with a minelayer. Transferring it to the combat position is done by pressing a button. The deceleration mechanism of the fuse ensures its automatic transfer from a safe position to a combat position after 40 - 70 s. The MVSh-57 fuse is used to make the mine blast-resistant when exposed to the shock wave of the explosion. Anti-tank mine TM-62 - anti-track, depending on the material used, it consists of a metal (TM-62M), plastic (TM-62P) or wooden (TM-62D) body, explosive charge, intermediate detonator and fuse.

To install anti-tank mines manually, you need to dig a hole, install a mine in it, put the fuse in a combat position and disguise the mine. The fuse is screwed into the mine directly at the installation site.

Remove and neutralize previously installed anti-tank mines in the following order: make sure that the mine is set to the extractable position, remove the camouflage layer from the mine, unscrew the fuse from the mine, transfer it from the combat position to the transport position and screw it into the mine, remove the mine from its place installation, clean it from the soil and inspect for damage.

Anti-personnel mines are designed to mine the terrain against enemy manpower. According to the damaging effect, they are divided into high-explosive and fragmentation, according to the principle of actuating pressure or tension mines. Most anti-personnel mines are used with MUV and MUV-2 fuses.

Mine PDM-6M - high-explosive, pressure action, consists of a wooden case, an explosive charge (200-gram TNT checker), a MUV or MUV-2 fuse with a T-shaped combat check and an MD-2 or MD-5M fuse. Principle of operation: when you press the mine cover, it goes down and pulls out the combat check of the fuse, which leads to its operation and the explosion of the mine. A mine with an open lid and a TNT checker inserted into it is installed in a hole dug in the ground so that the mine cover protrudes 1-2 cm above the ground surface. Then a fuse is inserted into the mine, the lid is closed and the mine is masked. Removal of the safety checks from the fuse is carried out after the completion of all mine installation operations. The designers provided that the mine fuse did not work with a force of less than 1 kg. But if this force is within 1 ... 12 kg, a mine explosion is guaranteed.

Mina PMN - high-explosive, pressure action, consists of a plastic case, an explosive charge, a pressure device, a trigger mechanism and an MD-9 fuse. Principle of operation: when the mine is pressed, the cover and stem are lowered, the lugs of the stem disengage from the striker, the latter is released and, under the action of the mainspring, pricks the fuse, which, exploding, causes the mine to explode.

The installation of the mine is carried out in the following sequence: the plug is turned off, the fuse is inserted into the mine, the plug is wrapped back; a hole is torn off according to the size of the mine so that the mine installed in it rises above the ground by 1 - 2 cm; without pressing the cover of the mine, the safety pin is pulled out, after removing it from the MUV-2 fuse, the cutter under the action of the mainspring cuts the metal element and the fuse goes into the combat position (the cutting time is at least 2.5 minutes, which ensures the safe installation of mines).
Then the mine should be installed in the hole and carefully, without pressing the mine, disguise it.

In winter, with a snow depth of up to 10 cm, PMD-6M and PMN mines are installed on the ground, and at greater depths - on compacted snow and masked with a layer of snow no more than 6 cm thick. installation.

So, an enemy infantryman stepped on a mine, the explosion put him out of action. Another came, a third. In general, each enemy soldier has his own mine. Is it possible to increase the effectiveness of defeating manpower? You can use fragmentation mines.

POMZ-2M mine - fragmentation, circular destruction, consists of a cast-iron body, an explosive charge of the MUV-2 fuse with an MD-5M fuse and a P-shaped combat pin. In addition, each mine includes two or three pegs, a carabiner with a wire 0.5 m long and a wire extension. The principle of operation of the mine: when the wire is pulled, the combat check is pulled out of the fuse, the drummer is released and, under the action of the mainspring, pricks the fuse, which, exploding, causes the mine to explode. The body of the mine is crushed into fragments, which scatter in radial directions, hitting the enemy's manpower.

Mina is installed with one or two branches of wire stretching. To install a mine with one branch of a wire brace, it is necessary to hammer a peg so that it rises 12 - 15 cm above the ground, fasten a brace for it and stretch it in the direction of the installation of the mine; at the site of the installation of the mine, hammer in the installation peg with an elevation above the ground by 5 - 7 cm; put a combat checker into the mine body with an ignition nest inside the mine and put the mine body with the checker onto the mounting peg; connect the MUV-2 fuse with the fuse and screw it into the upper opening of the mine body, hook the fuse on the combat pin with a carabiner and, making sure that the pin is securely held, pull the safety pin out of the MUV-2 fuse.

To install a mine with two branches of a wire brace, it is necessary to drive two stakes into the ground at a distance of about 8 m from one another, tie the ends of the wire brace to them at a height of 5 - 8 cm; against the middle of the wire stretching, stepping back from it towards the enemy by 1 m, hammer in the mounting ring and put on it a mine case with a 75-gram TNT block; roll up a loop in the middle of the wire stretching and, having tried on the length of the wire segment, tie a carabiner to it. All subsequent operations are similar to the operations when installing a mine with one branch of a wire extension. It is prohibited to remove and neutralize the POMZ-2M mine with the MUV-2 fuse.

Mine OZM-4 - fragmentation, jumping out, circular destruction, supplied in a kit, which consists of an incompletely equipped mine, a special fuse, an unloaded MUV-2 fuse, a wire extension with a carabiner wound on a coil, and two wooden pegs. Principle of operation: the mine is triggered by the tension of a wire stretcher pulling the pin out of the MUV-2 fuse. When the fuse is triggered, an igniter primer is pricked and a beam of fire is transmitted through the tube to the expelling charge. Under the action of an expelling charge (15 g), the bottom of the mine comes off at the place of the threaded connection and the mine is thrown to a height, equal to the length tension cable (0.6 - 0.8 m). When the cable is pulled, the drummer compresses the mainspring and, freeing it, pricks the fuse detonator cap. The fuse of the fuse causes the explosive charge of the mine to explode. The body of the mine is crushed into fragments, which, flying apart, inflict defeat.

The procedure for installing a mine: dig a hole with a depth of 16 - 17 cm and install a mine in it; unscrew the plug with the shackle, insert the fuse into the mine and screw the plug back; fill the space around the mine with soil and compact the soil; drive in a peg 15–20 cm high from the ground at a distance of 0.5 m of the hole; hook a wire extension to the shackle of the cork with a carabiner and stretch it, passing it through the slot at the end of the clogged peg; at the end of the wire brace, drive in the second peg, tying a wire brace to it with a slight slack; unscrew the cap from the nipple and screw it onto the cork; screw the fuse MUV-2 onto the nipple; unfasten the carabiner from the shackle of the cork and disguise the mine; hook the carbine on the ring of the combat checks of the fuse; pull out the safety pin.

Mines OZM-4 with a fuse MUV-2 are prohibited from being removed and neutralized, they are destroyed at the installation site.

Basic data of anti-personnel mines Indicators PDM-6M PMN POMZ-2M OZM-4 Total mass, g 490 550 1200 5000 Mass of explosives, g 200 200 75 170 Dimensions of the mine, mm diameter (length) 200x90 110 60 90 height 50 53 107 167 Push-pull Tension actuated Actuation force, H 60 - 280 80 - 250 5 - 13 5 - 13 Solid damage radius, m Local 4 13 Case material Wood Plastic Metal

When laying and neutralizing anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, it is prohibited:
throw mines, expose them to blows, stack them and destroy them by burning, open mine cases and remove explosives from them, insert and remove fuses, fuses, detonator caps from mines using force or impact, neutralize and remove mines with damaged fuses, remove frozen into the ground (ice) and ice-covered mines, to store, transport and carry together and without appropriate capping mines, blasting caps, fuses, fuses.

Modern warfare is unimaginable without minefields, anti-infantry traps and anti-tank mines. The brutal nature of the wounds received during mine explosions did not stop the designers-inventors, but only spurred their imagination.

Two hundred million mines

The first mines appeared more than five centuries ago. At first, they were powder charges that were laid under the enemy's fortifications. Actually, the task of the sapper was to conduct undermining and digging trenches. During the siege of a city or fortress, mines were laid under the walls. At the beginning of the 19th century, thanks to the developments of an Englishman Bickford igniter cords appeared, which expanded the possibilities of subversive craftsmen.

Anti-personnel mines appeared already in civil war in the USA and even the Russian-Turkish campaign. The discovery of new explosives like dynamite and TNT led to the appearance of the first land mines, which can be considered the prototypes of modern mines.

Factory-made mines were widely used in the Russo-Japanese War. Tanks appeared, and anti-tank mines were developed. By the way, mine detectors appeared in parallel. To the Great Patriotic War there were more than forty types of mines, and their total number exceeded two hundred million.

In the post-war years, military thought began to develop in the direction of minimizing the installed charges. At first glance, this speaks of a greater humanization of weapons as such, injuring much more often than killing. However, there is another opinion, more prosaic and cynical. A soldier with a severed foot will not return to duty. To evacuate him from the battlefield, the efforts of several soldiers and military doctors are needed at once. Yes, and in civilian life, a disabled person has little chance of finding a job, becoming a full-fledged member of society. This is just an additional burden on the budget of the country participating in the war.

PMN - pressure and sensitive

In order not to overload the reader with information, we will focus today only on anti-personnel mines. One of the most famous - PMN (anti-personnel pressure mine) - was adopted by the USSR in 1950. Perhaps the most powerful high-explosive mine in the world. Very sensitive to pressure. Because of this, disarming this mine is not recommended. From the name it is clear that the explosion occurs when you step on the lid with your foot.

In addition to the USSR, this mine was produced by a dozen more countries. Still in service Russian army. It was this mine that received the nickname - "black widow". Either because of the power, or because of the black cover. Experts say that this mine can be found in any country where a military conflict has taken place.

Specifications

Housing - plastic

Weight — 550 gr.

Mass of explosive (TNT) - 200 gr.

Diameter - 11 cm

Height - 5.3 cm.

Sensitivity - 8-25 kg

Kicking in the legs

PMN-2 was put into service in the late 60s of the last century. Differed from PMN by a rubber bellows. It also specialized in disabling enemy infantry. Stepping on it was almost guaranteed to lose a foot and receive severe burns. Sometimes the other leg was also seriously affected. The shock wave could deprive consciousness. Often death came from a large loss of blood or pain shock.

Specifications

Housing - plastic

Diameter - 120 mm

Height - 54 mm

Weight - 0.4 kg

Mass of explosive - 0.1 kg

Type BB - TG-40 (mixture of TNT with RDX)

Trigger force - 15−25 kg

Arming time - 30-300 s

Combat service life - up to 10 years

Non-recoverable, self-destructing

The PMN-3 differed from the PMN-2 mainly in its electronic filling, which made it possible to set a timer for self-destruction. The need for this option arose in the 70s, when the conditions of warfare changed and the mobility of troops increased. Sometimes their own minefields became an insurmountable obstacle. Therefore, it was very convenient to have mines at hand, which ceased to pose a danger to the soldiers after a certain period of time. PMN-3 could be set to self-destruct after 12 hours, a day, two, four and even eight days.

In addition, the PMN-3 had the ability to explode when trying to clear mines. This happened when the mine was tilted at an angle of more than 90 degrees.

Specifications

Type - high-explosive pressure action with self-destruction

Diameter - 122 mm

Height - 54 mm

Weight - 0.6 kg

Mass of explosive charge - 0.08 kg

The actuation force of the pressure sensor - 5.1-25.5 kg

Anti-personnel fragmentation

The POMZ-2 and POMZ-2M mines were called stretch mines. The explosion occurs when touching a wire stretching, when an enemy soldier involuntarily pulls out the combat check of the fuse.

As on many grenades, a notch is made on its outer surface for better crushing of the body. Of course, for camouflage, it is better to install such mines on terrain with vegetation - trees, shrubs, grass. At the same time, it must be remembered that a mine can work if a snowball or a heavy branch falls on the guy wire. When installing mines on the ground, small pegs are used.

Specifications POMZ-2

Type - anti-personnel fragmentation circular destruction

Body - cast iron

Diameter - 6 cm

Case height - 13 cm

Hull weight without explosives - 1.5 kg

Mass of explosive charge - 75 g

Type BB - TNT

Type of target sensor - tension

Target sensor length (one way) - 4 m

Trigger force - 1-1.7 kg

Radius of continuous destruction - 4 m

"Fury" or "evil"

Anti-personnel mine OZM-72 (fragmentation-barrage) is of the jumping type. The explosion is accompanied by an eerie sound of flying rollers or balls, of which each device contains more than two thousand. To this day, it is considered one of the most effective circular mines.

The mine is detonated at a height of about 90 centimeters above the ground. The enemy touches the wire with his foot, the expelling charge is triggered, which throws up the mine. There is no self-liquidator in the mine, it is not protected from neutralization either, but a very sensitive fuse makes it dangerous for sappers. Demining takes place with the help of "cats" (they are pulled up from cover).

Specifications

Housing - steel

Diameter - 10.8 cm

Height (without fuse) - 17.2 cm

Weight — 5 kg

Mass of explosive charge - 660 g

Charge type - cast TNT

Mine burst height - 60-90 cm above the ground

The number of striking elements - 2400 pcs.

Type of striking elements - steel balls (rollers, cylinders)

The radius of continuous destruction - 25−30 m

Heavy and obscene

The explosion of the MON-50 anti-personnel mine is carried out by the operator from the control panel when an enemy appears in the affected sector or when the enemy touches the tension sensor (wire) of the fuse. Later, a modification of the MON-90 was released. But due to a significant increase in size and weight (up to 12 kilograms), the soldiers disliked her and gave the mine an obscene nickname. Which one is not hard to guess.

Specifications

Type - anti-personnel fragmentation directional guided

Housing - plastic

Length - 22.6 cm

Height - 15.5 (with legs folded) cm

Width - 6.6 cm

Weight — 2 kg

Weight of explosive charge (PVV-5A) - 700 g

The number of damaging elements - 540 pcs.

The range of destruction of cars and trucks and manpower in it - up to 30 m

Flexible sticks measuredly described wide semicircles in the air, and from time to time one of the Red Navy men knelt down and carefully raked the white fluffy veil of snow with their hands. A minute later, a small copper pipe gleamed in his hands. It was the fuse of a mine, now defused, and then a round metal box was pulled out from under the snow, in which death was preserved.

L. S. Sobolev, "Baby"

The Second World War enriched military affairs with such experience in the use of mines and the fight against them, which was not accumulated in the entire previous history of mines. The territories on which hostilities took place were huge, the length of the fronts reached ten thousand kilometers. In one operation military units traveled hundreds of kilometers. On the other hand, there were very long periods of positional confrontation, during which the warring parties set up many kilometers of minefields.

Thus, during the war, mine weapons became an essential part of any effective defense, and the means of operational demining began to develop rapidly. However, by the time the hostilities ended, the mines had not completely left the category of auxiliary weapons.

This time we will get acquainted with the post-war development of mine weapons, modern mines and promising developments in the near future.

Mines are different

In the "History of Mine Weapons" we got acquainted with the evolution of the concept of "mine" from non-explosive engineering structures through a powder charge laid in a tunnel to fully developed mines of the two world wars. It seemed that this term was finally fixed for a manually installed explosive charge, structurally combined with blasting devices and intended to inflict damage on enemy personnel, equipment and installations. After the advent of naval mines (and especially torpedoes), “delivered to the target not by artillery” was added to the definition instead of “manually installed”.

These are the real mines. It is absolutely impossible to confuse them with mortars.

However, in the first third of the twentieth century, a very remarkable ramification took place. A mine began to be called a feathered artillery projectile fired from a specific weapon - a mortar. There is no fundamental difference between this mine and the usual high-explosive fragmentation projectile no, if you do not go into purely ballistic subtleties.

Why a subsonic feathered projectile began to be called a "mine" is not known for certain. According to some experts, the reason was the appearance of the so-called "pillar mines" used during the Russo-Japanese War. The captain of the Russian army, L.N. Gobyato, proposed firing a 47-mm cannon with an explosive charge in a tin case attached to a pole of the appropriate caliber. In this case, the gun was loaded with a blank charge, and the barrel was raised to the maximum angle. Initially, this weapon was called a "bomb thrower", but then the concept of "bomb" was completely relegated to the aviation and navy, and Gobyato's design was called a mortar. Shells for him, respectively, began to be called mortar mines, which have nothing to do with engineering mines.

In modern conditions, the definition of a mine formulated above is hopelessly outdated, since the methods of delivering mines include artillery. Under engineering mine now it is necessary to understand the explosive charge, structurally combined with explosives, designed to inflict damage on enemy personnel, equipment and structures, activated when the object of destruction acts on the explosives or with the help of a remote command a certain kind.

However, the development of mine weapons is so intensive that this definition is gradually becoming non-functional.

A little about the classification

Before starting to talk about modern mines, you should understand a little about what these mines are. I want to note right away that a comprehensive, unified and harmonious classification of mines does not exist to this day. The reason for this phenomenon is quite understandable - mines have many characteristics, and some of them may not be used in the manuals and instructions of certain armies. The classification that I will give below is a compilation from many sources, both general-arms and military engineering.

Directional anti-personnel mine.

Purpose- the main characteristic of mines, which determines the type of target being hit. Most often, mines are divided into anti-tank, anti-personnel and special (object, anti-vehicle, anti-amphibious, signal). All further classification of mines is based on this basis. Sometimes special mines are trying to be divided into independent categories. But such a division is redundant - anti-tank and anti-personnel mines any soldier of the ground forces should be able to install, and only specialists work with special ones.

Method of harm has enough great importance for anti-tank mines, since it largely determines their installation method. Anti-track mines destroy tracks and track rollers, immobilizing the tank. Anti-aircraft mines pierce the side of the tank with an explosive effect, causing a fire, detonation of the ammunition load, engine failure, and injuring the crew. Anti-bottom mines operate in much the same way as anti-aircraft mines, but differ significantly in power and design.

As for anti-personnel mines, two main groups can be distinguished here - fragmentation and high-explosive. High-explosive, as a rule, are effective at close range, and the distance of destruction of fragmentation can reach hundreds of meters.

Controllability- this is the possibility of remote setting a mine into a combat position or its direct detonation by the operator. The difference here is that the moment of detonation of an anti-tank mine, at which the maximum destruction of the target will be inflicted, is almost impossible for the operator to determine. Therefore, a command from the remote control cocks the fuse or activates the target sensors. There are no such stringent requirements for the maximum effect on the target of guided anti-personnel mines - most mines of this kind have enough large radius defeat. Therefore, they are most often undermined by an electrical impulse or a radio signal.

Push-pull anti-tank mine.

The principle of operation of the target sensor determines what kind of impact from the target object will cause the detonation of the warhead. For sensors of anti-tank mines, such influences can be a certain mass, magnetic properties of the steel case, thermal radiation of the engine or exhaust, clearance ( ground clearance) tank, vibration-seismic action of a moving tank on the ground. There are also optical sensors for transmission and reflection, which react to the intersection of the infrared beam by the tank.

It is interesting: the so-called "smart mines", which we will talk about separately, can determine the desired target along its contour using a video camera and a recognition system.

Modern mines often use a combination of sensors. So, for example, in the domestic anti-aircraft mine TM-83, two sensors are used - seismic and optical. The seismic sensor, when the tank enters the sensitivity zone, turns on the infrared sensor, and when the tank crosses the beam, the combat charge is detonated.

Anti-personnel mines use the same sensors as anti-tank mines, but adjusted for sensitivity and placement. Shaking of the soil with steps, the mass of a person, tension or breakage of the stretch, thermal radiation of the body, the intersection of the infrared beam can be recorded. There are even mines that react to magnetic properties. small arms. Such a mine will let an unarmed person through without hindrance, and destroy an armed person.

Characteristics of the affected area very important when laying anti-personnel mines. Circular mines, as a rule, are installed in open areas, and directional mines are more often used to block narrow passages (paths, clearings, ravines, corridors and doors in buildings). Quite often, directional mines are used by snipers to protect the rear.

A seismic sensor that detects the approach of armored vehicles.

Installation method determines the design features of the mine - the ability not to be damaged when falling from a height, invisibility in vegetation, automatic cocking of the fuse into a firing position. Mines can be installed manually, by means of mechanization (minelayers), by means of remote mining(aviation, missile artillery systems).

Neutralization and recoverability- characteristics are extremely important. Resilience is design feature a fuse that allows you to transfer it from a combat platoon to a transport position, and retrievability is determined by the presence of additional sensors that are triggered by an attempt to remove a mine buried in the ground, or to move a mine lying on the ground. In some cases, the function of undermining the charge when trying to defuse or remove a mine is provided for in its design. But sometimes a powerful mine being removed can be protected by a low-power mine-trap with a discharge sensor, which is triggered at the moment the main mine is removed from its top cover.

Some of the mechanisms self-destruction is provided for in almost all modern mines - too many civilians paid with their lives for the "finds" lying in the ground after numerous military conflicts with the use of mines. And the possibility of promptly neutralizing a minefield during a counterattack is very attractive.

As an example of a detailed classification, let's take a US-made M74 mine. This is a fragmentation anti-personnel mine of circular destruction, which provides for installation by scattering with a mine spreader of the FASCAM family. Intermittent target sensors. The mine is non-decontaminable and non-removable, equipped with a self-destruction module by timer and battery discharge. The time for cocking a mine into a combat position is 45 minutes from the moment it was placed.

Mines of the 20th century

Speaking of the 20th century, I mean exactly that post-war half-century period when world science and technology literally seethed with bursts of discoveries and innovations. With regard to mine weapons, it is necessary to clearly define the date of the beginning of its formation. Perhaps, I am unlikely to sin against the truth if I mention Winston Churchill's world-famous Fulton speech of March 5, 1946 as a starting point.

Winston Churchill is a man who had a huge impact on the post-war development of mine weapons. The word politics is often decisive in weapon evolution.

The Second World War is over, there are no more reasons to unite ideologically hostile forces, it is time to name new allies and new enemies. And they were named.

On the other side of the imaginary line were all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and of Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities as well as settlements around them are in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and everything is subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence, but to very strong and, in many cases, extremely strong control of Moscow.

Winston Churchill

Naturally, such frankness of the British minister, whose words had enormous weight at that time, led to the fact that on both sides of the Iron Curtain they did not neglect any weapon of the upcoming hypothetical conflict. Including mines. The West was rightfully afraid of the growing power of the Soviet Union, and Soviet Union no less justifiably feared the military aggression of the united forces of the West.

Just three years later, Churchill's words were embodied in the North Atlantic Treaty, and six years later, in NATO's military-political antagonist, the Warsaw Pact Organization.

The development of mine weapons in the post-war period of the 20th century can be divided into periods in different ways - there are many different interpretations and interpretations of such a division. However, the first signs of a new approach were the mention of mine actions and counter-actions in the combat manuals of the armies of the world. Mine engineering units took a permanent place in battle formations. The next word was technology.

Mines of manual installation

This form of antitank
kovy mines has already become a classic.

During the first post-war decade, no one even thought about the current pace of movement of military units. That is why the significant attention of the developers was given to manual mines.

One of the key prototypes of anti-tank mines was the German Tellermine 42. Its design was so successful that at different times the same design was used by the USSR, the USA, Great Britain, France and China.

No less promising was the SMI-35/44 anti-personnel bouncing mine of circular destruction, also developed in the Third Reich. Its design became the basis of the Soviet OZM and American M16 anti-personnel mines. Among the producers of such mines are also Italy, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Vietnam and China.

It is interesting: Soviet jumping mines, unlike their foreign counterparts, were blown up after firing with a steel wire connecting the safety pin of the fuse and the bottom of the container glass. If for some reason the mine did not jump to the desired height, it did not explode.

France began developing a directional anti-personnel mine back in 1947, but US engineers brought it to mind. In 1953, she received the name M18 Claymore and was widely used in the Vietnam War, and then in many local conflicts. Subsequently, mines of a similar design appeared in the USSR - first MON-50, which has a destruction sector of about 60 degrees, and then a more powerful MON-90. In addition, armed Soviet army consisted of MON-100, which creates a very narrow stream of striking elements, lethal at a distance of over a hundred meters.

There was no interest in high-explosive anti-personnel mines during this period, although during the war the German Schumine 42 proved to be very good. Of the notable samples, one can perhaps recall only the Soviet PMN with a pressure sensor, which appeared in 1949, and the same type of American M14, which entered service with the US Army in 1955. It is noteworthy that it was these mines that became the first-born of the new direction of “mines of individual destruction”. The PMN mine subsequently gave rise to a whole family of Soviet high-explosive mines, and the M14 was widely used in Vietnam, where fragmentation mines of circular destruction showed low efficiency at a significant cost.

It is interesting: M14 mines were withdrawn from service with the US Army in 1974, but India, Vietnam and Burma still produce them today.

In the postwar years, various special mines (objective, anti-vehicle, anti-amphibious) were intensively developed. Effective methods of their use were developed, fault-tolerant delayed-action fuses (both clock and chemical) were created. A series of Soviet fuses ChMV provided deceleration periods from 16 to 120 days, and chemical moderators were used for delays from several minutes to several days. Active research was carried out on seismic and magnetic sensors for anti-vehicle mines.

The internal structure of the M14 mine. As you can see, nothing complicated.

By the beginning of the 1960s, it became clear that hand-laying mines turned out to be a dead end branch of development - the tactics of combined arms units were increasingly based on high mobility. First of all, this concerned tank troops, capable of making a dash for a thousand kilometers in a day.

The Second World War convincingly showed that minefields, promptly installed during the battle, are much more effective than those prepared in advance. In the first case, the enemy suffers tangible losses, and in the second case, he has the opportunity to prepare for mine action or determine ways to bypass minefields. In addition, operational mining made it possible to use mines more economically, placing them not in all dangerous directions, but in accordance with the specific situation. Manual installation of mines at any level of organization could not ensure the fulfillment of tasks for operational mining.

Military engineering mechanization

The aerial mining experiments carried out by the Third Reich during the war were premature, and that is why they did not show the proper effectiveness. The design of the mines of that time was not sufficiently reliable, and the lost air supremacy did not allow the active use of this method of setting minefields. It is no wonder that the post-war development of mine weapons did not immediately come to the means of mechanization.

Soviet minelayer of the third generation UMP.

The stage of mechanization of the installation of mines began only by the beginning of the 1960s. The initial approach, somehow tested during the war, was to some extent a blind copying of naval methods - the so-called mine spreaders were created. The simplest spreaders were wooden trays clinging to the back of the car (the Soviet PMR-2 differed only in that it was metal). The mines laid out on the ground were manually equipped with fuses, transferred to a combat position and masked.

The trailed mine layer PMR-3 already provided for the automatic layout of mines with a given mining step, their transfer to a combat position and even camouflage with soil. For this minelayer, a new TM-57 anti-tank mine was developed, equipped with the same new MVZ-57 fuse. Automation of mining was achieved due to the fact that immediately before placing the mine on the ground, the minelayer mechanism pressed a button that started the fuse clock mechanism. A few minutes after installation, the mine was transferred to a combat position.

Three PMR-3 minelayers, each of which contained 200 mines, set up a three-row minefield of about 800 meters along the front, spending less than an hour on it.

The next step was the GMZ caterpillar minelayer designed by G.S. Efimov, created on the basis of the self-propelled guns SU-100P (aka “Object 118”). He was able to lay a kilometer-long minefield in 10-15 minutes. Such a result was already a very serious achievement.

A cassette for a VMR helicopter mine spreader equipped with PFM-1 mines.

It is interesting: the GMZ minelayer of later modifications had additional weapons - six grenade launchers of the 902V Tucha smoke screen, designed to fire 81-mm smoke grenades.

In the matter of mechanization of the laying of minefields, the Soviet Union was ahead of its potential enemy for a good ten years. Similar machines entered service with the US Army only in 1972. Great Britain acquired minelayers a little earlier - in 1969, and France - only in 1977. Such a temporary oversight on the part of a potential adversary looks inexplicable and somewhat strange, given that the official military doctrine of the USSR at that time was largely based on rapid movements armored forces.

The United States made a significant breakthrough in operational anti-tank mining technology in 1973, when the first full-fledged helicopter system entered service, which included a UH-1H helicopter with two bomb cassettes suspended from it. One cassette contained 80 M56 anti-track mines.

On board and on the bottom

The side of a Lao road. American sappers neutralize and prepare for destruction
mines that were installed on the cunning, calculated
those who avoid the road.

Anti-bottom mine M21 with an inclined fuse. It is enough to deflect the pin by 10 degrees - and in a second and a half there will be an explosion.

The rapid development of armored vehicles in the 60s of the twentieth century caused an equally intensive development of anti-tank mines. And the improvement of mine countermeasures prompted mine designers to widely use non-magnetic structural materials. In addition, many mines began to be equipped with special sensors that are triggered by explosions from magnetic field mine detector.

Anti-track mines, despite the simplicity of their design and low cost of production, were not economical enough when setting up obstacles - after all, the contact area of ​​the tank tracks is several times smaller than its vertical projection. Yes, and a tank that was blown up by such a mine, firstly, remained capable of firing, and secondly, it could be repaired within a few hours by the crew.

Both the USSR and the USA almost simultaneously developed cumulative anti-bottom mines. The Soviet TMK-2 and the American M21 were initially equipped with tilt fuses with a moderator that detonated a mine under the middle of the bottom of the tank. These mines were very likely to destroy a tank with a crew. With the hatches open, part of the crew had the opportunity to survive, but the tank could not be repaired.

The Soviet anti-bottom mine TM-72 was equipped with a non-contact magnetic fuse, which very noticeably reduced its visibility.

The first attempts to create anti-aircraft mines, hitting a tank from the flank, were undertaken by Germany and the USSR during the war. Soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army made improvised mines from Panzerfaust cumulative grenades, installing a grenade launcher to the side of the road and stretching a wire stretching-descent through the roadbed. The first post-war developments of the USSR and the USA in this direction, begun in the 1960s, were essentially the same rocket-propelled grenade launchers adapted for installation away from the road. On the basis of the M72A1 grenade launcher in 1965, the United States developed the M24 and M66 anti-aircraft mines. And in 1973, a similar TM-73 mine based on the RPG-18 Mukha grenade launcher appeared in the Soviet Union. The difference between the Soviet and American approaches was that the M24 was equipped with a pull fuse, while the TM-73 was equipped with a break fuse.

Anti-aircraft mine TM-83. The universal
ny attachment point.

It is interesting: despite the glaring obviousness of the principle and the wide popularity of foreign analogues, the TM-73 mine remained classified until the beginning of the 21st century. The Soviet habit of classifying everything in a row worked flawlessly.

Anti-aircraft mines based on anti-tank grenade launchers were very cheap and easy to manufacture, but were not very effective. When installing them, it was impossible to take into account the wind, speed and dimensions of the target, and a reliable defeat of armored vehicles with a cumulative grenade is possible only with accurate aiming.

The impact core effect has been known since the war, but was first used in the French anti-aircraft mine MAH mod.F.1, developed in 1969. Such a mine did not require very precise aiming, since its penetration properties weakly depended on the angle between the direction of impact and the plane of the armor. Dynamic protection was also ineffective - a compact metal pestle is much more difficult to reflect than a narrow cumulative jet.

The Soviet Union developed the TM-83 anti-aircraft mine with an impact core much later - it entered service only in 1984.

Mines with an impact core turned out to be quite effective, but the possibility of their use is limited - too close a distance to armored vehicles does not allow the impact core to form, and at a distance of more than fifty to a hundred meters, the impact core loses its damaging properties. It is advisable to use such mines in narrow passages in order to stop the column by hitting the first vehicle and make it a good target for attack aviation and helicopters.

impact core

Cumulative action ammunition is known to almost everyone. But the fact that there is a certain kind of such ammunition, but acting not close to the armor, but at a distance of tens and even hundreds of meters, is known to a few.

A powerful long-range anti-aircraft mine with an impact core.

The difference between the cumulative effect and the Mizhney-Shardin effect in visual representation.

The term "impact core" (in the English literature EFP, that is, explosively formed penetrator) appeared relatively recently - about twenty years ago. But the phenomenon itself was discovered back in 1939. An employee of the Institute of Ballistics of the Technical Academy of the Luftwaffe, Hubert Shardin, studied cumulative explosive processes using X-ray pulse methods and revealed fundamental differences in the detonation of profiled charges with a conical and spherical lining. The spherical recess did not produce a cumulative jet, but during the explosion, the lining turned outward and formed a drop-shaped pestle with a speed of about 5000 m / s. This phenomenon is known abroad as the Mizhnei-Shardin effect. Sometimes the "shock core" is considered something like a cumulative effect, but this is fundamentally wrong, since here the striking element acts like a normal kinetic ammunition.

The impact core effect is used in anti-aircraft mines and anti-tank cluster bombs. There are also anti-helicopter mines with a damaging factor "shock core".

Thunderstorm infantry

Until the mid-1960s, the development of anti-personnel mines in the United States and Western Europe followed the path of a slight improvement in existing developments. This lack of interest was due to the fact that the operational-tactical schemes of that time assumed the use of tanks as the main strike force of future wars. Anti-personnel mines were seen as a way to protect anti-tank mines from enemy sappers, and not as independent barriers.

After the German frog mine for a long time couldn't come up with anything new.

It is interesting: To date, in the US mine warfare tactics, there is no division of minefields into anti-tank and anti-personnel. They contain both those and other mines at the same time. Only in the Indochinese theater of operations were purely anti-personnel minefields used.

The Vietnam War prompted the United States to develop anti-personnel mines, as it turned out that the lack of tanks and heavy weapons could be quite successfully compensated for by the active use of infantry and guerrilla warfare. An additional argument was military operations in the jungle, in which the US army systematically lost control over large areas of South Vietnam.

Since the second half of the 1960s, the development of new anti-personnel mines has gone simultaneously in two directions - size minimization and creation of means of remote mining. The combination of these two directions eventually led to the appearance of mine weapons, in the highest degree effective against infantry.

The minimization of the size of anti-personnel mines, accompanied by an inevitable decrease in the mass of the charge and, as a result, the radius of destruction, is usually presented as a kind of concept of a “humane weapon” that does not kill enemy soldiers, but only deprives them of their combat capability. In reality, however, much more pragmatic considerations certainly dominated.

Italian anti-tank mines are distinguished by a rather high body. To disguise them, the sapper will need much more effort. But it is extremely difficult to detect their plastic cases.

Soviet miniature high-explosive anti-personnel mine. Without a foot will leave a guarantee
flat, but looks like a socket.

First of all, one should take into account the significant reduction in the cost of anti-personnel mines. Considering that no more than two or three enemy soldiers usually fall within the range of action of a powerful and expensive fragmentation mine of circular destruction, the guaranteed incapacitation of one soldier with one cheap mine looks economically attractive. This should also include the profitability of transportation - a larger number of mines per unit of transported weight.

Cheap mines allow you to create high-density minefields, increasing the likelihood of hitting the enemy. In addition, the integral reliability in this case becomes higher, since the failure of one cheap short-range mine will not lead to a significant decrease in the barrage properties of the minefield.

Small-sized mines in plastic cases are extremely difficult to quickly search for and clear mines. It is enough to make 10-15% of the mines indestructible in order to create very serious difficulties for the enemy sappers. And in terms of costs, it will come out relatively inexpensively.

The wounding of a soldier creates a lot of problems for his evacuation from the battlefield, treatment and transportation to the rear. All this diverts a large number of qualified military personnel and requires serious training of the medical service.

Why kill an enemy when you can just crush his leg? British anti-personnel mine 5Mk1.

German miniature bombs, when falling, sometimes entered the ground up to the very stabilizer. Such cases brought sappers a lot of problems.

A soldier struck by an anti-personnel mine, as a rule, remains disabled, incapable of either further military service or employment in the rear. Thus, the state budget is overloaded with irreplaceable expenses for its further treatment and social security, and a large number of war victims negatively affects the patriotic moods of the population.

In addition to all of the above, the miniaturization of anti-personnel mines solves many problems of mechanization and methods of remote mining.

The first samples of miniature NATO anti-personnel mines (British 5Mk1 and American M14) were designed for manual installation, and most of the further developments focused on remote mining.

The development of remote mining systems went almost in parallel with miniaturization, determining in many respects the desired dimensions of mines. The German Splitterbomben system, developed during World War II and using miniature mine bombs SD-1 and SD-2, was used by the US Army as early as the 1950s, during the Korean War. At the same time, by the way, the first Douglas Model 31 airborne anti-tank mine was used. But the cost and effectiveness of Splitterbomben did not satisfy the military.

Ultimately, requirements were developed for miniature mines suitable for remote mining. The mine should be such that it does not require a specialist to install it - all the processes of bringing into combat position should occur automatically. The mine must be delivered to the mining site faster than the enemy appears there. The mine should be installed when it is required, and without the direct participation of a person. The mine should disappear as soon as it is no longer needed. The main task of the mine is to stop the enemy or slow down his movement, and not cause him significant losses.

American anti-personnel
mine BLU-43/B official
alno was never in service with the US Army. But fought pretty well.

The Soviet equivalent of the BLU-43/B, poetically named "Petal", also saw a lot of fighting.

The first results of design research looked somewhat comical, but contained fresh and interesting ideas. One of the remote mining systems - Graval - provided for the scattering of plastic envelopes smaller than a cigarette pack filled with mercury fulminate. These "mines" were stored in bomb cassettes, being filled with liquid nitrogen or dimethyl ether. Bye mercury fulminate was in a wetted state, it did not detonate, and after falling to the ground, the envelope dried up and the explosive restored its high sensitivity. If stepped on, the envelope detonated, injuring the foot.

Another solution, no less innovative, was used in the XM-61 Fragmacord mine, which is a piece of detonating cord with metal rings strung on it.

However, the efficiency and reliability of the described systems turned out to be low, despite their exceptional low cost. The first more or less successful development suitable for remote mining should be considered the American BLU43 / B Dragontooth pressure-action anti-personnel mine, equipped with a chemical self-destruction system.

Its code name came from the original form, which allows the mine to glide to the ground without a parachute on the "maple seed" principle.

It is interesting: The anti-personnel mine PFM-1 "Petal" developed in the USSR, almost completely copied from the BLU43 / B, was widely used in the Afghan war. Thanks to anti-Soviet propaganda, the local population believed that the shape of the mine was dictated by the desire to attract the attention of children, and not by the requirements of aerodynamics.

Artillery projectile of the ADAM remote mining system.

120 mines are placed in one cassette, and up to eighty cassettes can be hung on a helicopter. The long-range cocking time of the BLU43/B is a few minutes.

By 1975, the United States was developing several remote mining systems, later combined into the FASCAM family. This family has become an integral part of the weapons systems of any air-ground operation.

According to the new concept, mine weapons are assigned a very significant role in deterring an advancing enemy. On the distant approaches (over 25 km) he is met by mines. installed by the Gato aviation mining system and the AirVolcano helicopter system. At a distance of 18-24 km from the front line, ADAM and RAAM artillery mining systems begin to set up minefields. Directly in front of the cutting edge, ground-based remote mining systems GroundVolcano and GEMSS are connected to the case. Finally, with the help of the M131 MOPMS system, the defending soldiers fire mines directly at the feet of the attackers.

Mina wagon

One of the mines created in the USA is worth mentioning separately - it combines all three main classes for its intended purpose. it M2/M4 SLAM(Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition).

The mine can be used as an anti-tank, anti-personnel and object mine. At its core, it is a reduced model of an anti-tank anti-aircraft mine such as the Soviet TM-83 or Swedish Type 14. The target is hit by an impact core. The multi-purpose nature of the mine is given by a universal fuse, which has magnetic, infrared sensors, a timer and a percussion fuse.

In games, SLAM is used everywhere. But this is a very serious and extremely dangerous mine.

The mine can be used as an anti-tank anti-bottom mine by a signal from a magnetic sensor, as an anti-tank anti-aircraft mine by a signal from a passive IR sensor, as an object mine activated by a delayed-action fuse, and also to destroy accumulations of enemy manpower by command from the remote control management.

The mine is equipped with a self-destruction device, which is set for 4, 10 and 24 hours of combat work. After the expiration of the combat work, the M2 becomes safe, and the M4 is undermined.

In the "anti-aircraft" and "anti-bottom" modes, the SLAM is a mine that cannot be cleared. The explosion occurs when you try to move the mode select switch to the "safe" position. At the same time, in principle, the mine in the “anti-bottom” mode remains recoverable. It can be removed from its installation site and carried aside, but it cannot be made safe. In the "anti-aircraft" mode, approaching a mine is dangerous, since the infrared sensor can react to the heat of the human body at a short distance.

It is interesting: in the Splinter Cell series of games, the protagonist Sam Fisher has repeatedly had to defuse SLAM mines installed on the wall in "anti-aircraft" mode. As you can see, in reality this is impossible.

On the sidelines

For two decades, the command of the armed forces of the USSR believed that the advantages in mine weapons achieved in the 1960s were quite enough to ensure success in future military conflicts. However, it was not long to rest on our laurels. Soviet minelayers and helicopter systems remote mining were simple devices for the mechanized laying of anti-tank mines. Literally ten years later, they ceased to meet the requirements of a mine war, and no further development was observed.

The desire to catch up with the United States, traceable in many areas, has led to direct borrowing, and often complete copying of foreign technologies. Since the management demanded quick results from engineers and designers, the first and far from the most successful samples were thoughtlessly copied. Among them are the previously mentioned PFM-1 anti-personnel mine, and the PTM-1 anti-tank mine, and the PKM Wind portable mining kit (tracing paper from the prototype of the American M131 MOPMS system), and many other mine weapon systems.

The backlog of Soviet mine weapons became clearly visible in the first half of the 1980s. And the stagnation of the economy in the second half of the 1980s led to a reduction in spending on advanced military research. The development of mine weapons not only slowed down - it froze.

But the point here is not even the imperfection of technology, design ideas and the range of mines. Mine weapons have become an integral element of the tactics and operational art of the NATO armies, they have been developed purposefully and comprehensively. And in the USSR, a single concept for the use of mine weapons linked to other means of combat did not appear.

Fog of the 21st century

Modern stage the development of mine weapons, paradoxically, is directly related to Ottawa Convention on the Ban of Anti-Personnel Mines from 1997. This seemingly good undertaking turned into such a clumsy and illiterate legal document that it gave rise to a number of promising directions in the development of new types of mine weapons. Involuntarily, an analogy arises with antibiotics, the reckless and massive use of which has led to the emergence of not only resistant varieties of infection, but also its new forms.

Yugoslav anti-tank mine TMRP-6. She can use
be called also as an anti-caterpillar
naya, and as an anti-bottom - it all depends on the fuse.

The Convention itself is certainly a necessary thing. Even if we do not take seriously those stunning data on the death of civilians from mines, which were cited by the initiators of the Convention, then the very fact of such losses fully justifies any prohibitions. But, unfortunately, the lawyers who created the wording of this document left a lot of loopholes and ambiguities. Moreover, these loopholes can be used just by those to whom the Convention is primarily aimed - rich states that have enough funds for new developments of engineering weapons with higher striking properties, much more sensitive, capable of independently choosing a target and hitting it at the most favorable moment, delivered to anywhere in the world as soon as possible. At the same time, various partisan formations and terrorist organizations, as before, use outdated anti-personnel mines of all conceivable designs and do not bear any responsibility for this.

Mine experts describe the effects of the Ottawa Convention as follows. More and more often, mines are called engineering ammunition, submunitions, cluster submunitions, which does not change the essence of the matter, but removes a number of modern mines from the jurisdiction of the Convention. Allocations for the development of new mine weapons have increased sharply. The introduction of self-destruct devices as a mandatory element of mines made mine weapons safer for friendly troops and much more dangerous for enemy forces. In a number of cases, it is now simply impossible to prove on whose mines a civilian was blown up - after all, self-destruction by a timer or by radio signal can occur even after his death. In addition to all of the above, there was an incentive to get rid of the accumulated stocks of obsolete mine weapons, which make no sense to use in any case, but it is quite possible to sell to those who are not affected by the prohibitions of the Convention.

Russian engineering ammunition M225. It looks like a boiler, but is as effective as four dozen minutes.

Soviet jumping mines were equipped with a "leash", which gave maximum detonation reliability. But if you cover the mine with something heavy in time, it will not explode at all.

However, it makes no sense to talk about the effectiveness of the Convention, if only because it was not ratified by the largest manufacturers and suppliers of mine weapons - the United States, Russia, India and China.

Today it is often difficult to determine whether a particular munition is a mine. For example, the Russian engineering munition with the M225 cluster warhead, which is not covered by the Convention, is designed for multi-purpose use - both anti-vehicle and anti-personnel.

The M225 is equipped with a combined target sensor that includes seismic, magnetic and thermal sensors. If the mine is on alert, then when a target enters the detection zone (radius 150-250 m), the sensors inform the control panel about the nature of the object, the number of targets, speed and direction of movement, and the distance to the affected zone. The control panel processes the incoming signals and gives the operator recommendations: is it expedient to detonate mines, which of the mines on alert it is advisable to detonate, how many mines that are in passive mode, it is advisable to transfer to combat duty. If the targets are simultaneously in the affected areas of several mines, then recommendations are given on which one of them should be blown up. When a command is issued from the control panel for an explosion, a squib is triggered, dropping the mine cover and a camouflage layer of soil, then the rocket engine of the cluster warhead is started, which takes off to a height of 45-60 meters. Upon reaching this height, the cassette scatters four dozen striking elements within a radius of 8-95 meters. The reduced area of ​​destruction is 25 thousand square meters, which any anti-personnel mine can envy.

The American development of the PDB M86 (Pursuit-Deternet Munition) translates as "ammunition that deters pursuit." At its core, it is an anti-personnel omnidirectional fragmentation bouncing mine adopted by SOF and USMC in 1999. Its tactical purpose is the operational mining of escape routes when pursued by the enemy. Such a purpose, together with the absence of the word "mine" in the title, removes the M86 from the jurisdiction of the Convention. And there are more and more such developments every year.

It is difficult to predict how mine weapons will develop further. Only one thing is clear - the role of mines is expanding to the extent universal weapon. The mines of the future will not need to be physically activated by the victim, the electronics will itself find the target, recognize it and, perhaps, even be able to approach. That is, the mine will turn, in fact, into a combat robot-suicide bomber, capable of sitting in ambush for as long as it takes. And the ingenuity of the human mind alone will limit the possibilities of the mines of the future.

Mina hides in the ground, and at the right moment bounces and turns out to be at the most favorable height for defeat

The period of World War II between the end of hostilities in Poland (early October 1939) and the German takeover of Denmark and Norway (April 1940) is usually referred to as the "strange", "sitting" or "flower" war, alluding to the fact that in this There was virtually no war at the time. To enhance the impression in modern historical journalism, they talk about friendly relations between soldiers on opposite sides of the front line. Up to the fact that on weekends they allegedly played football in no man's land, and only leaflets rained down on the enemy's heads from planes.

mustachioed mines

In fact, the war was going on, and not at all a flower one. For example, on October 14, 1939, the Germans sink the English battleship Royal Oak right in the parking lot in Scapa Flow. On December 13, the German cruiser Admiral Count Spee dies in a naval battle off La Plata. On March 28, 1940, the Allied Supreme Council decides to mine Norwegian territorial waters. The situation on the land front was not blissfully quiet either. The French occupied their fortifications on the Maginot Line, and the Germans on the Siegfried Line (West Wall). The French then attacked and on September 13 occupied several sections of German territory between Saarbrücken and the Palatinate Forest.

During these battles, French scouts noticed the strange ability of the Germans in pitch darkness to determine the location of reconnaissance groups and send fragmentation shells there with absolute accuracy. Yes, and the guns of the Germans were some strange. There were no flashes to be seen, no sounds of shots to be heard, only a click, a pop and a burst. And every time a few French soldiers were killed or wounded by shrapnel.

The Allies had no idea that they were faced with a German novelty in the field of mine weapons - an anti-personnel jumping out shrapnel mine of circular destruction Sprengmine 35 (S.Mi.35). The Germans did not need to track down enemy scouts and wait until they fell into the zone of artillery fire. The mines did it for them. It is enough to step on the antennae of the S.Mi.Z.35 fuse hiding in the grass or to catch your foot on a thin wire stretched to the ANZ 29 fuse screwed into a mine, as in four and a half seconds the powder charge threw a mine a meter and a half up. Exploding, she scattered a bunch of shrapnel and fragments of her hull around her. There was about four and a half kilograms of metal in the mine, with round shrapnel bullets accounting for most of the weight, and about 365 of them were placed in a mine. At least half of the soldiers who were at a distance of 15-20 meters from the mine at the time of its explosion were either injured or died.

deadly frogs

The German mine S.Mi.35 became the ancestor of a whole category of anti-personnel mines, and the category is the most effective. There are, in general, only four such categories - high-explosive pressure mines ( striking force explosion), fragmentation mines, fragmentation jumping and fragmentation mines of directional action.

An anti-personnel high-explosive pressure mine kills or injures one soldier. Fragmentation mine, placed on the ground or on a peg, hits several soldiers. Its efficiency is higher, however, half of the fragments of a mine located on the surface of the earth go uselessly into the ground. The solution to this problem lies, as they say, in plain sight - the mine must be raised above the ground. But then it loses its main advantage - stealth.

The best solution was jumping fragmentation mines, or, in soldier's jargon, "frog mines". Until the moment of operation, such a mine hides in the ground and does not betray its presence in any way (except perhaps for the antennae of the pressure fuse and the stretched wire of the tension fuse), but at the right moment it bounces and turns out to be at the most favorable height for destruction.

Actually, the very idea of ​​a jumping mine was born during the First World War. The Kaiser army used the so-called S-mine.

Before you (on the left) is a drawing from the German instructions of those times. The S-mine was a metal can (called a projectile) filled with 500 grams of explosives. Between the walls of the can and the explosives was placed shrapnel, filled with cement mortar. A tube passed through the center of the can, to the top of which a fuse was screwed. On the wooden bottom of this jar was a fixed drummer. A long chain (about one and a half meters) was attached to the bottom of the tube, its other end was attached to the bottom of a metal cylinder with a blank bottom (the so-called mortar). A bag of gunpowder was placed at the bottom of the mortar. In addition to gunpowder, an electric igniter was also placed in the bag, the wires from which went out.

These mines were dug into the ground in front of wire fences, and the wires from them were pulled into the trench. When enemy soldiers approached, the miner closed the ends of the wires to a galvanic battery and the electric igniter ignited the powder charge, which threw the projectile up. As soon as the projectile rose to a height equal to the length of the chain, the chain pulled down the tube with the fuse. The fuse hit the drummer, an explosion occurred, and the shrapnel flew apart.

S-mines belonged to the category of so-called barrage mines. Their effectiveness was relatively low - primarily due to the fact that it is sometimes difficult to determine from the trench whether the enemy soldiers are in the affected area or not. In addition, it was difficult to bury long wires (50 meters or more) to a sufficient depth so that they would not be damaged by bursts of enemy shells or random bullets; imperfect wire insulation often led to failures; infantrymen did not always have galvanic batteries or other current sources.

After the end of the war, the minds of military analysts, generals and weapons designers were entirely occupied by three new items. past battles. First of all, these are aircraft, which light hand Italian General Douai was credited with the ability to almost single-handedly win future wars. Then there are the tanks that suggested a way out of the positional impasse of the world war. And finally - chemical weapon, who was credited with the ability to solve all the problems of the destruction of enemy soldiers.

They forgot about the mines. Everyone except the Germans. Deprived of the right under the Treaty of Versailles to have aircraft, tanks and chemical weapons, German generals were looking for ways to revive military power of their country, without formally violating Versailles, which strictly stipulated even the number of cannons and machine guns that a defeated empire was allowed to have. One of the ways to get around the restrictions turned out to be mines, which the Allies did not think of including in the peace treaty.

Soon after Hitler came to power, active development of an anti-personnel mine began, which in 1935 was adopted by the Wehrmacht under the name Sprengmine 35 (S.Mi.35). This designation can be translated as "Jumping mine arr. 1935".

Its design was based on the idea of ​​S-mine, but it was a completely different type of mine. First of all, it was not controlled by wire, and the miner did not need to sit in the trench and look out for the approaching enemy infantry. S.Mi.35 itself determined the most advantageous moment of its operation. However, it would be more accurate to say that the moment of the explosion of such a mine is determined by the victim himself, stepping on the pressure fuse or involuntarily pulling out the combat pin of the tension action fuse, catching on the wire.

The S.Mi.35 mine was used more and more widely by the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, especially starting in the late autumn of 1941, when the counterattacks of the Red Army became more and more noticeable, and the number personnel German divisions decreased markedly.

Our mines are the largest in the world

It cannot be said that in the Soviet Union they did not pay attention to the high damaging capabilities of jumping mines. By the beginning of the war, the Red Army had a jumping mine OZM-152. However, it was a very heavy and bulky device weighing over 50 kilograms and about 62 centimeters long. This mine was blown up from the electricity control panel. It was possible to install a mine with a tension fuse. However, the process of installing a mine took too much time and required a lot of work. At the same time, the OZM-152 did not have a significant advantage in hitting targets compared to a compact German mine - its power was excessive. It was difficult to expect such a dense accumulation of enemy soldiers during the battle so that the OZM-152 could show greater effectiveness than a German mine.

During the war in the USSR, a universal UVK expelling chamber was developed, which was screwed onto a projectile instead of its regular fuse. A projectile with a UVK was dug into the ground with its nose down. When an electric pulse was applied to the chamber, an explosion of a powder charge threw the projectile to a height of 30 to 90 cm, after which the projectile exploded.

In 1944, the Germans improved their mine and released it under the designation S.Mi. 44. New model differed from its predecessor by the S.Mi universal fuse. Z.44, which could be used both as a tension and as a push. In addition, the mine projectile exploded with the help of a cable, one end of which was attached to the mine glass, and the other to the pin of the second fuse located in the projectile.

treacherous jumpers

After the end of World War II, the German jumping mine was appreciated in all countries; numerous imitations appeared. In the USSR, the OZM-3, OZM-4 mines were adopted, somewhat smaller in size and simpler in design. They did not contain shrapnel, and the target was hit by fragments of a massive cast-iron hull.

Somewhat later, in 1972, one of the most powerful mines in this class appeared - the Soviet OZM-72, which has a radius of destruction of about 30 meters. It is worth talking about this mine in more detail. Repeating in many respects the design of the German Sprengmine 35, this mine is in many ways more perfect. The shrapnel in it is placed not between two cylinders, but outside along the walls of the projectile and is held in place due to the fact that it is filled with hardened epoxy. Several fuses have been developed for this mine. Among them are MVE-72, distinctive feature which is a very thin, visually imperceptible tension wire (in contrast to the rather thick and noticeable in the previous model). This wire, about 15 meters long, does not need to be hung on pegs - it is simply unwound on the ground and lies on blades of grass. In order for the mine to explode, it is not at all necessary to pull this wire. It breaks off when only about 300-400 g of force is applied, that is, it is easier to break off than a regular sewing thread.

But the most terrible mine is the OZM-72 as part of the NVU-P explosive device. This device is an electronic unit buried in the ground and equipped with a seismic target sensor, in other words, a simple device that registers ground shaking from human steps. Five OZM-72 mines were buried in the ground around the electronic unit within a radius of 15 meters. When a person approaches, the block determines the direction of movement and the distance to the target, and at the most favorable moment issues a command to one of the mines to detonate. There is no salvation for the victim. A comrade who rushes to the aid of the wounded will be hit by the next mine. The same thing will happen if the victim tries to crawl away from the affected area. The next mine will finish him off.

Something can be done only after the last, fifth mine explodes. But this is also provided by the creators of NVU-P. Instead of the last mine, another set of NVU-P can be attached to the device. After the last mine of one set is triggered, the second set will turn on, to which, instead of the fifth mine, you can also attach a third set, and so on ad infinitum. The device does not react to the movement of tanks, cars and other equipment.

creeping enemy

In many countries of the world, dozens of samples of jumping mines have been developed: from the simplest to "intelligent", which not only can distinguish the movement of a person from the movement of an animal or machine, but are also able to distinguish their soldier from someone else's and react accordingly.

Moreover, there is information that crawling mines have been developed that keep in touch with each other, determine undamaged places in the minefield and move accordingly to the desired points. It is curious that such developments are being carried out in the countries that initiated the creation of the Ottawa Convention to ban anti-personnel mines. The creators' argument is simple - these are not mines, these are ammunition of a completely different type, and the convention does not apply to them.

Anti-personnel mines are considered inhumane means of warfare, but most states continue to actively use them. Main damaging factor of this weapon - the soldier's fear of an invisible danger - stopped the advance of entire divisions. Cheap, cheerful and effective.
Here is a selection of the most dangerous anti-personnel mines that were in service with the Soviet, and now the Russian army.

"Witch"

The fragmentation barrage mine OZM-72 was developed in the USSR in the early 70s, but is still in service. This is very insidious and dangerous weapon belonging to the class of so-called jumping mines. Structurally, it consists of a steel "glass", an expelling charge and a warhead, in which 660 grams of TNT and 2400 submunitions. The operation of the "witch" occurs after a careless soldier touches a wire stretching with his foot. The expelling charge throws a mine from the "glass" vertically upwards. Its detonation occurs at a height of 60 to 80 centimeters. The radius of continuous destruction of OZM-72 is 25 meters. To remain unharmed after its undermining is very difficult.
Mines OZM-72
The "Witch" was baptized by fire in Afghanistan, where mountain passes and gorges were mined. OZM-72 proved to be an effective and simple, but, unfortunately, illegible weapon. On April 20, 1984, during the Panjshir operation, soldiers of the 345th parachute regiment were blown up on the Witch. A single mine instantly killed 13 and injured 14 people. Later it turned out that it was installed Soviet troops during the previous operation.

"Petal"

The anti-personnel high-explosive mine PFM-1 "Petal" is never manually installed on the ground. These small explosive devices, each weighing only 800 grams, are made of polyethylene and are scattered on the ground using remote mining equipment. In Afghanistan, they "sowed" problem areas with Soviet Su-25 attack aircraft. A brown or green silhouette 12 cm long and 6.5 cm wide can not always be seen on the ground, especially at night.


"Butterfly" high-explosive anti-personnel mine PFM-1 ("Petal")
"Petal" - a cruel mine. Guaranteed to kill a person 37 grams of explosives are not capable, the defeat is caused by injuring the lower leg. During the explosion, practically no lethal fragments are formed, with the exception of the metal parts of the mechanism in the central part of the mine. However, the foot is torn clean. A unit that has run into a minefield quickly loses its combat effectiveness. The wounded must be bandaged and taken to a safe place. It is hardly worth specifying that the demoralizing factor of the insidious "Petal" is huge.

"Monka"

The anti-personnel directional fragmentation mine MON-50 was developed in the 1960s and 1970s and still remains one of the most effective. It can be installed on the ground, in the snow, at the entrances to the premises, mounted on trees. The mine is detonated by the operator from the control panel when an enemy appears in the affected area or when the fuse tension sensor is touched. All living things in the sector along the horizon of 54 degrees and at a height of 15 centimeters to 4 meters are “mowed down” by 540 striking elements.


Anti-personnel mine MON-50
MON-50 is ideal for organizing ambushes along the route of enemy columns. Seven hundred grams of explosive and hundreds of submunitions can disable even an army truck. And in order to accurately calculate the sector of destruction, the miner can use a special sighting device at the top of the monk.

"Black Widow"

The pressure anti-personnel mine PMN has been in service with the engineering and sapper units of the Russian army since 1950, as well as a number of CIS countries and far abroad. The "Black Widow", as it was nicknamed during the Vietnam War by the US military, is a fairly powerful high-explosive mine. It is not equipped with striking elements, the target is damaged by an explosive - 200 grams of TNT. The light weight of the product (550 grams) allows the sappers to pick up these mines with a margin and quickly turn a wide area of ​​terrain into an impenetrable "swamp" for enemy infantry.


PMN-1 anti-personnel mine produced in 1978
Detonation, as the name suggests, occurs when the mine cover is pressed. Such an explosion leads to death or to very serious injuries. This mine could be found in any country affected by armed conflict in the second half of the last century. It was the PMN that deprived Shamil Basayev, one of the leaders of the Chechen gang underground, when he and his accomplices broke out of Grozny in January 2000.

"Edema"

Adopted in 1986. The anti-personnel fragmentation mine of the tension action POM-2 "Edema", like the PFM-1, is installed on the ground by remote mining. The peculiarity of this weapon is its independent "character". After the POM-2 falls to the ground, the process of bringing it into combat position begins, which lasts about a minute. First, the locks of six spring-loaded blades are opened, which, leaning back from the body, raise it to a vertical position. Then, four anchor weights are fired from the upper part of the body in different directions, pulling thin broken wires behind them. From this moment, the mine is in a combat position, and the countdown of the combat work time begins, which can range from 4 to 100 hours. After this time, the ammunition self-destructs.


POM-2
A mine explosion occurs when any of the four wires breaks. The radius of continuous damage is up to 16 meters. POM-2 provides a circular defeat of targets. At the same time, it is impossible to remove it - "Edema" is non-removable and non-neutralizing.