Mine clearance tanks

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Sherman M4A4 with attached mine flail from the Second World War

Mine clearance tanks ( MiRPz for short ) are armored vehicles whose basic construction is mostly based on an existing battle tank model and which have been specially converted for clearing minefields. For this purpose, a tiller is attached to the front of the tank. This is a rotating device consisting of chains and massive steel balls or similar striking elements with which the buried mines are detonated, destroyed or thrown aside. The Bundeswehr uses the Keiler mine clearance vehicle for this purpose .

An Abrams M1A1 fires a demining cord

Specially equipped tanks also have the option of shooting demining cords or demining ladders over a minefield. With the help of a small rocket , a string of explosives (e.g. C4 ) is brought over the minefield and then made to explode. The pressure wave of the detonation triggers or removes the mines in the area.

literature

  • Werner Oswald : Motor vehicles and tanks of the Reichswehr, Wehrmacht and Bundeswehr , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart, ISBN 3-87943-850-1
  • Roger Ford: Panzer - From 1916 to today , Karl Müller Verlag, ISBN 3-86070-676-4
  • CF Foss, JF Milsom, JS Weeks, G. Tillotson, RM Ogorkiewicz : Tanks and other combat vehicles from 1916 to today , Buch und Zeit Verlagsges. Cologne, special edition

Web links

Wiktionary: Mine clearing armor  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ New Marine Tech Slams into Helmand (English) - Page at Aviation Week (last accessed: February 21, 2010)
  2. ↑ M60 Armored Vehicle Launched MICLIC (AVLM) (English) - Film on YouTube (uploaded on September 9, 2008; last accessed on April 8, 2013)