Jumping mine

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
How a jumping mine works: The first explosive charge catapults the mine about one meter high, the second shoots splinters in all directions.
Scheme of an SMi-35 mine and its pressure detonator.

A jumping mine is an anti-personnel mine for use in open terrain. When it is triggered, a small propellant charge lifts the mine body about a meter high, where the main charge then explodes and spreads splinters all around. The first mine of this type was the German S mine during the Second World War . Other countries have developed their own models, largely derived from the S mine.

Spring mines are more complicated than ordinary anti-personnel mines and therefore more expensive to produce. Because they are intended to be buried, they are also poorly suited for large-scale laying by airplanes, for example. It can be triggered either directly via pressure sensors or tripwires or via remote ignition.

The mine is preferably buried up to its neck in the vicinity of undergrowth or bushes . The protruding neck is then camouflaged separately.

The American soldiers gave the German S-Mine of the Second World War the name Bouncing Betty ( jumping Betty ).

Examples

Self-healing minefields

The so-called self - healing minefields represent a more recent development . Self-Healing Minefield SHM. With this concept, the individual mines communicate the distances between them. If there is a gap, for example because a certain area has already been cleared, neighboring mines will jump into this gap. The purpose of jumping the mines is to make clearing more difficult, not to increase the effect.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rae McGrath: Landmines And Unexploded Ordnance , Verlag Pluto Press, 2000, ISBN 9780745312590 , p. 18 [1]
  2. https://www.landmine.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Publi/Landminen-Soziooekonomische-Ausektiven.pdf