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This book examines potential technologies for replacing antipersonnel landmines by 2006, the U.S. target date for signing an international treaty banning these weapons. Alternative Technologies to Replace Antipersonnel Landmines emphasizes the role that technology can play to allow certain weapons to be used more selectively, reducing the danger to uninvolved civilians while improving the effectiveness of the U.S. military. Landmines are an important weapon in the U.S. military's arsenal but the persistent variety can cause unintended casualties, to both civilians and friendly forces. New technologies could replace some, but not all, of the U.S. military's antipersonnel landmines by 2006. In the period following 2006, emerging technologies might eliminate the landmine totally, while retaining the necessary functionalities that today's mines provide to the military.
Antipersonnel mines remain a significant international threat to civilians despite recent intense efforts by the United States, other developed countries, and humanitarian aid organizations to clear them from postconflict regions. Mines claim an estimated 15,000-20,000 victims per year in some 90 countries. They jeopardize the resumption of normal activities-from subsistence farming to commercial enterprise-long after periods of conflict have ceased. For example, in Afghanistan during 2000, mines claimed 150-300 victims per month, half of them children. Although most of these mines were emplaced during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan (from 1979 to 1988), they continue to pose a serious risk to returning refugees and have placed vast tracts of farmland off limits. The United States currently invests about $100 million annually in humanitarian mine clearance-the largest commitment of any country. Despite this investment and the funding from many other developed nations and nongovernmental organizations, at the current rate clearing all existing mines could take 450-500 years.
The study examines the impacts of no longer having Anti-Personnel Landmines available to the NATO warfighter. The report considers alternative systems and/or concepts for replacing any resulting capability shortfall. The systems and concepts were to be either materiel (technical solutions) or non-materiel (doctrinal or procedural) in nature. The study provides tactical and operational impact statements of conducting military operations without Anti-Personnel Landmines available to NATO forces. The report provides a method to address the functionality of alternatives and to assess their capability to address barrier-type mission parameters.
The Area Denial design group of Stephen E. Douglas, Michael T. Golden, Franklin B. Scherra, Jr., Bryan J. Wiley, Mike Talbot, and Eric R. Swenson, has designed a system that will limit access to an area and constrain the movement of the enemy forces. Several types of land mines are in use today that fall under the anti-tank or anti-personnel categories. These mines can be employed in many different manners. Some require aerial dispersal while others have to be deployed manually. Land mines are an effective means to delay, fix, disrupt, deny, turn, or destroy enemy forces in combat. However, unrecovered conventional land mines pose a threat because they remain armed after the conflict ends. Currently, several nations are proposing to ban anti-personnel land mines that do not self-destruct or can not be command detonated. We assume the political pressure against land mines will eventually encompass both anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. The mounting political pressure against land mines has forced the United States to look for alternatives to deny enemy force 5 access to specific areas. The objective of our group was to provide alternative area denial systems to replace the conventional land mine. Our most promising alternative deals with the Intelligent Wide Area Munitions (IWAM) because of the extensive work that has already been done on that system.
At the rate that government and nongovernmental organizations are clearing existing landmines, it will take 450-500 years to rid the world of them. Concerned about the slow pace of demining, the Office of Science and Technology asked RAND to assess potential innovative technologies being explored and to project what funding would be required to foster the development of the more promising ones. The authors of this report suggest that the federal government undertake a research and development effort to develop a multisensor mine detection system over the next five to eight years.