Source: China Military Network
Iron was billowing and smoke was everywhere, and the tank cluster made a deafening roar and flew towards the combat area. In the blink of an eye, these "fast-forward" tanks seem to have been pressed the "slow down" button, and suddenly slowed down. Immediately afterwards, demining vehicles were quickly forward-tuned.
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Figure (1): German "Lars" LARS rocket mine laying system; Figure (2): Russian "farming" rocket mine laying system; Figure (3): US helicopter Volcano minelaying system; Figure (4): German MW-1 multi-purpose submunition spreader. Profile picture
(Courtesy photo: Yang Ming)
In a similar situation, there is a high probability that an anti-tank minefield has been found earlier. This piece of minefield is likely to be spread by the other side's rapid mine-laying vehicle in a short period of time.
For a long time, how to lay mines in a timely and secret manner has been the key to ensuring the success of mine warfare. Especially when ambushing the enemy's living forces, the sappers will carefully camouflage the mines after they have planted them.
However, in the confrontation between the two armies at the strategic campaign level, to delay the speed of the enemy's large-scale action, it is no longer so important to be secret, and the speed and number of mines are the key.
This is also the reason why the world's military powers continue to develop and improve rapid mine-laying equipment.
Looking at the countries of the world at present, what is the development status of rapid mine-laying equipment? What are the characteristics of its development? What are the challenges? Please see the relevant interpretation -
You can throw the Sabrae equipment to come up later
What is the greatest utility of landmines? The classic answer is "more destruction of enemy targets" As modern warfare evolves, another answer is increasingly recognized, and that is that "mines can effectively slow down an opponent's attack."
In the 1942 Battle of Alamein in the North African battlefield, the German army used hundreds of thousands of anti-tank mines and anti-infantry mines to construct a minefield known as the "Devil's Garden", which once resisted multiple rounds of attacks by the British army, which was twice as strong as its own soldiers and tanks.
During the Gulf War, the Iraqi army laid a minefield of 500,000 mines, and the multinational force was deterred by this, and finally chose to take a long detour from the western front, and the original operational task was delayed until the 38th.
It's not just mines that do this, but enough mines, once laid in place, will have a similar effect. In 1945, the U.S. military launched the "Hunger Campaign" operation, using bombers to lay tens of thousands of mines in Japanese ports and waterways. The siege gradually plunged Japan, which was heavily dependent on external resources, into a state of "quasi-paralysis."
Also during the Gulf War, Iraq planted more than 1,300 mines in the Persian Gulf, rendering four U.S. Navy ships incapacitated and pinning down some of the multinational force's naval and air forces.
It is not difficult to analyze these examples and see that the deployment of a sufficient number of mine bodies in a relatively short period of time has become one of the key factors determining the effectiveness of the use of minefields.
And it is. In the 1970s, on the basis of the prevalence of mechanical mine laying in the early stage, the concept of "throwable breech equipment" came into being. This is the embodiment and response of people to the further deepening of this understanding.
After entering the 1980s, the development of rapid mine deployment equipment can be described as "one ride and no dust", taking the lead in entering the "everything can be thrown" state that can be laid through artillery, rockets, aircraft, helicopters, etc., and gradually forming a long-range, medium-range and short-range "mix-and-match" mine-laying system.
The first is a vehicle-type throwing mine-laying system that can quickly construct a minefield at close range (about 200 meters), which is mainly used for pre-laying. Mine-laying vehicles such as the German "Scorpion", the American "Volcano", the French "Minotaur" and the British "Shield Hand" belong to this category.
The second is the medium- and long-range rocket and artillery laying system with a range of 10 to 70 kilometers, which is mainly used to quickly lay mines on the possible impact routes of the enemy army, which greatly improves the offensive nature of the mines. Typical rocket laying systems include russia's 220 mm caliber "Hurricane", Italy's 122 mm caliber "Philos", Germany's 110 mm caliber "Lars", etc., the mine-laying rocket is equipped with multiple track damage or concentrated energy to break armor mines. Artillery mine-laying systems include the American RAAM and IRAAM systems fired using 155 mm howitzers, and the mines are equipped with multiple anti-tank mines.
The third is to rely on long-distance and large-area rapid mine-laying systems of aircraft and helicopter platforms, which are mostly used for blockade operations. During World War II, Germany and Italy had begun to use aircraft to spread anti-infantry mines in North Africa. Since then, various forms of aerial mine-laying devices have sprung up, such as the "Gatul" aerial mine-laying system in the United States and the MW-1 multi-purpose submunition spreader in Germany.
While rapid mine-laying equipment is moving toward systematization, the standards for measuring the performance of rapid mine-laying equipment have gradually been established, such as laying speed, accuracy, versatility, etc., but in the final analysis, it still depends on whether it can delay the speed of opponents' military operations to the greatest extent.
Changing both the "seed method" and the "seed"
Rapid mine laying equipment is divided into narrow and broad senses. In a narrow sense, it refers to the mine-body dispenser itself, including the control unit, launch tube, distributor, installation components, etc.; in a broad sense, it refers to the complete combination of "mine-body spreader + platform". In general, people are accustomed to dissecting the development of rapid mine-laying equipment from a broad perspective.
This is because only by taking into account the platform on board can it better reflect the characteristics of fast mine laying equipment, fast mine laying speed, wide range of operations, and high battlefield efficiency ratio, and at the same time, it can better reflect the relevant changes in its evolution that change both the "seed method" and the "seed".
"Seed law" is a common name for the way of laying mines. The change in the "seed method" is mainly related to the platform on which the mine body is carried and deployed. In the past, the change from manual operation to mechanical mine laying was a change in the "seed method". This change makes the setting of mined areas faster and greatly enhances the offensive nature of mines.
The emergence of various deployment platforms such as aircraft, submarines, ships, artillery, and rocket launchers has made more "kinds of methods" appear one after another. Nowadays, the changes in the "seed method" of rapid mine laying equipment are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
The first is intelligent deployment. With the wide application of navigation technology and the increasing intelligence of rapid mine laying equipment, the accuracy of minebody laying has been significantly improved. Before the mine is deployed, it is pre-programmed by the control system, and it can basically achieve "where you want it to go". The "Tillage" rocket mine-laying system, which was unveiled at the Red Square military parade marking the 75th anniversary of Russia's victory in the Great Patriotic War, is equipped with satellite navigation and automatic control systems, and has functions such as correcting wind deviations when laying mines. The operator can set mine-related parameters, lay coordinates and self-destruction conditions by pre-programming before launch, and can simultaneously lay a variety of types of personnel anti-personnel mines and anti-tank mines, and can form an accurate mine location map of the mine landing point coordinates. The Volcano mine-laying system equipped by the US military can also record minefield position data with the help of digital sensing systems such as ranging telescopes, digital cameras, GPS, etc., to achieve accurate layout and marking of minefields.
The second is to deploy on a larger scale. In addition to the significant expansion of the mine-laying range of ground-based rapid mine-laying equipment, the long-range deployment of minefields is becoming a reality. Unlike in the past, when mine-laying aircraft had to fly over the planned minefield at low altitude and low speed to lay mines, the GBU-62B "extended range rapid strike" mine developed by the US military can be laid at a long distance by bombers. This kind of mine is to some air-dropped mines in the past with the wing guidance component of the aviation bomb, after high-altitude release after a long distance without power gliding, can accurately enter the water in a predetermined position.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union developed space mines to lay "sky minefields" to intercept or destroy enemy military satellites. Of course, various reasons led to the subsequent termination of the project. Today, aerial minelaying has taken on a new form. This new method of laying is based on a suicide drone that can stay in the air for a long time as a mine body, and is realized by clustering. For example, last year, Russia used the "Lancet" suicide drone as a basis, and with its speed advantage, developed an aerial minefield system for enemy drones.
Third, unmanned systems have gradually become "sowers." The unmanned approach to rapid mine laying equipment is making the laying of mines safer, more convenient and more concealed. Russia launched the UMZ-K "Kleisch" short-range throwing breech last year, and in the event of an emergency, it can be remotely controlled to mine the mine without the need for sappers to accompany the vehicle. In recent years, some Western countries have also launched underwater mine laying projects using large unmanned submersible vehicles. These large unmanned underwater vehicles can carry multiple smart mines and deploy them in target waters as appropriate. In this regard, the "Hammerhead Shark" intelligent mine deployment system being developed by the United States relies on underwater submersible vehicles to lay mines.
The evolution of rapid mine-laying equipment is also reflected in the improvement and improvement of the "seed" - the performance of the mine body itself. In line with the new rapid mine-laying system, the capabilities of various mine-bodies are also growing. For example, some thunder bodies can intelligently identify military and civilian ships and enemy and friend attributes by sensing changes in physical fields such as sound waves, magnetic fields, and water pressure, and "self-learning", and decide whether to carry out attacks. The mass-laid mines can "communicate" with each other and determine which mines are most effective. The new minebody can have different "shelf life" by setting it - self-destruct time, and use multi-channel fuzes to resist interference.
In order to adapt to changes in the battlefield environment, some mine bodies have also "split" more types. For example, Bulgaria has introduced 4 types of anti-helicopter mines at the same time to adapt to different operational requirements. After some minesweepers have improved their "seeds", their attack paths have also changed. For example, Russia is testing a new intelligent anti-tank mine PTKM-1R, its warhead can "jump" up, with the help of millimeter waves and lasers to detect the tank's top armor, with the self-forging projectile to attack the tank's "soft ribs".
Constantly evolving and upgrading in symbiotic phases
The biggest advantage of rapid mine-laying equipment on the battlefield is that it can lay a staggering number of mine bodies in a shorter period of time to delay the opponent's military action. However, in the face of new changes, it is also increasingly exposing some shortcomings.
First, the elimination of mines deployed by most of the current rapid mine-laying equipment is relatively easy. In the case of fast mine-laying vehicles, for example, mines are generally exposed to the ground and are relatively easy to detect. To some extent, its hysteresis effect is to win by quantity. For some mines with more complex structures and large bodies, the speed of laying of mine-laying equipment has been significantly slowed down. During an exercise in 2018, the Russian military constructed an anti-helium minefield about 3 kilometers long, which took about 1 hour. Although compared to the same anti-heliborg minefields laid before, this speed is significantly faster. However, compared with the rapid minelaying vehicle that can create an anti-tank minefield of the same volume in ten minutes, this deployment speed still has a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, in order for rapid mine-laying equipment to play a greater role in the future, it is necessary to continue to work hard in both the equipment and the mine body itself: on the one hand, it is necessary to transform the mine body, and at the same time "increase its ability", "condense" and simplify its body shape so that it is more suitable for rapid deployment; on the other hand, it is necessary to empower the equipment so that it can deploy more types of mine bodies at a faster speed.
Second, the rapid mine-laying equipment with a single function is facing challenges. Unlike the previous rapid mine-laying equipment, today's rapid mine-laying equipment often "wears several duties", such as assisting in the formation of a detailed minefield distribution map. Due to cost and other considerations, some space-based and sea-based mine-laying equipment is also developing in the direction of "multi-energy". When developing underwater unmanned underwater vehicles, some countries require not only their rapid mine-laying capabilities, but also other times when they are attempted to carry out mine-laying missions, which can be used for reconnaissance and surveillance tasks. This means that in the future, while some rapid mine-laying equipment is making a fuss about the word "fast", it is also necessary to master as many skills as possible and seek survival and development from "more art without pressing the body".
Third, the emergence of various advanced mine-sweeping equipment has forced rapid mine-laying equipment to improve its capabilities. Just as the so-called "road is one foot high, the devil is one foot high", over the years around the demining, countries are building professional equipment, mechanical minesweepers, blasting minesweepers, electromagnetic minesweepers, laser minesweepers and so on have appeared. For example, the Russian army's "leaf" remote-controlled minesweeper can irradiate the electronic system of the mine through high-power microwaves, produce a coupling effect to destroy its fuze, so that the mine fails or detonates in advance. Britain's next generation of anti-mine weapons aims to replace traditional manual control with autonomous systems. The emergence of these advanced mine-clearance equipment objectively requires that the rapid mine-laying equipment greatly improve its capabilities and be able to lay more intelligent and better-resistant mine bodies. (Source: Jiefangjun Bao; Shi Fei, Guo Shuju)