In fact, most mines deployed in Ukraine today are placed remotely, whether by artillery, rockets, helicopters or drones.
“We are also seeing many more high-tech mines being deployed,” making landmine detection a “much more complicated and dangerous task,” said Paul Heslop, Head of the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Ukraine.
These “high-tech” landmines are equipped with sensors that can detect the approach of a deminer, whether on foot or in a vehicle, and then detonate. Some even have magnetic influence capabilities, meaning they can explode when exposed to a detector’s magnetic field.
“The piece of technology you’re using to find the mine can actually activate it,” Heslop said.
With April 4 marking International Mine Awareness and Mine Action Assistance Day, the UN mine specialist said the biggest challenge is how to win the clearance arms race faster than the technology to prevent clearance is developed.
Drones use a tool, not a solution
Deminers are focusing on prevention and finding new solutions to help protect civilian lives and reduce the damage that landmine contamination inflicts on their communities.
One way mine action groups are innovating is by exploiting weaknesses in the way landmines are laid.
With an increasing number of remotely deployed mines, many do not penetrate the surface. This makes detection with drones and advanced sensor technology easier than if they had been buried by hand below the surface.
From there, remotely controlled technologies, such as drones or robots, are capable of emitting a small charge or flare to neutralize the threat.
However, in the context of increasing conflicts around the world, these advances have not kept pace with the number of mines being planted around the world.
“Since 2015, more pollution is created every day than is removed,” Heslop said.
UNMAS estimated last year that more than 20 percent of Ukraine’s land, 139,000 square kilometers that includes more than six million people, was contaminated by mines or unexploded ordnance, costing the economy more than $11 billion a year.
While landmines pose a threat to life, many mines, such as antipersonnel landmines, are designed primarily to maim. Ukraine alone has more than 60,000 war amputees.
It is also the “perceived contamination” of landmines that makes them such a pernicious military tool: the fear of hidden weapons makes land unusable and inaccessible, having a wide impact on millions of civilians.
What is the priority?
Prioritization is key as humanitarian deminers try to maximize how to restore some peace of mind to people’s lives in areas that may require decades of attention to return to normal.
Traditionally, landmine action was measured by output: how many mines had been removed, or how many square meters had been removed, or even how many metal fragments had been removed.
“I think the other thing to remember in demining, or humanitarian demining, is that the goal is not necessarily to remove the mines; the goal is to demonstrate that the land can be used for more productive purposes,” Mr Heslop said.
Humanitarian deminers address this problem in two ways: by demonstrating that there are no mines and that the land can be used; and secondly, demonstrate that there is a high probability that there are mines, so that they can begin to be removed.
However, there is often uncertainty about the presence of landmines. Especially in “high-metal areas,” such as combat zones, where artillery fire has already scattered thousands of metal fragments and sensors find it difficult to distinguish between landmines and shrapnel.
This uncertainty in detection makes “mine action an inherently inefficient process”, Mr Heslop said.
To meet this need, new technologies have been developed that do not look for metal in the mine, but rather can detect the explosives or even identify the plastic casing surrounding the explosive.
Sometimes the old ways are the best.
To get ahead, Heslop warns deminers “not to be too dogmatic about our approach”, adding that one of the biggest obstacles to overcome to get ahead lies in “mindset”.
New technologies can be combined with old techniques and technologies, previously considered inefficient, to help improve efficiency in demining and detection.
One approach is to use artificial intelligence, high-resolution cameras and drones along with mining rollers to help give confidence to skeptical civilians using the land, such as farmers.
Artificial intelligence and sensors could be used to determine whether a field is mine-free; The rollers could then traverse the field to help convince farmers that it is safe to enter a tractor.
“It’s a combination of going back to old ideas and seeing if we can use them, looking for new ideas and new technologies,” he said.
Artificial intelligence, a reinforcement
If there is a high probability of mines in an area, combining AI with advanced scanning technology can also help reduce mine detection predictions, reducing an area the size of a football field to an area as small as the goalkeeper’s six-yard area.
It is this efficiency that makes AI particularly capable of reducing costs in mine action, but also accelerating the return to productive purposes.
Similarly, AI can also be used to support data-driven decision making, processing volumes of data to make decisions about which areas should be prioritized for maximum benefit in a matter of seconds.
It is a job that would normally require hours of manual labor by an experienced mine action leader.
Communication technology helps prevention
While technology bears some responsibility for increasing the danger posed by landmines, innovation also makes landmine awareness communication much more effective.
“Nowadays, if you see something dangerous, you can take a picture, send it in, and someone looks at it and says, ‘Yes, it’s a dangerous item, we’ll send a team,’ or ‘No, it’s a spare car part… it’s an oil filter or an air filter,’” Heslop said.
As an example, Mr Heslop said that a program in Afghanistan that aimed to reach more than 200,000 people was able to reach more than five million people thanks to some of the technologies that civilians had at their disposal.
“I think the improved communications thanks to new technologies and the responsiveness are much better than 30 years ago.”