This week a new military aid package worth 725 million dollarsthe largest since last April, which USA will send to Ukraine. Among various types of weapons – there are missiles and drones of various types – there appear 3 deployment systems land mines.
These are the M692/M731 ADAM (acronym in English for Area Denial Artillery Ammunition), the M131 MOPMS (Modular Portable Mine System) and mine laying system M136 Volcanoeach one with its particularities. ADAM allows rapid deployment of mines using 155mm artillery, MOPMS is a portable and flexible system for use by infantry and Volcano a dispensing system vehicle mountedcapable of laying minefields on a large scale.
M692/M731 ADAM
The M692/M731 ADAM consists of 155mm artillery projectiles designed to deploy antipersonnel mines over a wide area and quickly. It was developed in the 80s as part of the program FASCAM (Family of Dispersible Mines) US Army Each projectile, launched from a howitzer, scatters 36 non-persistent mines. This means that They are deactivated within a period of between 4 and 48 hoursafter deployment, to avoid long-term risks to civilians. The mine is activated by activating a trip wire. The load is then raised to a height between 1 and 2 meters and detonates, releasing some 600 shrapnel fragments.
M131 MOPMS
The M131 MOPMS modular portable mine system is designed for rapid deployment of anti-personnel or anti-tank mines by infantry or engineering units. The system consists of modular packagessimilar to a heavy briefcase, which contain the mines and the components necessary for their placement. These packages have a weight of between 13 and 18 kg which allows its transport and manual placement.
The mines deployed by the M131 MOPMS can be programmed to detonate on impactupon contact with a vehicle or person, or after a certain period of time. These mines are also not persistent. The system is compatible with military vehicles for larger scale deployments.
M136 Volcano
The Volcano M136 system is a mine dispenser for use on military vehicles –armored transports, engineering vehicles or helicopters– which allows the deployment of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines quickly over large areas. One vehicle can transport up to 24 M87 containers with 6 mines eachthat is, a total of 144 mines.
The Volcano M136 launches the mines following predefined patterns and can cover an area of between 30 and 60 meters with explosive devices such as M14 antipersonnel or M15 antitank. They are non-persistent and allow you to quickly create a minefield for what, in military terms, is called area denial and thus block enemy movements or protect supply routes and infrastructure.