Ukrainian engineers have discovered a clever solution to one of Russia’s most formidable weapons. The NVU Okhota (“Hunter”) antipersonnel mine is assumed to be very unlikely to be removed, as it has a complicated sensor to trip on and injure or kill engineers long before they locate it. But a device launched from a drone can neutralize this fatal device from a distance.
The Hunting series was originally developed in the 1970s to make minefields more deadly. Sappers were getting better at detecting, clearing, or destroying mines. A new weapon was needed to thwart attempts to combat a minefield.
The hunting formula includes up to five popular antipersonnel mines and a special detection device for them. The same old mines are the OZM-72 “Frog” puzzle mines, which are also operated by a tripwire; When activated, the frog throws a grenade into the air that explodes at waist height, projecting shrapnel with a deadly radius of 25 meters/82 sensations. The fighter can also be supplied with directional mines such as the Claymore MON-50 or the POMZ-2. Stick mine.
The focal point of the search is a 10-pound seismic sensor, the length of a lunchbox, that detects ground vibrations over a wide area. The sensor detects and locates approximately human footsteps at a distance of 90 meters/300 feet. You can spot the minefield long before they know it.
When targets are within range, Hunting selects the nearest mine and activates it.
Then comes the most unsightly moment.
“We just explained to the infantrymen: ‘This mine explodes five times,'” as one Russian online page puts it. “When the first infantrymen are wounded, their comrades and medics will cause a widespread explosion of the mine and run to its defense, causing the mine momentarily. Attempts through the wounded to reach protection will cause a third mine.
They point out that the OZM-72 aerial explosion will injure other people who are standing and those who are on the ground and want to crawl. The fact that Hunting is connected to five mines ensures that rescue attempts can be successful and that there will be few to no survivors.
Hunting is said to reliably identify humans in motion, running, walking, crawling or skiing, and distinguish them from animals and cars in all weather conditions, with an error rate of only 0. 4% . Array Can be calibrated to suit specific terrain types, such as soft or rocky soils.
The most recent edition of Hunting has a timer mechanism that turns it on and off at certain times of the day, offering a window of protection for patrols, if they have enough confidence in it.
Russian army blogger “Combat Engineer,” who has a Telegram channel with 58,000 subscribers that focuses on defusing bombs and unexploded ordnance, noted earlier this month that the Ukrainians had discovered a fighter jet. It is a steel cylinder with a tip, launched from a drone.
It has the so-called “ARTEMIDA” on the side. It is the Ukrainian call of the Greek Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.
Ukraine’s Artemida seismic simulator imitated vibrations from footsteps
According to Combat Engineer, Artemida emits a series of pulses that mimic human footsteps. This seismic simulator tricks Hunting’s sensor into safely firing all of its mines, disarming it. Artemida appears on Ukrainian websites; All we know is what combat engineers report.
A style of the Thumper sandworm calling device described in Dune
It’s an attractive idea, similar concepts have been proposed before. There is an apparent similarity to the Thumper from Frank Herbert’s 1965 science fiction novel Dune, which is also sunk into the ground to imitate the vibrations of human footsteps. The rattle, however, is a lure for carnivorous sandworms, rather than landmines.
Artemida relies on wisdom or suspicion about the location of a hunting minefield, but the fact is that it attacks before anyone gets close enough to see it. However, Ukraine now uses drone-based mine tripping onion formulas to fly over a domain and detect mines without the threat of tripping mines via humans. These come with a task developed by 17-year-old Igor Klymenko in 2022, the Safe Pro AI formula that uses a device vision formula to stumble upon mines, the Brave1 ST1 that uses a steel stumble and an organization drone Polish charity POSTUP, also founded on a steel stumble. These formulas offer an intelligent possibility of detecting mines without entering them. Other drones can then be sent to launch Artemida aircraft to neutralize and combat formulas. .
As we have already mentioned, the original Hunting evolved in the 70s and has advanced several times. It still does not appear to have reached the point of sophistication of the POM-3, a Russian air-launched antipersonnel mine equipped with a seismic sensor. with a processor.
The POM-3 mine has a seismic sensor so clever that it can distinguish infantrymen from civilians
According to the manufacturers, the POM-3 uses AI and is so complex that it can not only distinguish humans from animals and other vibration resources, but also differentiate between the steps of infantrymen and civilians. Western experts don’t take those claims seriously, but it would be undeniable that they would use machine learning to help a seismic sensor reliably detect footsteps and probably to weed out fakes like Artemida.
However, it would be equally undeniable to use the same device to learn how to ensure that Artemida produces step imitations as close as possible to herbal lines. An AI-powered Artemida could also vary its power, looking at other models. until he hears the dull sound of a mine detonating.
Long-term weapons will be complicated in their ability to stumble upon targets. It might take equally complicated, even scientific, strategies to lie to them.
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