Severe Duty Vegetation Shredder Technical Testing of Capability.

摘要

A variety of tools and equipment for locating and clearing mines are available. The predominant method for demining however, is still focused around manual detection, probing, and mine excavation by individual human beings. One of the primary obstacles to the effective clearance of land mines is vegetation in the minefield. Most minefields are in place for several years or even decades before clearance operations are begun. These areas are, by intent, hazardous and therefore lay untended for years. Unabated by man, a variety of vegetation types over grow these areas and make accessibility to the mined terrain and excavation of the individual mines more difficult and dangerous for demining teams. The Severe Duty Vegetation Shredder (SDVS) is designed to safely remove this obstacle to demining by opening up the general accessibility of a mined area, reducing the impediments to sweeping with hand held mine detectors, improving the deminer's visibility of the threat, reducing the risk to the deminer by eliminating the hazardous process of going into the minefield on foot to clear brush, and by reducing the need for hauling away residual cut vegetation. The SDVS was designed and built by Israel Aircraft Industries Ramta Division. The prototype unit was delivered in December 2001 and a variety of tests were performed over the period of 20-24 May 2002 to evaluate the performance of the Severe Duty Vegetation Shredder. These tests, along with other information collected on the SDVS, are described in this report.