Mines are simple robots designed to destroy the enemy's offensive potential. Their device may be different, but the essence is one. Without human intervention or when remotely actuated, they explode, forming damaging factors, the main and most common of which are the shock wave and the flow of damaging elements (or a cumulative stream). What is the difference between an anti-tank mine and anti-personnel mine? This will be the story.
History of mine weapons
This type of engineering weapons has long been known. The word mine itself used to mean not a detachable charge with a fuse, but a kind of digging under a fortification, breaking through with the aim of damaging its defense properties. This hole made it possible to penetrate the walls, and larger-scale excavations contributed to the destruction of towers and other structures that prevent the attack. Then, with the development of military technology, these underground passages increasingly began to provide powder charges so that the process of crushing the bastions took place more intensively. In parallel with the change in the design of the charges themselves, the fuses for them were also improved. Advances in electrical engineering have simplified the task of remote blasting. During the Crimean War , sea mines were first widely used . The civil war of the northerners and southerners, which resulted in the unification of the United States (1861-1865), laid the foundation for the massive use of minefields during defensive operations. Anti-personnel mines in the form of samples similar to modern ones were tested during the First World War. Then they were treated as a forced measure, applicable only in those cases when it was necessary to create a barrier that impedes the advance of a superior enemy.
Mines are different
Anti-personnel mines caused damage not only to soldiers, but also to horses, which constituted the main draft force of the armies at the beginning of the 20th century. The mechanical vehicles that appeared, including armored vehicles, also suffered from charges buried in the ground, but they had not yet invented a special design designed to destroy the then tanks, slow and vulnerable. The situation changed by the thirties, when strategists, thinking prospectively, it became clear that the future war would become mobile, and aviation and armored forces would play a dominant role in it. There is a special conversation about aviation, as history has shown, there are also means against it that work automatically ... But more on that later. In the meantime, a new type of engineering weaponry appeared - the anti-tank mine. For all its fundamental similarities with its anti-personnel “sister,” it differs significantly from it. The task that the designers solved when designing this charge with a fuse was different.
What should be an anti-personnel mine
A device designed to effectively defeat manpower must meet a number of tactical requirements. An explosion should create a large number of fragments flying at a sufficient speed to cause maximum damage. At the same time, the mine should be light, otherwise it will be difficult for sappers to wear and install it. An example is the so-called “Petals”. Mines of the type PFM-1 and PFM-1C were copied from American samples under the name "Dragon's Tooth" (Dragontooth) - BLU-43. They are very modest in size, but cause significant damage to manpower, performing two tasks at once. Firstly, “Petals”, as a rule, do not cause fatal injuries, but only cripple enemy soldiers, which creates an additional burden on the economy of an enemy power. Secondly, they can self-destruct (in modification “C”), which is very important in preparing the offensive.
T-35 and T-42 vs T-34
The anti-tank mine, as its name implies, serves to defeat armored vehicles. The task that sappers set when installing it consists of at least damage to the chassis of the tank. Previously it was believed that this was enough to delay the enemy offensive. For example, the German anti-tank mine T-35, used by the Wehrmacht during World War II against the troops of the Red Army and allies, had a shell charge weighing a little more than 5 kg. The T-42 had approximately the same characteristics, both samples had a metal case, which facilitated their detection by electric magnetic mine detectors. It was more difficult for sappers to find wooden ones, which were made in a handicraft way at the end of the war, but their charge was, as a rule, not very powerful. Almost every anti-tank mine of that time worked when the tracks were hit by it, the fuses were contact.
After the war
The war ended, but the tanks remained. And they were in the arsenal of countries that had recently been allies, and now have become potential adversaries. The experience gained in the battles led to the improvement of anti-tank weapons, including mines. In addition, engineers and scientists did not sit idly by. The accumulated combat experience revealed the most vulnerable areas of armored vehicles, and new and improved models were supposed to strike at them. In order to complicate the detection, the cases began to be made of plastic, however, this led to another problem. With the loss of minefield maps , the work of sappers was much more difficult. But the variety of fuses and methods of fire impact on armored vehicles expanded.
TM-62
The simplest is considered the Soviet anti-tank mine TM-62M. Its design repeats the general ideas of the charges of previous decades. The body is made of metal, the contact fuse and can withstand a load of up to 150 kg, which excludes its accidental activation. It can be installed with the help of mechanized means (for example, a GMZ caterpillar mine trap or helicopter systems), which increases the speed of mining the terrain. The mass of the charge is 7 kg, the total weight is 10 kg. At its core, it is a land mine, the main action is air strike. After hitting the TM-62M, the rinks of the tank fail, the hull partially collapses, the crew gets a strong shell shock, and if the hatches are closed, it dies. The main advantages of this mine are simplicity, high power, manufacturability, low cost and reliability. On its basis, a whole series of ammunition has been created, differing in weight and shape.
The complexity of the task
The bottom of any tank is its bottom. The armor is thinner both on the sides and in the area of the engine compartment, but to successfully defeat any unit of armored vehicles it is enough to detonate the charge under it. For all its merits, the TM-62M mine does not fire under the bottom, but when the track is hit by it, and most of the airwave hits the side of the side of the hull, which reduces the likelihood of detonation of the ammunition. In addition, the secrecy factor plays an important role in this case. A saboteur can set a charge in the path of enemy equipment, but its weight should be relatively small. The TM-72 anti-tank mine is more complex. It is cumulative in nature. This means that when it is activated, a powerful directed jet of hot gas arises that can penetrate thick armor. But that’s not all, the mine fuse provides a certain delay, which guarantees undermining in the middle part of the moving tank, exactly where the most important and vulnerable components are located - ammunition and transmission. The device reacts to a change in the magnetic field, which explains its certain “moodiness” and the likelihood of accidental operation. This is the flaw of all such ammunition. In addition, the TM-72 is quite simple to neutralize trawling. Unless, of course, the enemy has information about the danger of mining.
Mechanical version
The anti-tank mine TMK-2, which is considered more reliable, acts in approximately the same way. Its difference is a fuse, working on a mechanical lever principle. The pin probe of the target sticks out of the ground, the mine becomes platoon after it deviates from the horizontal position, and after a short period of time (from a third to half a second, this is enough for the tank to move halfway) the charge explodes, forming a cumulative stream. The mass of explosives is 6 kg. The destruction of the combat vehicle is guaranteed, but, despite the reliability compared to the TM-72, there is one drawback: it is relatively simple to defuse these ammunition. Finding pins protruding from the ground for an experienced sapper is also not a big problem.
On the sides
Not only caterpillars and the bottom become a target for anti-tank mines. The TM-73 design, which is a set of the usual "Fly" grenade launcher, means of mounting it on the ground, and a fuse of discontinuous action, seems to be rather successful. In other words, the bazooka shoots when an enemy technique violates the integrity of the stretch. More interesting is the mine TM-83. It is installed on the ground, its case is used as a bed. After bringing the charge into a combat position, a seismic sensor responds to earth vibration. If it is fixed, the infrared target indicator turns on. The cumulative core pierces decimeter-thick armor from a distance of up to 50 meters. If no thermal trace is detected, the mine returns to its original state and waits for the next target.
And even air defense
Helicopters and attack aircraft are often called flying tanks. This is quite true, because aviation can today have powerful reservations, artillery weapons, "borrowed" from ground equipment, not to mention missiles. Mines of the Russian Federation and other countries are designed to combat low-flying objects - both airplanes and helicopters. An example is the high-tech FDA device, developed in the 1990s and designed to destroy aircraft with a cumulative core. The guidance system operates on two channels (acoustic and infrared). The “petals” of mines in a combat position are laid out, forming a base, the sensor per kilometer determines the sound of a flying target, then the thermal sensor induces ammunition on it. An explosive substance enclosed in a spherical shell is fired at a speed of 3 km / s and penetrates armor protection 12 mm thick. The defeat distance is not lower than one hundred meters. An anti-helicopter mine can be installed manually and from aircraft. The attack of the enemy "flying tanks" will be repelled.