- The US Army is engaged on a brand new landmines designed to assault the thinner armor on the highest of tanks.
- The Army just lately awarded a contract for manufacturing of the XM204, a “broad space top-attack munition.”
- The Army sees the weapon as a method to limit an enemy’s room to maneuver its armored autos.
The US Army is creating a wise anti-tank mine that detects the sounds of enemy autos after which destroys them with an armor-piercing slug.
Gone are the World Struggle II-era buried mines that resembled dinner plates or Frisbees. The XM204 appears to be like like a big suitcase, and as an alternative of garments it carries 4 top-attack submunitions that pop up and hit the thinner armor on the highest of a tank.
The Army just lately awarded Textron a $353 million contract to provide the XM204, which can be being designed to pose much less hazard to civilians who may come throughout it.
US Army/Mark Schauer
The Army does not name the XM204 a landmine, and for good cause. Mines have been broadly condemned due to the hurt they do to civilians even many years after they’re deployed.
In June 2022, the Biden administration dedicated the US to becoming a member of many different nations in refusing to purchase or deploy anti-personnel mines anyplace besides the Korean Peninsula.
As an alternative, XM204 is described as a “broad space top-attack munition” or a “terrain-shaping impediment.” The weapon makes use of acoustic sensors to detect and establish incoming tanks.
“It might probably ‘hear’ tracked autos and really feel them coming,” an Army researcher stated in a press launch. “When it does, it makes use of a mechanism that begins monitoring the automobile. When the threat-tracked automobile is a sure distance away, the XM204 will shoot a submunition into the air to fireplace the warhead down on the goal inside its zone of authority.”
A Textron govt informed Jane’s that every XM204 weighs about 80 kilos. The acoustic sensor detects oncoming autos and a Doppler radar pinpoints a automobile’s precise location.
US Army
The Army envisions the weapon as a method to channel the motion of enemy forces. When US troops are in open terrain, with out forests or rivers to dam enemy armor, they will deploy an instantaneous minefield to constrict the enemy’s room to maneuver.
Nevertheless, the weapon additionally appear appropriate for extra aggressive emplacement. US special-operations forces may deploy the XM204 behind enemy strains to dam highways and bridges.
Notably fascinating is whether or not the weapon will ultimately be given to Ukraine. Ukrainian commandos or guerrillas would have a subject day putting the weapon on key Russian roads and provide routes.
The Army hasn’t launched technical particulars for the XM204. Nevertheless, in April 2021, the Army posted a sources-sought announcement for firms that would develop a “Terrain Shaping Impediment (TSO) High Assault prototype.”
PA Photos by way of Getty Photos
The announcement mentions a management station that would remotely function as much as 12 minefields which might be as much as 3.1 miles away.
The utmost vary of the munition itself is not listed, apart from a minimal standoff distance of roughly 164 toes. The Army additionally desired a munition that may very well be remotely managed from as much as 186 miles away.
The XM204 is not the primary top-attack mine. Within the Nineties, the Army developed the M93 Hornet, additionally constructed by Textron.
The M93 sounds just like the XM204, besides that it seems to have fired a single munition that used infrared homing to focus on a tank after which fired an explosively shaped penetrator — a self-forging molten slug of steel — into the highest of it.
Extra just lately, Russia has reportedly employed its PTKM-1R top-attack mine in Ukraine. The weapon, which appears to be like just like the M93 Hornet, seems to depend on acoustic sensors to detect autos.
John Moore/Getty Photos
Nevertheless, not like the M93 and XM204, the PTKM-1R’s directions counsel it doesn’t have 360-degree protection and must be pointed on the goal.
The XM204 will change the US army’s getting old suite of artillery- and air-delivered cluster mines, referred to as the Household of Scatterable Mines. Such weapons drew the ire of anti-landmine organizations.
After the primary Gulf Struggle, GAO investigators discovered that many US mines have been duds — creating total “dudfields” — and that their self-destruct mechanisms did not at all times work.
Nonetheless, a minefield in a suitcase is an interesting idea, particularly for particular operators, gentle infantry, and guerrillas who lack heavy weapons to cease enemy armor. For many who haven’t got their very own tanks, an instantaneous minefield will be the subsequent smartest thing.
Michael Peck is a protection author whose work has appeared in Forbes, Protection News, International Coverage journal, and different publications. He holds a grasp’s in political science. Observe him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
