Media | Fact Sheets | MDW Newspapers |  News Services | Public Affairs

Fort Belvoir, Va., February 13, 2001 — The technology used by soldiers to detect landmines has been relatively unchanged since the days of World War II, until now.

A new innovative handheld landmine detector which will enable soldiers to quickly and accurately detect all types of anti-tank and anti-personnel landmines was unveiled and demonstrated here.

The U.S. Army's Project Manager for Mines, Countermine and Demolitions (PM-MCD), in conjunction with the Communication Electronics Command Acquisition Center also announced its awarding of a $12.3 million sole-source, fully funded contract for the engineering and manufacturing development phase of CyTerra Corporation's handheld landmine detector.

"Existing mine detectors are based on a single technology -- metal detection," said David H. Fine, president of CyTerra. "Our system fuses together two sensor technologies -- ground penetrating radar (GPR) and metal detection."

The new system dramatically reduces the high number of false alarms that have been a problem with current landmine detection equipment. False alarm rates are especially prevalent with the current systems when you have other metal elements in the soil such as shrapnel or bullet casings. The new HSTAMIDS rate of detection is unaffected by such "noise" during the detection process. The coupling of the GPR also makes detecting plastic-cased mines possible and easier.

During testing at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the CyTerra prototype demonstrated a probability of detection near 100 percent.

Sgt. 1st Class Richard Sylvester, U.S. Army engineer and noncommissioned officer project manager, found this testing significant enough to earn his trust. "I took the AN/PSS-12 [Army's current mine detector] in lane testing and had a detection rate of 72 percent. Then I took the HSTAMIDS with very little training and hit 96 percent of the target mines."

Sylvester also said the new detector allows soldiers to be in the detecting mode longer because the system of audio tones used to alert soldiers to the presence of a buried landmine is gentler to the service-member's ears.

"With the old technology you could go about 20 minutes before you go tone deaf and have to switch off with another operator," he said. "This new system I could go for 30 minutes or more and not have a degradation in performance user time."

"CyTerra's system represents a true leap ahead in mine-detection technology," said Larry Nee, chief of the Countermine Division. "Our goal is to significantly improve the speed and safety of mine clearance operations for U.S. soldiers. This contract takes us one step closer to making that happen."

According to Nee, CyTerra  now has to finalize the design, improve its durability -- make it deployment-rugged -- and lighten its weight to seven pounds. Final production cost targets are between $5,000 to $10,000 per unit. Current mine detectors run from $3,000 to $6,000 per unit.

Sylvester and soldiers like him should have the revamped HSTAMIDS in-hand by fiscal year 2004. Soldiers will have to have 32 hours of training to use the equipment. CyTerra and the Army are working to slim-line that training.

"The need for improved landmine detection is obvious," Fine said "More than 25,000 people a year, about 500 a week with one-third of that number being children are killed or maimed by antipersonnel landmines. Once a mine is in the ground it remains dangerous until removed.

Landmines were responsible for 34 percent of all U.S. causalities in the Persian Gulf War. There are currently 60 to 70 million landmines in the ground in 70n countries around the world. The 12 most affected countries are: Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Eritrea, Iraq (Kurdistan), Mozambique, Namibia, Nicaraugua, Somalia and Sudan.

There are more than 350 different types of anti-personnel landmines, many of which cost as little as $3 to manufacture and as much as $1,000 to remove.