The Month in Mines, November 2017
Posted: December 30, 2017 Filed under: Month in Mines | Tags: Africa, Angola, cluster munitions, Department of Defense, Egypt, landmines, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, The Gambia, Tunisia, Zimbabwe 1 CommentOn November 30th, the US Department of Defense reversed a Bush Administration policy on the use of cluster munitions. After using cluster munitions in Afghanistan and Iraq and seeing the impact of the weapons in Lebanon after their use by Israel, the Bush Administration, simultaneous to the negotiations on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, had decided the weapons had an inexcusable humanitarian impact due to their high failure rate and their threat to civilian populations after conflicts ended. The Obama Administration maintained the policy and increased support to Laos to clear the cluster munitions that had been dropped by the United States during the Vietnam War. Since 2008, the Pentagon has sought replacement weapons for cluster munitions and abided by the policy that the US military would not acquire any cluster munitions that have a failure rate greater than 1%. At the same time, the military would dispose of existing stockpiles of older cluster munitions that did not adhere to the 2008 policy. The new Trump Administration policy reverses the earlier policy and ignores the humanitarian consequences of the cluster munitions.
Citing the ongoing (never-ending) war on terror and unnamed, but “important changes in the global security environment,” the new policy specifically authorizes the use of cluster munitions with failure rates above 1%. The policy requires new cluster munitions to either have a self-destruct feature or a failure rate of 1% of less; however, the policy also allows field commanders to purchase and order cluster munitions that do not adhere to the policy’s requirements for new cluster munitions, thus rendering any such requirements moot. This change will provide political cover for any regime, including the Syrian government, to use and stockpile cluster munitions, saying that if the weapons are important to the United States, they are also important to us. This is the same argument that kept the Cuban and Georgian governments from joining the Mine Ban Treaty and means these inhuman weapons will likely continue to threaten civilian populations for years to come.
Now, longtime readers will know I have a cynical streak, but please hear me out. The 2008 Department of Defense policy had a significant impact on domestic producers of cluster munitions, specifically Textron, Inc. During the Obama Administration, Textron announced the closure of a cluster munition manufacturing plant in Massachusetts and a round of layoffs, saying that the 2008 policy made the weapons system unsustainable for the company. This was a good thing. However, in June 2017, the Trump Administration nominated Textron’s CEO, Ellen Lord, as undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, responsible for all military acquisitions, including cluster munitions under the new policy. During her confirmation testimony, no mention was made of any recusal of Ms. Lord from decisions related to Textron’s business interests, despite her position as head of acquisitions and Textron’s status as the 18th largest defense contractor in the world. And then, just four months after Lord’s confirmation, the Pentagon announces the change in policy including an option to purchase cluster munitions such as those Textron produces. Again, I may be cynical on these matters, but something feels a bit off here (Congressional Research Service Report # RS22907; USNI; Defense News).
On to the news from the Continent:
Zimbabwe
APOPO, the landmine clearance organization that uses rats to detect mines, is the fourth NGO operator to support the clearance efforts in Zimbabwe. APOPO has been assigned the minefields in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Clearance of the Park will provide security for the animals and enable greater use of the Park for eco-tourism. APOPO will start the work using traditional methods of mechanical and manual demining before introducing the rats (Relief Web).
Libya
Libya has emerged in the last couple of years as one of the most mine-affected countries with the Islamic State making extensive use of the weapons. Estimates of the total number of newly laid explosives are in the thousands and include extensive use of booby traps in residences (Asharq Al-Awsat). At least eight civilians were killed and another 11 wounded by landmines in October in the city of Benghazi (Netral News). Additional casualties were reported in November in Benghazi (Libya Herald; Libya Herald; Libya Herald). The British government donated US $4 million worth of demining equipment to assist with the clearance of Sirte; in addition to the equipment, the United Kingdom is providing training to Libyan military and police engineers (Xinhua). The British ambassador to Libya, Peter Millett, also visited Benghazi and announced a donation of 1.2 million British Pounds to train clearance teams in Benghazi and launch a mine-risk education program (Libya Herald).
Mali
Four civilians were killed in northern Mali when the minibus they were riding in struck a landmine near Lellehoye in the Gao region (Anadolu Agency).
Tunisia
Tunisian anti-terror units killed an explosives expert and found at least one landmine ready for use (Xinhua).
Nigeria
With the recent government settlement to provide funding for the clearance of landmines and unexploded and abandoned ordnance from the 1960s Biafra war, there seems to be a new interest in the extent of contamination. Casualty figures are unclear, but over 18,000 explosive remnants of war (ERW) have been cleared so far by one demining organization with another thousand items waiting disposal (People’s Daily).
Angola
The HALO Trust has cleared and destroyed over 1,000 anti-personnel mines from Menongue and Cuito Cuanavale in the first nine months of 2017 (EIN News). In Bie Province, the National Demining Institute (INAD) cleared over 200 ERW in a similar time period (All Africa).
Egypt
British Member of Parliament Daniel Kawczinski called on the British government to hand over any minefield maps from the battle of El Alamein in World War II. Any maps from the battle would be significantly out of date and the shifting sands of the desert may have moved most of the mines from their original locations making the maps less helpful than might be hoped (Arab News). In previous reports, the British Ambassador has said that all such maps have been turned over the Egyptian authorities, but the detail of the maps was limited (The Monitor).
The Gambia
The Ministry of Defence has submitted a request to the Cabinet of the Gambia to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions. The Gambia has already signed the Convention, but not yet completed the process of ratification (The Point).
Michael P. Moore
Moe (at) landminesinafrica (dot) org
December 30, 2017
The FY13 US Government Budget, Department of Defense Special
Posted: February 28, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: demining, Department of Defense, FY13 Budget, landmines, United States 3 CommentsThe Obama Administration recently issued its proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 (FY13). It’s a pretty staggering document and one that will get picked apart in the coming months as the White House and Congress argue over the details, but there are a couple of items relevant to mine action (White House).
The easy figure in the budget for the United States government’s demining and mine action program is the $126 million in the State Department’s budget for Convention Weapons Destruction, which includes humanitarian demining and mine action. This amount represents the budget of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement (WRA) in the Political-Military Affairs bureau and falls under the greater rubric of “Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism and Demining.” The $126 million includes allocations for countries to assess and contain the “dangerous depots” of unstable and aging explosives; continued response to the proliferation threat of shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles or MANPADs; and program development, possibly WRA’s small grants program for innovative projects. The allocation provides “limited funding for victims’ assistance” (State Department, pdf).
The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement is the State Department’s primary actor for all issues related to mine action which lies within the realm of conventional weapons destruction. WRA is the home of the US government’s landmine policy and presumably has led the on-going landmine policy review process started by the Obama Administration some time ago. WRA publishes the annual “To Walk the Earth in Safety” report which details the US governments mine action programs (State Department). It is not a large department. In the FY13 justification to Congress, the State Department reports that WRA only has 19 employees and an operational budget of $3 million per year, so it is limited in what it can do with the broad remit the Office must pursue (State Department, pdf).
The largest expenditures on mine action actually occur not in the policy-making Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, but within various branches of the Department of Defense. Defense spending on landmines (and improvised explosive devices [IEDs] which is just a fancy way of saying “home-made landmines”) falls into three categories: mines themselves, mine clearance equipment and activities and counter-mine equipment and technologies. This spending includes research and development activities and procurement of existing technologies.
Counter-mine equipment and technologies include mine-resistant vehicles and jamming technology to disrupt command control of mines. These items are intended to be used by front-line fighting forces as they travel through areas with mines and IEDs and serve as a recognition that more US soldiers have been killed or injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by explosive devices than by bullets. There is also a large investment in the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Fund (JIEDDF).
Mine clearance equipment and activities are for use in non-violent (“non-kinetic” in military parlance) situations where explosive ordnance disposal teams can survey minefields and clear them using mechanical and non-mechanical means. This is the mine clearance that most NGOs would be familiar with and the US military pioneers a lot of the mechanical and survey techniques that then get incorporated into humanitarian demining. In fact, the Office of the Secretary of Defense has a specific line item in the FY13 research and development budget for “humanitarian demining.”
Then of course, there are the anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines that the US military will use itself. All of the current systems for use and development are the so-called “smart” systems with “man-in-the-loop” command control to ensure that the mines are not victim-activated. This includes the modern Claymore munitions, the Spider Networked Munition and the Quickstrike sea mine; all of which are improvements on persistent or “dumb” landmines, but are still landmines nonetheless.
The following table shows the amounts of money spent by category:
| Expense Category | Amount |
| Counter-Mine Equipment & Technologies | |
| · JIEDDF | $1,902,814,000 |
| · Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicle modifications | 927,400,000 |
| · Countermine Equipment | 3,698,000 |
| · Airborne Mine Neutralization Systems | 20,607,000 |
| · Airborne Mine Countermeasures | 61,552,000 |
| · Minesweeping System Replacement | 60,111,000 |
| · Landmine Warfare & Barrier R & D | 137,241,000 |
| · Mine & Expeditionary Warfare R & D | 32,394,000 |
| · Surface & Shallow Water Mine Countermeasures | 190,622,000 |
| $3,335,809,000 | |
| Mine Clearance Equipment & Activities | |
| · Humanitarian Demining | $13,321,000 |
| $13,321,000 | |
| Anti-Personnel & Anti-Vehicle Mines | |
| · Mines and Clearing Charges | $15,775,000 |
| · Spider Network Munitions | 17,408,000 |
| · Spider Apla Control Unit | 34,365,000 |
| · Quickstrike Mine | 6,852,000 |
| · Mine Development | 8,335,000 |
| $82,735,000 | |
| TOTAL | $3,431,865,000 |
The Department of Defense is investing more than $3.3 billion on overcoming the threats to US personnel from landmines and IEDs in conflict zones, compared to only $13 million on humanitarian demining in non-conflict areas. While non-conflict areas are typically outside the purview of the US military, the incredible investment in counter-mine technology demonstrates the threat that landmines and IEDs pose to persons in mine-affected areas. Fortunately, the amount spent by the US military on landmines themselves is a fraction of what is proposed for defeating mines, but is still six times as much as will be spent on humanitarian demining (Office of the Secretary of Defense).
In terms of the humanitarian demining activities, the FY13 funding is more than $1 million less than what had been requested for FY12 and the FY14 projection further reduces the funding by $1.5 million from the FY13 request. The Bush Administration had projected $15.4 million for the FY13 funding for humanitarian demining, more than $2 million greater that what the Obama Administration is now seeking.
Current year (FY12) plans for the Defense Department’s demining in Africa involve testing new handheld mine detection tools in Mozambique and mechanized clearance equipment in Mozambique and Angola. In FY11, Defense staff conducted a country assessment of Mozambique. Defense Department staff are also being made available to embassy staff for minefield surveys and post-clearance quality control. The FY13 plans will continue FY12 activities and provide on-demand support to embassies and combat commands (Office of the Secretary of Defense, pdf).
Michael P. Moore, February 28, 2012
Landmines in Africa 