Some of the mines may be destroyed, but the purpose of explosive excavation is mine removal-the state of the removed mines is not necessarily relevant. The bottom of the channel is deepened, and mines and obstacles that may not be removed will be on or in the new bottom, which should be deep enough that assault vehicles will not contact them.
Contact is important because contact mines are generally the most difficult mines to destroy.
After the excavation stage by the line-charge analog, water will flow back into and up the length of the channel. Characteristically, the line-charge analog has a small lip at the end, and much larger lips on the sides. The water flow up the channel will smooth its contour and further reduce the end lip. It has been suggested that linear sequential detonation might be obtained by dropping, in one pass, a line of spaced penetrating bombs that have fuses with sequential delays. Sympathetic detonation could cause a nearly simultaneous detonation of the line, but this may not be reliable unless arranged for beforehand by special fusing.