Progress is reported to the company team commander as required. In many cases, they are also employed by terrorists against allied forces or the host-nation populace. In these cases, the threat increases because of the improvised methods in which the mines were emplaced. In conventional emplacement of mines, a pattern emerges from the emplacing force's doctrine, and the threat can easily be reduced by using this knowledge. There is less pattern in the case of improvised mining methods, and this makes detection and removal very difficult.
Improvised mining has many different employment techniques.
Coupling is done by linking one mine to another, usually with detonating cord. When the initial mine is detonated, it detonates the linked mine. This technique is done to defeat countermine equipment. Buried mines are stacked atop one another, and the farthest mine from the surface is fused. This reduces the probability of detection and increases the force of the blast.