Demining Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing either land mine s , or naval mine s , from an area , while minesweeping describes the act of detecting of mines . There are two distinct types of mine detection and removal : military and humanitarian . Minesweepers use many tools in order to accomplish their task . Tools have historically included many trained animals , including dogs and rats , but most often in the modern world minesweepers rely on metal detectors or vehicles with a wide variety of mechanical tools attached to them . There also are or have been other methods developed to detect mines , including the use of trained marine mammals , bacteria , acoustics , and other more exotic methods . Military mine clearance . In the combat zone , the process is referred to as mine clearance . According to the doctrine of the U . S . and other armies , mine clearance is carried out by combat engineers . The military priority is to breach the minefield quickly in order to create a safe path for troops or ships . Speed is vital , both for tactical reasons and because units attempting to breach the minefield may be under enemy fire . Both anti - personnel mines and anti - tank mines must be removed , although only in the lanes through which troops or vehicles are planned to advance . The risk to sapper s is far greater because they may be called upon to perform clearance as tactics dictate , including in all - weather conditions and on schedule . Command may accept casualties in the process . Furthermore , it is accepted that mine clearance will be imperfect and there may be casualties from undiscovered mines . One advantage is that , in military operations , sappers are dealing with recently - laid mines that respond predictably to clearance , have not ' migrated ' , and have not degraded ( unless old stock was used ) . In this they are often aided by technical intelligence on the current adversary ' s mines , which are usually of a single type . In these mine clearance operations , the methods that are applied for detection and removal are quicker , but less exacting . These methods include those that detect and remove in a single action , such as mechanical demining , carpet bombing , burning of the land or the use of Bangalore torpedo es or mine - clearing line charge s . Humanitarian demining . In times of relative peace , the process of mine removal is referred to as demining . This is a thorough , time - intensive process that seeks to locate all mines so that the land or sea area may be safely returned to normal use . It is vital that this process be exhaustive . Even if only a small handful of mines remain undiscovered , incomplete demining can actually lead to an increase in civilian mine casualties as local people re - occupy an area they previously avoided in the belief that it has been made safe . In this context demining is one of the tools of mine action . Coordinated by Mine Action Coordination Center s run by the United Nations or a host government , civilian mine clearance agencies are tasked with the demining . In post - conflict areas , minefields are often contaminated with a mixture of explosive remnants of war ( ERW ) that includes unexploded ordnance as well as landmines . In that context , the humanitarian clearance effort is often referred to as battle area clearance . In some situations , clearing landmines is a necessary condition before other humanitarian programs can be implemented . A large - scale international effort has been made to test and evaluate existing and new technologies for humanitarian demining , notably by the EU , US , Canadian and Japanese governments and by the Mine Action Centres of affected countries . Current humanitarian demining methods . The main methods used for humanitarian demining on land are : manual detection using metal detector s and prodders , detection by specially trained mine detection dogs , and mechanical clearance using armored vehicles fitted with flails , tiller or similar devices . There is an organization , APOPO , that is training African rats to detect landmines much as dogs do , offering a local solution to countries in Africa . In many circumstances , the only method that meets the United Nations ' requirements for effective humanitarian demining , the International Mine Action Standards ( IMAS ) , is manual detection and disarmament . The process is typically slow , expensive and dangerous , although demining can be safer than construction work if procedures are followed rigorously . New technologies may provide effective alternatives . Manual detection with a metal detector . Metal detectors were first used , after their invention by the Polish officer Józef Kosacki . Allies used his invention , known as the Polish mine detector , to clear the German mine fields during the Second Battle of El Alamein when 500 units were shipped to Field Marshal Montgomery . The " Polish " mine detector was later used together with the ERA mine - locator for detecting beach mines . The first step in manual demining is to scan the area with metal detector s , which are sensitive enough to pick up most mines but which also yield about one thousand false positive s for every mine . Some mines , referred to as minimum metal mine s , are constructed with as little metal as possible - as little as - to make them difficult to detect . Mines with no metal at all have been produced , but are rare . Areas where metal is detected are carefully probed to determine if a mine is present ; the probing must continue until the object that set off the metal detector is found . Dogs . Well - trained dogs can sniff out explosive chemicals like TNT in landmines , and are used in several countries . Rats . Like dogs , Giant pouched rat s are being trained to sniff out chemicals like TNT in landmines . These rats are currently working in minefields in Mozambique and are trained in Tanzania by APOPO . The rats are called HeroRATS . These animals also have the advantage of being far lower mass than the typical human . They are less likely to set off small mines intended to injure or kill people , if the bomb - sniffing animal crosses directly over the top of a buried mine . Mechanical clearance . Special machines effectively combine mine detection and removal into one operation . In the past , these machines were applied in both mine clearance and demining but are now generally used only for demining . They can be used to verify land that is not expected to be contaminated or as an extra layer of security after an area has been cleared by another method , such as dogs . The machines consist of a special vehicle that is driven through the minefield , deliberately detonating the mines it drives over . These vehicles are designed to withstand the explosions with little damage . Some are operated directly with armour to protect the driver ; some are operated under remote control . Recently , armies have developed armored demining vehicles , and a specially armored bulldozer s , that are remote controlled . This eliminates risk to the operator . Notable examples are the Caterpillar D7 MCAP ( USA ) and Raam HaShachar Caterpillar D9 N ( Israel ) . Personal protective equipment . Deminers may be issued personal protective equipment ( PPE ) such as helmets , visors , armoured gloves , vests and boots , in an attempt to protect them if a mine is set off by accident . IMAS specifies standards for such equipment but draws attention to its limitations and states that at close quarters , antipersonnel fragmentation mines and antitank mines overmatch PPE currently available . PPE can afford significant protection against antipersonnel blast mines , and these are more common . Related technologies that have been developed to improve safety include large , pillow - like pads strapped to the bottoms of shoes that distribute weight and dull the impact of footsteps , as very slight disturbances of the ground can tip off old , unstable , or intentionally sensitive mine triggers . First developed in 1954 by the British as over shoes that are first blown up by the combat soldier , this specialized footwear has become a needed item for some demining operations . Removal methods . Removal methods in demining . In demining , once an object has been detected it is removed by one of the following methods : Removal methods in mine clearance . Some removal methods that are not applied in humanitarian demining , but are common in mine clearance , include : Case study . Along the China - Vietnam border were numerous minefields . These are the legacy of the border clashes in the 80 ' s . The mines are mainly anti - personnel , and have kept large areas of arable land from use by local farmers . A typical demining process deployed by the Chinese is as follows . Firebreaks are dug around the minefield to be cleared . Then engineers would set the minefield on fire with flamethrowers . Key factors of this burning process are : thick vegetation covering the minefields ; most anti - personnel mines are buried very close to the ground level ; the mines are made of mostly either wood , thin metal or plastic . This burning process would usually destroy about 90 % of the mines , as the mines are either detonated or melted . Mines which have trip wires would have these wires burned off . Demining teams then would plow the area with mine detectors . When the teams have cleared the mines , they would walk over the field hand in hand themselves to show to the locals that all the mines have been cleared . Detection methods under development . In 2003 , the Rand Corporation published a comprehensive report on innovative methods of land mine detection . Advanced electromagnetic methods . Ground penetrating radar . Conventional metal detectors rely on electromagnetic signals with frequencies of the order of 10 – 100 kHz , which are not sensitive to plastic or wooden mine bodies and the high explosive block itself . The only part of a low - metal mine that they may be able to detect is the detonator . Much higher frequency signals ( of the order of 1 GHz ) are employed in Ground Penetrating Radar ( GPR ) and these signals are also sensitive to the non - metallic parts of the mine . Unfortunately , as they are also affected by innocuous objects such as tree roots and stones and by local changes in soil moisture , it is difficult to distinguish a mine on a GPR image . Dual - sensor . A hybrid approach employing both GPR and metal detector sensors in a single instrument has been developed by several companies and research organisations . Biological detection . Honey bees . Research by the University of Montana has revealed that honey bee s can , with minimal training , be used to detect landmines with a far greater accuracy and far higher clearance rate than dogs or rats . Mammals . Recent experiments with the Gambian giant pouched rat , also known as the Giant African Pouched Rat , have indicated that it has the required sensitivity to smell , can be trained reliably with food - reward incentives , and is typically too small to set off the mines . These rats also offer a local solution to many African countries because they are indigenous to East Africa . These rats are trained by a non - profit , research organization called APOPO and are called HeroRATs . Additionally , experiments with electrode - guided rat s suggest that demining could one day be accomplished by guiding " ratbots " into areas that humans are unable to reach . Engineer Thrishantha Nanayakkara and colleagues at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka have come up with a method where a dwarf mongoose is trained to detect landmines by smell and guided by a remote - controlled robot . The U . S . Navy Marine Mammal Program uses sea lions and dolphins , among other species , in the detection of seamines . Plants . The mustard " Arabidopsis thaliana " , one of the best - studied plants in the world , normally turns red under harsh conditions . But using a combination of natural mutations and genetic manipulation , scientists from Danish biotechnology company Aresa Biodetection , created a strain that only changes color in response to the nitrous oxide that leaks from landmines and other explosives . Because nitrous oxide can also be formed by denitrifying bacteria , there is some risk of false positives using this technique , and researchers are attempting to make the plant less sensitive . The plants would aid demining by indicating the presence of mines through color change , and could either be sown from aircraft or by people walking through demined corridors in minefields . As of February 2005 , no studies have been conducted with actual landmines , though successful studies have been done in greenhouses . In order to prevent the spread of this genetically modified organism into the wild , the plants have been further modified so that they will only sprout when provided with an external growth factor . Bacteria . A bacterium , known as a bioreporter , has been genetically engineered to fluoresce under ultraviolet light in the presence of TNT . Tests involving spraying such bacteria over a simulated minefield successfully located mines . In the field , this method could allow for searching hundreds of acres in a few hours , which is much faster than other techniques , and could be used on a variety of terrain types . While there are some false positives ( especially near plants and water drainage ) , even three ounces of TNT were detectable using these bacteria . Unfortunately , there is no strain of bacteria capable of detecting RDX , another common explosive , and the bacteria may not be visible under desert conditions . Also , well - constructed munitions that have not had time to corrode may be undetectable using this method . Nuclear detection . There are two principal techniques to detect land mines through nuclear reactions . Both rely on the use of neutrons . The first such technique relies on the fact that the vast majority of explosive s used in land mines are very nitrogen rich when compared with other materials . To detect such anomalies one may make use of the nuclear reaction In practice a detection system using this reaction works by subjecting the mine to thermal neutrons while searching for the characteristic gamma ray emitted from the excited state in nitrogen - 15 ; these photons will only be observed when an object containing nitrogen is being subjected to the neutron irradiation . One possible neutron source is californium - 252 which undergoes spontaneous fission . A better neutron source is to use a sealed tube electrostatic D - T neutron generation tube , this has the advantage that the tritium is much less radiotoxic than the californium so in the event of an accident such as an explosion , the nuclear mine detection equipment would pose a smaller threat to humans . This type of explosive detection has been proposed for use in airport security and for the detection of explosives in trucks coming into military bases . An alternative way of spotting land mines through nuclear reactions with the help of neutrons is that of measuring the thermalization of neutrons . In this technique the soil is irradiated by fast neutrons and the flux of thermal neutrons scattering back is measured . The motivation for this technique is that explosives contain much higher concentrations of hydrogen , which is a very effective moderator of neutrons . Acoustic detection . It is possible to detect land mines by directing sound waves at the area to be demined , which causes the land mines to vibrate , and then using a laser to search for vibrations on the surface by means of the Doppler shift - this technique is termed scanning laser doppler vibrometry . Such devices have been constructed , e . g . , at the University of Mississippi , at MIT and by the Kayser - Threde Company .