HMAU#1 Demo - Warakorn
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6 March 2002, Bangkok High Excellency the
United State Ambassador, the Deputy Supreme Commander, First
Army Field Commander, all distinguish guests.
My
name is Lt. Col. Warakorn Chotpinit, the commander of Demining
unit HMAU 1. I am going to brief you on the operations in this
unit. Let me begin with the environment. You are now located at Sri-pen road which is far from Thai-Cambodian border around 1-2 kilometers. Terrain Here Before
operations started, this area would cover with dense
vegetation. As you can see over there. In rainy season, some
area are swamp. In dry season, the ground is harder and more
difficult for the operation. The
area is high metal contamination. The metal can be cans,
nails, cases, bullets, fragments. Also some area are filled
with iron. These things make. Currently Working Area In
plot 171 ? 172 are previously cleared safe area which is
right here, within the white mark area. In this 171 area, we
found the following types ordnance; a type 69, a type 72 land
mine and a grenade.
In plot 173 and 174
are currently being performed by SDTT. In
plot 175 are currently being performed by BDM48. TEMPEST
is cutting vegetation in plot 172.
BDM
48 MODEL SH 220 Specifications
Abilities
Limitations
Survivable Demining Tractor and Tools (SDTT) Objective To
clear vegetation and prepare the ground such as using magnet
to pick up metal pieces and using cultivator to loosen soil
for more safety and easier for manual Demining with dog
detector teams. The
SDTT is designed to survive direct effects from all AP mines
without damage to the system of operator and has been tested
against the effects of 6.35 kg of TNT directly under a rear
steel wheel. However, SDTT
Specifications Provide
Deminers with an armored platform. Choosing
the specialized implements that best suit their mode of
operation. 14
Specialized Implements 1.
SLASHER - can extend its 3.5 meters to cut
vegetation. 2.
PUSH ? PULL MOWER
3.
HIDGE TRIMMER - cut grasses, small bushes which is
1.8 meter wide. 4.
HEAVY TREE EXTRACTOR - can pull the tree
within diameter up to 20 cm. It has 14 tons power.
5.
LIGHT TREE EXTRACTOR - can pull trees with
diameter up to 12.5 cm, using to grab and move cut vegetation. 6.
BUCKET GRAB - to grab the soil and vegetation. 7.
RAKE - used to rake the vegetation cut out off
the field 8.
ROLLER - is metal ring each weighs 50 kg. and
can be movable. 9.
MAGNET - use to pick up the metal piece off
the mined field 10.
HEAVY CULTIVATOR - used to cultivate and
loosen the soil. 11.
LIGHT CULTIVATOR - used to cultivate the soil
which is not much hard. 12.
SIFTER 13.
BUCKET - to grab the soil and vegetation 14.
PALLET FORK - use to lift vegetation 16
Procedures of SDTT operation 1.
Clearing vegetation with the combination of SDTT,
Tempest, and BDM48 2.
To detonate some of the mines by using roller 3.
To pick up metal pieces from the soil surface by using
magnet 4.
To loosen and break up the soil; 10 cm. deep by using
heavy cultivator 5.
Using roller round 2 6.
Using magnet round 2 7.
Using heavy cultivator, 10 cm. deep, cross direction 8.
Using roller round 3 9.
Using magnet round 3 10.
Using light cultivator, 20 cm. deep. In the direction 11.
Using roller round 4 12.
Using magnet round 4 13.
Using light cultivator 20 cm. deep, cross direction 14.
Using roller round 5 15.
Using magnet round 5 16.
Using Rake In the final step, using the sifter to lift
the soil to ensure the ground is free from suspicious
material. The
safety areas operated by SDTT average 1000 meters/day. In order to get a safety area, SDTT needs to be used in several repetition operation to get the cleared areas. As the ground here is hard, SDTT could not loosen soil down to 20 cm deep in one time. It needs to loosen soil several times. Therefore, if we could have the plain cultivator that can appropriately loosen hard soil down 20 cm. at the first time, it can reduce the steps of clearing operation. However, SDTT is only one machine here that can used for Demining or clear mine and UXO and get the safety area by itself. Dimensions of TEMPEST (Tempest specifications) It
is designed to clear vegetation and neutralize(tripwire-initiated)
anti-personnel landmine(AP). Tempest is capable of cutting 120
cm. wide horizontal chain flail cutting head. Tempest
abilities
Limitation Not intended to cut vegetation in an anti-tank mined field
We
would like to demonstrate Deminers and dog teams operation,
this is normally done after mechanical vegetation clearance
had been performed. After
mechanical clearance has been completed and UXO was not found,
or the dog teams and Deminers will randomly check 10 percent
of the cleared areas. But if the areas are not clearable by
machine (equipment), then the dog teams and Deminers have to
go in and check. If
UXO is found during mechanical clearance, the plat will be
100% checked by Deminers and dog teams. The
Deminers work within lane 1 meter wide, 5 meters long The
first mine detector dog access the land If
the first dog do not sniff any suspicious material, the second
dog accesses the lane to repeat checking. If
the dogs detect any suspicious material, the supervisor will
mark the area detected by the dog. The Deminers will check the
area by using metal detector to find the exact spot and probe
the area for finding that suspicious material. The
reason why we use detector dog because dog has 10000 times
better odor sense. However, dog has the limitations such as
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