More than 700 types of mines are known. They are made from various materials: wood, metal, plastic, bakelite and even glass. They are light and heavy, large and small, flat and thick, round, angular, asymmetrical, and besides, they are also of different colors. The only thing that unites them is the explosive charge inside, which makes its detection one of the most important stages of mine clearance
The canine nose, also sometimes referred to as a "biosensor", is unmatched for this task. In addition to detecting mines, dogs are widely used in equally important tasks to determine non-mined zones.
Since 1992, the world's largest nongovernmental organization NPA (Norwegian People's Aid) has been running the Dog Explosives Detection program, in which it raises, trains and employs dogs to clean up the remains of weapons that can kill or maim weapons in various parts of the world. people, including children.
Dogs number one
This work is difficult and very dangerous. Dog handlers and counselors entrust their lives to the paws of these animals, or rather their noses, and in 25 years not a single NPA dog has been injured. More than 500 sapper dogs (they are called K9 abroad) work around the world, in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. All existing attempts to replace these "living" sensors with electronic technology have met with limited success. The problem is that the degree of development of the sense of smell in dogs is ten times higher than the degree of smell in humans. If a person's nose has about 6 million olfactory cells, then a dog has about 225 million. Such qualities are the best suited for the detection of explosives.
The American Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI) launched the MDDPP (Mine Detection Dog Partnership Program) in 1999, which accepts public and private donations for the purchase, training and supply of mine detection dogs (SMPC) in demining organizations in affected countries. Currently, more than 900 sapper dogs are in operation in 24 countries, and the MLI has donated over 200 such dogs. Since the start of the MDDPP program, MLI dogs have explored over 45 million square meters of minefields.
Dogs from MLI are trained at either the Texas General Training Academy or the SMPC Training Center in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both organizations buy dogs from well-known breeders in Europe. Dogs undergo an intensive training course lasting 3-5 months in which they learn to identify the smells of explosives, mainly contained in mines.
Dogs learn to identify the desired scent and then sit next to them motionless, signaling the counselor to mark this place. Thus, the complete destruction of explosive objects in a given area is guaranteed. Smell and detection skills, as well as agility and size, make the dog one of the most versatile and valuable partners in sapper units.
Mine detection dogs
SMRCs are motivated to do their work, as they have close relationships with their counselors, from whom they receive rewards for detecting mines. When a dog detects a mine, the counselor praises it and gives a reward, usually a ball or a toy. This amuses the dogs and motivates them to keep looking.
Six MLI-trained dogs were recently donated to the HALO Trust, the largest humanitarian demining organization in support of Armenia's Landmine Free Artsakh initiative, which was launched in 2002 to clear all mines from Nagorno-Karabakh.
After years of negotiations, a breakthrough mine clearance agreement was reached between the Colombian government and the largest rebel group, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). In 2016, Colombian President Juan Santos pledged that 21 million sq. meters of Colombian land must be cleared of mines within five years. This daunting mission was led by the Colombian army, which in August 2016 formed a brigade to remove and destroy anti-personnel mines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance, which killed more than 11,500 people.
NPA is actively involved in demining in Colombia, along with the HALO Trust, which has four mine detection teams with SMRS in the country. Dogs of different breeds are selected for mine detection, but mainly young East European Shepherds and Belgian Malinois, who have been trained for a year and a half to detect various types of explosives used in mines and IEDs. Samples of these materials are supplied by the Colombian state-owned company Indumil; Dogs, often working in dense jungle or dry sandy terrain, need only a few grams to detect.
Dogs can "sniff" more than 400 meters per day, which is 20 times more than a person with a manual mine detector can handle; in addition, with a small footprint and low weight, they are less likely to detonate an explosive object. When such a device is detected, the dog stops, sits down and points to the detected object until the counselor approaches. After that, the dog receives a rubber ball reward. By the way, among the counselors there are many who themselves lost a limb during a mine explosion or an IED.
From Croatia to Colombia and Syria
The Croatian Mine Action Center (CROMAC) has been involved in Colombian demining projects since 2009, and in 2017 signed a Memorandum of Understanding on humanitarian demining with the Colombian Ministry of Defense, which also provides training for SMDCs.
In addition to the military operations of the Russian Armed Forces against the Islamic State (IS, banned in the Russian Federation) in Syria, mine detection units from the Russian Mine Action Center have been doing their work since 2015, taking part in the humanitarian demining of the liberated cities, including Aleppo, Palmyra and Deir ez -Sor. By the end of 2017, Russian sappers from the Center had cleared more than 6,500 hectares of land, 1,500 kilometers of roads, and more than 17,000 buildings and structures. They defused or destroyed more than 105,000 unexploded ordnance and IEDs.
In September 2017, a group of 170 deminers from the International Mine Action Center were sent to the liberated city of Deir ez-Zor. Specialists have cleared more than 1,200 hectares of land, 250 km of roads, more than 1,800 buildings and structures there, and neutralized over 44,000 explosive devices.
Competition K9
Despite the fact that specialists have at their disposal selective portable induction mine detectors IMP-S2, mobile searchers for wire control lines for explosive devices PIPL, portable detectors for non-contact explosive devices INVU-3M and radar devices for subsurface sounding OKO-2, they largely rely on canine units.
The Dog Training Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation regularly holds an international competition "True Friend", which attracts the attention of specialists from Egypt, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Russia. In 2017, five groups of dog handlers, each with five counselors with three German and two Belgian shepherds, represented the Russian side. More than 200 calculations in the composition of 47 teams took part in the qualifying stages of this competition. Russian dog handlers became the winners of the "True Friend" competition in August 2017.
Cynological units receive at their disposal German, Belgian, East European Shepherd Dogs and Labradors mainly from the 470th Dog Breeding Center of the Russian Armed Forces. After a special course in mine detection, counselors must train dogs to detect non-retrievable devices, various types of explosives and false IEDs. Particular attention is paid to the behavior of dogs in combat conditions. In Armenia, cynological crews are trained in thin air at altitudes over 1500 meters above sea level, training is carried out day and night and in any weather.
Based on their experience in demining in Syria, the Russian military organized training for Syrian specialists in a relatively short time. More than 750 Syrian sappers were trained by specialists from the International Mine Action Center of the RF Armed Forces at its branch in the Syrian city of Homs. This was told by Anatoly Morozov, head of the Center for Mine Action in the Syrian Arab Republic. He added that the Center was established in February 2017 in the city of Aleppo, but was relocated to the city of Homs in April. “The skills acquired by military personnel during training allow them to independently perform mine action tasks. The training course with practical exercises lasts one and a half months; up to 100 people can study at the Center at the same time."
The Russian army uses its rich experience in mine clearance not only abroad. In October 2017, sappers of the Southern Military District cleared unexploded ordnance from the Gvardeets, Kalinovsky and Alpiysky training complexes, the total area of which is more than 1,000 hectares. More than 200 people were involved in this work and about 20 units of special equipment were involved. In addition, cynological crews with mine detection dogs were used to detect explosive objects in hard-to-reach places.
In December 2017, a UN delegation led by Jean-Pierre Lacroix visited the Russian International Mine Action Center in Nakhabino, Moscow Region. The head of the Center, Igor Mikhalik, told the delegation about how the methods and experience of demining operations in Syria are used in the educational process. The center's sappers demonstrated their equipment and humanitarian demining skills to the guests.
