Mines are military (or improvised) ordnance items designed to detonate when a person or vehicle makes contact with their fuze or attached fuze elements such as prongs, tilt rod, pressure plate, tripwire or geophones.

Smaller sized mines requiring light pressure, with a small amount of explosive are called “anti-personnel” . Larger mines requiring much greater pressure and with a much heavier charge are called “anti-tank”.

Securesearch, Inc. manufactures several representative cast replicas of mines, and we also offer a series of very detailed replica mines made by an engineering firm specializing in their production.

The internal fuzing components of some mines range from rather simple to quite complex, including safety and arming devices. Our replicas do not incorporate the internal fuze components.

However, the engineering firm that makes their own replicas for us has recently introduced a reactive notification system, working by radio control. It transmits a signal both to the student operator and to the instructor/supervisor, that the operator has just made a critical mistake—critical enough to kill or maim the operator and others nearby in the clearance operation.

There are hundreds of mine and fuze variations, some of them experimental or having had limited distribution before the mine ban treaty came into effect. However, the UN estimates that at the current rate of de-mining operations in the various countries with buried landmines, it will take up to 700 years to clear them all, and make their terrain safe for re-settlement, construction, farming and recreational activities!