C:\WEBSHARE\WWWROOT\GLOBAL~1\WEAPONS\EGYPT.HTM

Egypt gives
up its secrets

The battle through minefields continues

Roy L. Allen, consultant, Special Air Projects explains the problems involved in clearing a 50-year-old minefield.

A British World War II anti-vehicle mine of the type used at El Alamein, the Mk 7

Project Khamsin is a proposed concept for the total clearance of World War II land mines and other explosive hazards from the former battlefields of the western desert of Egypt. There is a special focus on the El Alamein region where an estimated 10 million allied and axis mines and charges remain more than half a century after they were planted. The problems of removal have long occupied the Egyptian authorities. Under the Geneva Convention there is an obligation for those countries that laid mines in neutral territory over which war was conducted to remove mines and other hazards by way of reparation. The Khamsin project involves talking to those veterans of the formations concerned on both sides in what may be seen as a somewhat belated debriefing.

This effort will be concentrated on the engineer formations of sappers and infantrymen who had direct dealings with the mines and who may recall details and special features of the mines they laid and to some extent cleared.
The principal consultants of Khamsin are Roy Allen and Anthony McCall-Judson of McCall Judson Associates of London who are contacting veterans' associations and concentrating on discovering any allied or axis intelligence maps or SITREPS of the period that could help to define and locate minefields, ammunition dumps and key points. Some official references have been recovered from old book shops and the Egyptian Defence Force also has been collating local information. The consultants have begun a mine-incident file that extends from the end of World War II to the present day.
Mine-clearance equipment

Diana, Princess of Wales brought a global focus to the mine-clearance issue and a realisation that there were more than sixty countries affected by anti-personnel and anti- vehicle mines that apart from being a lethal threat also posed problems centred around location and clearance.
She took an interest in the Khamsin project and as a result had been invited by the Egyptian authorities to visit the El Alamein region. Her efforts also provided a stimulus for the development of new mine-clearing equipment and measures.
The South African Defence Force that has wide experience of land-mine countermeasures and of designing equipment through Armscor and related companies for mine clearance in Rhodesia, Angola and Namibia, already uses a wide range of highly effective mine-clearance equipment and has special teams dedicated to resolving mine problems.
South African anti-mine technology is being used to assist UN developments and South African designs are being assimilated through the companies of the Denel Corporation of South Africa. Boksburg-based company RSD, an organisation within that group, has recently developed the Chubby mine-clearing system This is in effect a train of vehicles with rough-terrain capabilities. The leading free-roaming vehicle is a Meerkat armoured mine-detection vehicle. Following it is a T/MDV known as a Husky, a heavy-duty towing vehicle that tows two mine-exploding trailers. The axle lengths of the trailers ensure that a wide tract of land is swept as the train progresses. The vehicles of the train are designed to a common sacrifice philosophy.

The chassis and running gear can be blown off the armoured, V-sectioned crew-pod that is padded internally in critical areas and the crew are equipped with safety harnesses. To meet such a contingency there is a rapid-repair scheme, a special back-up vehicle carrying spare wheels and running gear components and a repair team that accompanies the train on typical missions.This train is ideally suited to mine clearance in regions like those of the Western Desert where mainly anti-vehicle mines have to be cleared,

The Western Desert area where mines remain from World War II

Project Khamsin where the major concentration of mines are to be found

but as a Denel spokesman declared there will be different parameters, different local features and a wide range of mines and other charges to be dealt with and he suggested the South African tool-box philosophy. This ensures that the systems offered come with a range of ancillary equipment and adaptive measures so that clearance tactics and strategies can meet most needs.
On operation clearance duties the Husky convoy can cover more that 200km daily. The leading Meerkat moves ahead of the slower train and is able to pass over mines without causing detonation but by means of an electronic device on board can pin-point a mines location. This is relayed to the Husky tow-vehicle that initiates clearance actions.
The detection probe can distinguish between a discarded metal beer can and a suspect item. Similar detectors are fitted to the Husky that on locating a mine or mines will halt, back up the trailer system and extend detector pans to pinpoint mine locations.

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