Sponsored by the Humanitarian Demining Program of the US Army at Fort Belvoir, VA, AIR-SPADE has developed special AIR-SPADE® and SAFEX® systems to efficiently and safely uncover buried land mines.

Extensive testing at Fort A.P. Hill, VA has shown the times to find and expose hundreds of anti-personnel and anti-tank training mines using the AIR-SPADE® to be significantly reduced over current practice.

Times to Find and Expose Landmines

Type Find Fully Expose
Anti-personnel 5 sec 30 sec
Anti-tank 2 min 6 min

The AIR-SPADE® exerts less than 2 pounds of force on a buried mine, insufficient to set off even the very sensitive Russian PMN mine.

Tests by special forces operators showed that small metallic debris, like the bicycle chain links often found in third world countries, were not displaced more than 30-cm during excavation with the AIR-SPADE®. Photos show a steel nut and bullet used as debris during tests, which were relocated through visual observations and without the use of a metal detector. Speculation by the demining community that the AIR-SPADE® system will increase false targets seems not to be the case.

The AIR-SPADE® also offers the deminer the ability to operate in metal rich environments where false indications may run as high as several thousand for each actual land mine.

With the help of the US Army, US Department of State, Belgium Military, and MgM Desminagem AIR-SPADE® and SAFEX® systems have been or are being deployed to:

  • Afghanistan
  • Angola
  • Belgium
  • Cambodia
  • Ecuador
  • Korea
  • Thailand

Since up to 70% of a deminer’s time may be spent clearing brush, US Army Special Forces personnel have also found complimentary pneumatic pruning tools such as shears, saws, and brush trimmers to be very effective.

Testing at UXB Internation training facility showed the AIR-SPADE® supersonic nozzle and cart compressor to be very effective against many mine types.

The AIR-SPADE® has been evaluated by UXB International Inc. against anti-personnel land mines and UXO at a training field near Manassas, VA. With the AIR-SPADE® cart unit passes were made down three demining lanes containing 8 to 10 flagged and monitored mines buried at various depths. Using the AIR-SPADE® tool, the operator successfully uncovered these mines, which included PMN and PMD-6 types, without triggering. Against the PMD-6 box mine, even direct airflow from the AIR-SPADE® did not set it off. In an additional un-flagged lane with more overgrown vegetation, 3 anti-personnel mines were uncovered. Testing of the AIR-SPADE® was also done against 2 trip wire arrays holding the nozzle just shy of physical contact. Neither trip wire was set off while the jet moved up, down, and side to side along the entire length of the wire.

AIR-SPADE demining equipment includes:

To see video of the demining equipment in action, click here. For further information see various papers in our reference library.

To read more about the tests conducted at Ft. A.P. Hill, please go to the US Army page under Special Projects on the navigational bar to the left.