Engineers - Barrages and Mines
Engineering barrages are one of the basic tasks of engineers. All are to a certain extent familiar with this part of the combat activity of engineers. First of all, this the installation of mines [RU = fugas]. Minefields play very essential role in the cover of the positions of the troops from the attacks of the enemy. The many years experience of waging of war shows that the mine danger can very considerably influence the actions of enemy troops. Mines do not so much bring real harm on enemy as the influence the psyche of personnel. Experience shows that it is sufficient to mine two or three tanks in order to completely break up the attack of a tank company.
The experience of war in Afghanistan attests to the fact that there was a sufficient undermining of one machine on the road so that the speed of the motion of the column of Soviet troops would be reduced to 1-2 kilometers in an hour. Then the speed of motion it would be determined by the ability of field engineers to check the road against the presence of mines. In the field manuals of a number of countries there exists the term "mine war". The mass application of mines is capable of almost completely paralyzing any combat activity of enemy troops in one or another territory.
At present the mine danger is strengthened by the fact that the development of technology and electronics makes it possible to create almost intelligent mines. This is a goal, that the mine does not react to the soldier of its own army, or innocent civilian, but immediately operates with the approximation of the soldier of the enemy and explodes at the most advantageous moment. Furthermore, there is not united a sufficiently reliable method of detecting the mines, and even during the detection of mine there are not always methods of their reliable neutralization. Mines can have sensors [raspoznayushchie] that can detect a r mine sweeper, recognize the significance of it, and can have an instrument of multiplicity (to pass the specific quantity of purposes and under the following to explode). Mines can on a radio signal can be transferred into the combat mode either in a secure situation or be self-liquidated.
The installation of mines in no way requires the presence of the field engineer on the spot of installation. Mines can be placed remotely (to cover even not territory of enemy with the aid of the artillery or aviation). It is possible within the very short times to cover very large sector of the fronts by mines. If at the beginning of the 1960s a combat engineer company within the night could establish one kilometer of minefield, then now it is possible to lay 10-15 kilometers per hour.
Until recently for field engineers, for the installation of the mines before its front line, it was necessary at night to creep out to the neutral line and under the fire of the enemy to lay mines. Now partially it is possible to avoid this due to the systems of remote mining. However, these systems lay mines on ground, which makes possible for enemy frequently to reveal and to destroy mines.
Minefields must be not only established, but also maintained. Into the content of minefield enters control of its state, the installation of new mines of those instead of exploding, the protection of field from its mine clearing by enemy, the enclosure of field by signs so that their machines or personnel would not blow up on the mines, the timely removal of these signs, the transfer of minefield into the combat or safe state (if this minefield is established as controlled), opening and closing passages in the minefield, the passage of its troops through the passages.
Motorized riflemen or tankers can establish some minefields themselves, but this form of military operations is too specific, and requires special knowledge. Therefore only engineers, as a rule, deal with minefields. For the accomplishment of this objective the engineer company of motorized rifle (tank regiment) has the combat engineer platoon, in arsenal of which are three trailer mine layers ([PMZ]) and three Urals or KamAZ (Kama Automobile Plant) trucks. A platoon can in 15-20 minutes establish an antitank mine field with a length of one kilometer. In the arsenal of engineers are anti-tank mines, anti-personnel mines, objective (for mining of buildings and other construction), automobile (for mining of highways), railroad, anti-landing (for mining of water obstacles), anti-aircraft (mining the runways of airfields), booby traps, booby traps.
Nuclear contact mines [atomnaya mina] are a special type of controlled mines. In arsenal of engineers are [nosimye] nuclear contact mines by weight about 60kg and with a power from 500 tons to 2 kilotons of TNT equivalent. No longer tactical, but important immediate strategic problems were solved with the aid of the nuclear contact mines. With their aid the continuous strips of nuclear mines, barrages are created, which can destroy very large bridges, weirs, hydro-electric stations, railroad junctions.
During the years of the Cold War, American troops in Western Europe installed many of these same land mines - located in special wells of nuclear explosive devices designed to create, in the event of hostilities, extensive zones of destruction and flooding on the way breaking through to the English Channel Soviet tank armies. There is evidence that the Americans even mined some cities of their NATO allies with such land mines. Approaches to nuclear landmines could be covered by conventional minefields. So, say, peaceful burghers lived in the same Germany, having a well with an American nuclear bomb nearby.
So, since 1972, platoons of reconnaissance and destruction of nuclear land mines appeared in the staff of engineer-sapper battalions of Soviet tank divisions stationed on the territory of the Warsaw Pact countries. Their personnel knew the structure of these land mines and had special equipment to search for and neutralize them. But the potential adversary also had more exotic nuclear weapons in his arsenal. In addition, the "green berets" (special forces), rangers (servicemen of the deep military intelligence units) and SEALS (saboteurs of the US naval special intelligence) were trained to install special small-sized nuclear land mines, but already on enemy territory.
However, the combat employment of engineers is not limited to mines. Engineers build nonexplosive obstacles (prickly or cutting wire, the antitank ditches, scarps and counterscarps, barricade, obstructions on the roads, the regions of bogging up and flood), produce different destruction for the difficulty of the advance of enemy (destruction of roads, bridges, obstructions on the roads); they destroy infrastructure (destruction of buildings, railroad and highway construction, water-supply systems, gas supply, power supply, capacity with the fuel, the petroleum industries). For the accomplishment of these objectives the engineers have different explosives, special engineer explosive items (charges of different power and methods of actuating).
The problems of destruction and mining engineers solve not only in their territory with the preparation of locality for the defense, but also in the territory of enemy for the purpose to hinder to enemy military operations, to apply to it losses, to hinder or to make impossible his maneuver (withdrawal, the transfer of parts in the threatened sections, supply of ammunition, bringing up of reserves).
Very frequently by the basic task of subdivisions and parts airborne troops or subdivisions of the Special Force is precisely the creation of conditions for the successful fulfillment engineers of the tasks of causing the enemy harm. For example, the Special Force seizes and retains for several hours an important bridge, so that the field engineers could explode it. By the way in order to explode double-transit railroad bridge is required the work of combat engineer platoon during 8-10 hours and 500-700 kg. of explosive. Small mine in a ladies handbag, as this they love to show in the films, is clearly insufficient.
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