Ukrainian engineers have found a smart solution to neutralize Russia’s Okhota (“Hunting”) antipersonnel mine, which consists of up to five standard anti-personnel mines and a special sensing device to control them – a gadget dropped from a drone, according to Forbes.
The sensor is capable of detecting human footsteps from 90 meters/300 feet away. When spotting anyone approaching the minefield long before they are even aware it is there, Hunting selects the nearest mine and triggers it.
In July, Russian military blogger “Combat Engineer” wrote on a Telegram channel that the Ukrainian military came up with a solution against Hunting – a metal cylinder with a spike dropped from a drone.
The device has the name ‘ARTEMIDA’ on the side, which is a Ukrainian name for the Greek Artemis – the goddess of hunting. The mil blogger said that Artemida emits a series of pulses imitating human footsteps to fool Hunting’s sensor into firing off all its mines harmlessly and disarm it.
Artemida depends on identifying or suspecting the location of a Hunting minefield, but its primary advantage is striking before anyone gets close enough to detect it.
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine said that since 2022, mines and other explosive weapons have injured thousands of Ukrainians and killed 297 people. Many of them were children.
Investigations revealed that the Russians purposefully set up mine traps near or within populated areas in combat zones. To camouflage these explosives, the invaders use various everyday objects, including children’s toys and candy boxes.
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- Boosting mine clearance efforts: Ukraine receives 22 demining vehicles from Japan
