PMN mine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The PMN series of blast anti-personnel mine

Anti-personnel mine

Anti-personnel mines are a form of land mine designed for use against humans, as opposed to anti-tank mines, which are designed for use against vehicles...

s were designed and manufactured in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. They are one of the most widely used and commonly found devices during demining

Demining

Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing either land mines, or naval mines, from an area, while minesweeping describes the act of detecting of mines. There are two distinct types of mine detection and removal: military and humanitarian.Minesweepers use many tools in order to accomplish...

operations.

PMN-1

The design of the PMN-1 mine dates from the late 1950s. It is particularly deadly because it contains an unusually large explosive filling when compared to most other anti-personnel landmines. To put things in perspective, most anti-personnel blast mines (e.g. the VS-50

VS-50 mine

The VS-50 is a circular plastic cased anti-personnel blast mine, formerly manufactured by the now-defunct Valsella Meccanotecnica SpA, an Italian high-tech defense industry specialized in area denial systems which was also the manufacturer of the Valmara 69 and one of the first industries in the...

) contain around 50 grams of explosive, which typically destroys all or part of a victim's foot. In marked contrast, a PMN-1 contains 249 grams of explosive which can easily destroy a victim's entire leg (often requiring amputation

Amputation

Amputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...

well above the knee) in addition to inflicting severe injuries on the adjacent

Adjacent

Adjacent is an adjective meaning contiguous, adjoining or abuttingIn geometry, adjacent is when sides meet to make an angle.In graph theory adjacent nodes in a graph are linked by an edge....

limb, which may also require some form of amputation

Amputation

.

These mines are palm sized and cylindrical in shape. The PMN-1 has a bakelite case (brown or black in colour) with a black rubber pressure-plate and contains TNT explosive.

The PMN-1 mine is armed by removing a steel ring-pull at the end of the horizontal fuze. When in position, the pin on the end of the ring-pull holds a spring-loaded striker

Firing pin

A firing pin or striker is part of the firing mechanism used in a firearm or explosive device e.g. an M14 landmine or bomb fuze. Firing pins may take many forms, though the types used in landmines, bombs, grenade fuzes or other single-use devices generally have a sharpened point...

back from the stab-detonator

Detonator

A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....

. Pulling out the ring-pull starts an arming delay, which comprises a thin steel wire (held under tension by the spring-loaded striker) which must cut through a small strip of lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

before it is freed. The process of cutting through the lead strip takes between 2 and 12 minutes, depending on ambient temperature. After the wire has completely cut through the lead strip, the spring-loaded striker is freed and slides forward a few millimetres before stopping, blocked by the sliding gate of the pressure plate mechanism. At this point the mine is fully armed i.e. the only thing holding back the spring-loaded striker from the stab-detonator is a weak creep-spring on the pressure plate mechanism. Subsequently, any downward pressure on the pressure plate (i.e. when someone steps on the mine) overcomes the upward pressure of the creep-spring and pushes down the sliding gate that holds back the spring-loaded striker. This action frees the striker which flips forward into the stab detonator

Detonator

A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....

, firing both it and the adjacent tetryl

Tetryl

2,4,6-Trinitrophenylmethylnitramine commonly referred to as tetryl is a sensitive explosive compound used to make detonators and explosive booster charges....

booster

Explosive booster

An explosive booster acts as a bridge between a low energy explosive and a low sensitivity explosive such as TNT. It increases the explosive shockwave from an initiating explosive to the degree sufficient to detonate the secondary charge.Unlike C4 plastic explosive, not all explosives can be...

which triggers detonation

Detonation

Detonation involves a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations are observed in both conventional solid and liquid explosives, as well as in reactive gases...

of the main TNT explosive filling.

Height: 56 mm
Diameter: 112 mm
Main charge weight: 240 g TNT (initiated by a 9 gram tetryl
Tetryl
2,4,6-Trinitrophenylmethylnitramine commonly referred to as tetryl is a sensitive explosive compound used to make detonators and explosive booster charges....

booster
Explosive booster
An explosive booster acts as a bridge between a low energy explosive and a low sensitivity explosive such as TNT. It increases the explosive shockwave from an initiating explosive to the degree sufficient to detonate the secondary charge.Unlike C4 plastic explosive, not all explosives can be...

)
Total weight: 600 g
Fuze: MD-9 (stab-sensitive)
Operating pressure: 5.8 kg

PMN-2

The PMN-2 mine casing is made from injection-moulded plastic. In general, the colour is leaf-green, but occasionally brown examples may be encountered. The top of the mine has a black rubber X-shaped pressure plate. The filling is an RDX

RDX

RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...

/TNT based explosive that is quite similar to Composition B

Composition B

Composition B, colloquially "comp B", is an explosive consisting of castable mixtures of RDX and TNT. It is used as the main explosive filling in artillery projectiles, rockets, land mines, hand grenades, sticky bombs and various other munitions...

. As with the PMN-1, the PMN-2 has an unusually large explosive filling when compared to many other anti-personnel landmines.

One significant difference between the PMN-1 and PMN-2 is that the PMN-2 (an early 1970s design) contains a more modern fuze

Fuze

Fuze Beverage, commercially referred to as just Fuze , is a manufacturer of teas and non-carbonated fruit drinks enriched with vitamins. Currently the brand consists of five vitamin-infused lines: Slenderize, Refresh, Tea, Defensify, and Vitalize...

with an integral baffle beneath the pressure plate. This and the X-shaped design of the pressure plate makes the PMN-2 much more resistant to traditional explosive mine countermeasures, which use sudden blast overpressure to detonate mines. In contrast, the PMN-1 (a 1950s design) can successfully be cleared by such methods.

The PMN-2 fuze features an arming delay. When the arming key is rotated and removed from the mine, the arming pin is sheared. This allows the air-bellows inside the mine to be inflated by the compression spring, which in turn lifts a “safety” bar from the path of the slide, unblocking its travel. The arming delay on a PMN-2 is significantly shorter than that of a PMN-1.

Height: 53 mm
Diameter: 120 mm
Main charge weight: 100 g TG-40 (RDX
RDX
RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...

/TNT)
Total weight: 420 g
Fuze: MD-9 (stab-sensitive)

PMN-4

The cover of PMN-4 mines is black and the body is reddish brown. The diameter is 95mm and the height is 46mm. The explosive charge weight is 55 grams and the total weight of the mine is 300 grams. PMN-4 mines contain a significant amount of metal components, so they are readily detectable with standard mine-detectors. Details of the fuze

Fuze

mechanism are scarce, but it is a delay-armed, pressure-fired blast-mine. Given that the PMN-4 was designed after the PMN-2, and its explosive filling is significantly smaller, a PMN-4 fuze is possibly more sophisticated than its predecessor, in order to compensate for having less destructive power.

Render-safe procedure

It is considered extremely dangerous to disarm PMN mines by removing the fuze

Fuze

, unless they have only recently been laid and are in good condition. Even if this is the case, what appears to be a standard PMN-1 mine may in fact be the PMN-3 or MC-3 versions, which feature an integral anti-handling device

Anti-handling device

An anti-handling device is an attachment to or integral part of a landmine or other munition e.g. some fuze types found in air-dropped bombs such as the M83, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is specifically designed to prevent tampering. When the protected device is disturbed it detonates, killing...

which is specifically designed to kill deminers. In any case it is very easy to give any PMN mine an anti-handling feature

Anti-handling device

by attaching or glueing a pull-fuze to it. Therefore, the standard render-safe procedure for PMN-1 mines is to destroy them in situ

In situ

In situ is a Latin phrase which translated literally as 'In position'. It is used in many different contexts.-Aerospace:In the aerospace industry, equipment on board aircraft must be tested in situ, or in place, to confirm everything functions properly as a system. Individually, each piece may...

using a small explosive charge.

Variants

Type 58 - Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

copy of the PMN-1
MM 2 - Burmese copy of the PMN-1 used in Myanmar
Myanmar
Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....
Gyata 64
GYATA-64 mine
The GYATA-64 is a Hungarian antipersonnel mine, very similar to the Russian PMN mine in design and appearance. However, the Gyata-64 mine has a 300 gram explosive charge compared with the 240 gram charge in a PMN mine...

- Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

copy of the PMN-1
PM-79 mine
PM-79 mine
The PM-79 is a small circular Bulgarian blast resistant anti-personnel mine, superficially similar to the Russian PMN. The mine uses a unique trigger design; on the top of the mine, beneath a thin rubber cover is a dish shaped pressure plate. Pressure on the outer rim of the dish shaped plate...

- Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n variant of the PMN-1
MC-3 - looks similar to the PMN-1, but has a small "blister" in the centre of the pressure-plate, incorporating a spring-loaded, pressure-release anti-handling device
Anti-handling device
An anti-handling device is an attachment to or integral part of a landmine or other munition e.g. some fuze types found in air-dropped bombs such as the M83, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is specifically designed to prevent tampering. When the protected device is disturbed it detonates, killing...

. The explosive content is 310 grams of TNT. The total weight of a MC-3 is 630 g. An MC-3 requires a minimum load of between 5 and 6 kg on the "blister" to prevent detonation. As a result, armed PMN-3 mines will always be encountered under some sort of heavy object e.g. placed beneath an OZM bounding mine
OZM
The OZM-3, OZM-4 and OZM-72 are Russian manufactured bounding mine type anti-personnel mines.They are normally painted olive green, and issued with a spool of tripwires and two green painted wooden or metal stakes for affixing the tripwires...

or sometimes an anti-tank mine i.e. to act as an anti-handling device
Anti-handling device
An anti-handling device is an attachment to or integral part of a landmine or other munition e.g. some fuze types found in air-dropped bombs such as the M83, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is specifically designed to prevent tampering. When the protected device is disturbed it detonates, killing...

. Note that detonation of an MC-3 under an anti-tank mine may cause sympathetic detonation
Sympathetic detonation
A sympathetic detonation , also called flash over, is a detonation, usually unintended, of an explosive charge by a nearby explosion. Sympathetic detonation is caused by a shock wave, or impact of primary or secondary blast fragments.The initiating explosive is called donor explosive, the initiated...

of the larger munition. Additionally, an MC-3 could simply be used as a conventional boobytrap device without being buried e.g. deliberately planted inside a building or a vehicle.
PMN-3 - looks similar to the PMN-2, but incorporates a battery-operated tilt-switch anti-handling device
Anti-handling device
An anti-handling device is an attachment to or integral part of a landmine or other munition e.g. some fuze types found in air-dropped bombs such as the M83, cluster bombs and sea mines. It is specifically designed to prevent tampering. When the protected device is disturbed it detonates, killing...

designed to kill/wound deminers. The explosive content is 80g phlegmatised RDX
RDX
RDX, an initialism for Research Department Explosive, is an explosive nitroamine widely used in military and industrial applications. It was developed as an explosive which was more powerful than TNT, and it saw wide use in WWII. RDX is also known as cyclonite, hexogen , and T4...

i.e. RDX and paraffin wax. The total weight of the PMN-3 is 600g. This mine has been encountered in Chechnya
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

External links

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