A review of underwater detection techniques and their applicability to the landmine problem

Whilst the overwhelming majority of abandoned landmines will lie on the surface of the ground or buried beneath the surface, a significant fraction may lie in water environments. For example, anti-personnel mines may be scattered on beaches or in shallow water, in rivers, or in wet ground such as paddy fields. For mines in such environments, conventional (electromagnetic) detection and clearance techniques may not be effective. The purposes of this paper are firstly to provide a review of water-borne mines and the techniques used in naval mine detection, and secondly, to consider how these techniques may be useful in demining operations in water environments