The M15 mine is a large circular U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 anti-tank blast mine

Anti-tank mine

An anti-tank mine, , is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles....

, first deployed during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...

. Essentially, it is a larger version of the M6A2 anti-tank mine

M6 mine

The M6, M6A1 and M6A2 are a series of metal cased circular anti-tank landmines produced by the United States, they were superseded in service by the larger M15 mine. The mine is normally painted olive green and has a large central pressure plate. In the centre of the pressure plate is an arming...

, which it superseded.

Description

The mine consists of a large, circular rounded steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 case, with a central pressure plate. In the center of the pressure plate is the M4 arming plug, which has an arming lever which be can be set to "ARMED" or "SAFE". The pressure plates sits on top of a belleville spring which sits on top of the M603 fuze. When enough pressure is applied to the pressure plate the concertina spring is compressed and pressure is applied to the M603 fuze which triggers the mine. Because this mine has a metal case, it is very easy to find it using a mine detector. However, a complicating factor is posed by the two secondary fuze wells. These enable 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...

s to be fitted: one on the side of the mine and one underneath. Additionally, a minefield containing M15 mines may also contain minimum metal mine

Minimum metal mine

A minimum metal mine is a land mine that is designed to use the minimum amount of metal in its construction . Both minimum metal anti-tank and anti-personnel mines exist. Some designs contain almost no metal at all...

s of different types.

The M603 fuze can be replaced by M608 double impulse fuze which gives it a degree of protection against overpressure and mine roller systems. The mine was originally fitted with the M600 fuze which contained a glass ampoule

Ampoule

An ampoule is a small sealed vial which is used to contain and preserve a sample, usually a solid or liquid. Ampoules are commonly made of glass, although plastic ampoules do exist....

 of liquid explosive, this made the mine extremely temperature sensitive: freezing temperatures would make the mine inert as the liquid froze, and temperatures above 50 degrees Celsius would cause fuze to detonate.

Specifications

• Weight: 14.3 kg
• Explosive content: 10.3 kg of 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...
  
  
• Diameter: 333 mm
• Height: 150 mm
• Operating pressure: 160 to 340 kg

Users

The U.S.A. holds a large inventory of this mine. In 1984 it had approximately 1,904,000 M15 mines in storage, of which around 70% were serviceable.