PROM-1
Encyclopedia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
n manufactured bounding
Bounding mine
A bounding mine is an anti-personnel mine designed to be used in open areas. When tripped, a small propelling charge launches the body of the mine 3-4 feet into the air, where the main charge detonates and sprays fragmentation at roughly waist height....
type of 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...
. It consists of a cylindrical body with a pronged fuze inserted into the top of the mine. It is broadly similar in operation to the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
S-mine
S-mine
The German S-mine , also known as the "Bouncing Betty," is the best-known version of a class of mines known as bounding mines. When triggered, these mines launch into the air and then detonate at about . The explosion projects a lethal spray of steel balls and fragments in all directions...
.
The mine is triggered by the tilting of the prongs situated on top of the mine. This is caused by either direct pressure on the prongs or by tension on a tripwire
Tripwire
A tripwire is a passive triggering mechanism. Typically, a wire or cord is attached to some device for detecting or reacting to physical movement...
attached to them. Tilting the prongs allows three striker retaining balls to escape. This releases the 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...
, which is flipped downwards into the percussion cap
Percussion cap
The percussion cap, introduced around 1830, was the crucial invention that enabled muzzleloading firearms to fire reliably in any weather.Before this development, firearms used flintlock ignition systems which produced flint-on-steel sparks to ignite a pan of priming powder and thereby fire the...
and fires the three gram propellant charge. The explosion of the propellant charge forces the upper half of the mine body out of the ground and up into the air, shearing off several brass screws and leaving the base plug of the mine behind in the ground.
The mine's body is tethered to its base by a short length of wire, which unwinds behind it as it rises. When the mine reaches a height of approximately 65 centimetres the wire is pulled. This jerks the 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....
assembly downwards into the striker. The detonator fires, triggering the main explosive charge, which shatters the internally grooved body into a large number of high-velocity steel fragments, which spray in all directions. Because the time taken from triggering the mine to detonation is so short (typically one second), there is no time to take cover from the blast.
As with all bounding mines the PROM-1 is lethal at relatively long distances. It is capable of projecting dangerous fragments to range of 100 meters or more, with a potentially lethal range of around 50 meters. This mine will almost certainly kill or seriously injure anyone caught within 30 meters of the blast. As with any bounding mine, wearing standard kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
body armour offers no guarantee of safety: the large number of fragments produced by a PROM-1 will wound
Wound
A wound is a type of injury in which skin is torn, cut or punctured , or where blunt force trauma causes a contusion . In pathology, it specifically refers to a sharp injury which damages the dermis of the skin.-Open:...
the unprotected limbs, face and eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...
s of its victim(s).
The PROM-1 can be particularly hard to spot in undergrowth because, apart from the prongs, most of it is buried underground and therefore cannot be seen. Although this mine contains lots of steel (thereby making it easy to detect with a mine-detector) the act of sweeping the detection head over the ground can easily strike the prongs (or connected tripwire) and detonate the mine. In any case, PROM-1s in a minefield may be surrounded by various types of minimum metal
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...
antipersonnel 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...
) which further hinders the clearance process.
The PROM-1 is difficult to render safe because its 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...
becomes unstable after being exposed to weather for several years. Most deminers therefore recommend that this mine is destroyed 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...
by detonating an explosive charge next to it.
PMA-3 mine
The PMA-3 is a Yugoslavian blast resistant minimum metal anti-personnel mine. It is circular, consisting of a plastic upper and lower half joined together by a rubber cover. A safety collar is normally wrapped around the outside of the mine, preventing the upper half of the mine tilting when in...
, PMN
PMN mine
The PMN series of blast anti-personnel mines were designed and manufactured in Russia. They are one of the most widely used and commonly found devices during demining operations.-PMN-1:...
or similar blast mines lying buried underneath.
The mine has been found in Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Bosnia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, Eritrea
Eritrea
Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...
, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
and Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
.
Specifications
- Diameter: 75 mm
- Height : 260 mm (unfuzed)
- Weight: 3 kg
- Explosive content: 425 g Composition BComposition BComposition 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...
or straight cast TNT - Operating pressure: 9 kg to 16 kg or 3 kg to 5 kg pull
See also
- OZMOZMThe 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...
- M16 mineM16 mineThe M16 mine is a U.S. made bounding anti-personnel mine. It was based on captured plans of the World War II era German S-mine and has similar performance. The mine consists of a cast iron body in a thin steel sleeve. A central fuze well on the top of the mine is normally fitted with a pronged M605...
- Valmara 59Valmara 59The Valmara 59 is a large cylindrical Italian bounding anti-personnel mine. It is the first in the "Valmara" family of mines produced by Valsella Meccanotecnica, and was followed by the Valmara 69 and VS-JAP. The mine's body is plastic with a distinctive five-pronged head. The central prong has a...
- Valmara 69Valmara 69Valmara 69 or V-69 is an Italian bounding anti-personnel mine manufactured by Valsella. The mine was developed from the V-59 mine, and although the mine is no longer produced in Italy, a number of copies were produced in other countries e.g. the "SPM-1" manufactured by Singapore.The South African...
- Land mineLand mineA land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
- Ottawa TreatyOttawa TreatyThe Ottawa Treaty or the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, officially known as the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, aims at eliminating anti-personnel landmines around the world. , there were 158...