Analysis of the effect of mines on mechanised warfare

Authors:

  • Martin Fransson
  • Charlotta Bengtson
  • Ramin Farid Moghaddam
  • Hans Bornefalk

Publish date: 2022-12-13

Report number: FOI-R--5349--SE

Pages: 36

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • Weapon system assessment
  • anti-tank mines
  • mechanised warfare
  • combat effectiveness
  • indirect effect
  • game theory

Abstract

Anti-tank mines are an integral part of ground combat. The combination of direct and indirect fire together with anti-tank mines are the foundation of combined arms where the primary purpose of the mines are to disrupt the enemy and delay advancements on the battlefield. The main effect of mines is the indirect effect, which depends on the existence of a direct effect. The direct effect can be described by the expected number of tanks that are lost as a result of mine encounters. This report describes a first comprehensive step to develop models and methods to analyse the aggregate direct and indirect effects of anti-tank mines. A method to quantify the indirect effect for mine systems has been developed. The calculation of the indirect effect can be improved if the direct effect first can be modelled in a simulation tool. A next step should be to enable computation of the direct effect given specific mine patterns, which could subsequently also account for different terrain types.