In the last ten years, aerial drones have turned from toys and agricultural tools into very important military equipment. They are used for reconnaissance, but also for attacking land, sea and air targets, and for defense.
But they have not yet been used to clear minefields of enemy mines.
Existing transport drones that can carry up to 200 kilograms of cargo could be used for this role.
A drone like this could drag a hundred-kilogram roller over a minefield. The roller would activate mines on its way, leaving behind a trail of fallen vegetation cleared of mines. Anti-personnel mines cannot damage the steel roller. A larger anti-armor mine can knock him back several meters, but he can still roll. In order for the explosion not to destroy the drone itself, the rope connecting it to the roller would have to be long enough so that shrapnel from the explosion could not reach the drone. Such drones usually have enough energy in their batteries for half an hour of flight, which is enough to drag a roller several kilometers through a minefield. A dozen of these drones can make a ten-meter-wide path through a minefield in a few hours, and infantry and armored vehicles can then break through that path. On that road, vegetation would also be demolished, as well as cleared of mines.
Another way to make your way through minefields is to use a drone to crawl across the minefield, bypass a strong tree trunk, and then return to your own position. Then a heavy, wide roller is tied to one end of the rope, and the other end of the rope is pulled by a vehicle. By tightening the rope, it moves around the trunk around which it is passed, and pulls the roller across the minefield. In this way, demining can be done very quickly, in the attack itself. The rope could be passed quietly around a trunk at night before the battle, and the pulling of the roller could be done during the battle itself.
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