Other key features include a manipulator arm, dozer blade and forklift for improvised explosive devices (IED) and unexploded ordnance clearance. It is designed for maximum survivability in high-threat environments and, crucially, is intended for heavy-duty mine clearance: remote controlled, with integrated and protected camera systems for high-threat areas. Then there is kit like the Swiss-German GCS 200, a multi-purpose, unmanned explosive ordnance disposal platform for heavy-duty clearance tasks. However, since the MICLIC has to be driven close to the front line to be operated, this increases its chances of being hit by the enemy.

When this is done, the operator ignites the linear charge, blowing up the 100 metre length of the hose to create a passage through the minefield. The hose is attached to a rocket on a 45-degree boom lift that is launched to carry the hose forward. It is made up of a trailer with a container that carries a hose loaded with one ton of TNT. The American made MICLIC creates a passage that is eight metres wide and 100 metres long that troops can then move through safely. The two most common mine clearing devices thought to be operated by the Ukrainians is the M58 MICLIC, known colloquially as an explosive hose, and mine rollers fitted to a Soviet-style tank. They added: “There’s not a huge amount of assistance and help that we can give them other than the engineering equipment which has been donated.”īut it seems Ukraine is making the most of the kit it has been gifted, regardless of whether the advance is slow. They conceded that Ukraine’s troops were having to proceed mandraulically, “step by step”, adding that “clearance under fire is particularly difficult to conduct”. Western officials told journalists at a defence intelligence briefing on Ukraine earlier this week that the “scale” of mines planted by the Russians was not something Western forces had trained against. Their work is slow and many soldiers are having to remove mines by hand. Russians have flooded the fields in front of its defences with anti-personnel and anti-tank devices, creating exceptionally dangerous minefields that are slowing down the Ukrainian forces. When injured Ukrainian troops make it through hospital doors, the surgery most commonly required is amputations for those who have stepped on landmines.

Modern cutting edge russian tank