MoD seeks help to clear thousands of mines

[SO19]

MoD seeks help to clear thousands of mines

By Ben Fenton
Last Updated: 1:10am BST 09/04/2007

The Ministry of Defence is looking for a private company to clear the Falklands of the estimated 25,000 Argentine mines still buried there, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

Experts have calculated it will take a team of up to 200 workers between 10 and 15 years to remove the anti-personnel and anti-tank mines left behind during the 10-week occupation.

The task is beyond the Royal Engineers, whose explosive ordnance squadron is overstretched by commitments in Britain, Iraq and Afghanistan. When building begins at the Olympic site in east London, one of the areas most heavily bombed in the Second World War, they will be even busier.

There are still 117 minefields left in the Falklands, some in unstable boglands to the west of the capital, Stanley. Others are in the shifting sand dunes to the east of the town. In some parts minefields are within five yards of main roads.

There has been only one casualty so far, an officer who stepped on an anti-personnel device and lost his foot.

Sappers have dealt with more than three million bits of explosive ordnance, mostly bullets, since 1982.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... alk109.xml

[Tab]

We have a lot of people on the dole here so why not give them work experience

[harry hackedoff]

Years ago there was a plan to use airport fire chucking foam machines to do this.
Idea was to use the foam thingies to cover mined areas with foam but instead of air the foam would use butane.
Miniflare popped into foam and kaboom! Up goes foam and any uxb or footbombs! Easy

What happened tp that idea?
I wont mention the idea to breed heavier sheep, that was just silly

[UtrinqueParatus]

Well that solves the problem of prisons overcrowding.

[Artist]

Why not use illegal immigrants to get rid of landmines?

Once an illegal immigrant has been caught they should be given a chance to prove to the rank and file of us UK citizens that they are worthy to enter our country. I'm sure they would JUMP at the chance meself. So we should send them to some Country that is toppers with landmines to prove to us that they are made of the "Right Stuff"

Once they arrive in the Country a blindfold should be put on them, they would then be spaced out to a distance of 500 yards in front of the area to be cleared of landmines with a minimum of 12 inches between each illegal. They would then be instructed to advance in a forward direction with their hands clasped firmly over their lugholes stamping at intervals of one second for each foot they advanced.

If after 200 goes of this procedure they still expressed a willingness to enter our Country then we should let them as far as I am concerned.

Artist

[Scooby]

We have a lot of people on the dole here so why not give them work experience

I suppose you would give them training first?

[Paratrooper01]

What a great idea.

Could be used as the new Comminuty Service.