- Sun Jul 02, 2006 4:03 am
#10388
Most explosives give off specific chemicle signitures(smells), they have electronic "sniffers" to detect explosives. Maybe they could incorporate these sniffers into existing equiptment and have the sensor in the boot,, the sensors do have to be fairlly close to the source, especially when its buried. And yes, size and wieght are of grave concerns, with the average soldier carrying over 100 pounds of gear with them allready. Besides the horrendous failure rate of the m16 a1's barrel, it was also redesigned in an effort to shed wieght. The Marine Corps employs sniffer drones in some areas, small battery operated vehicles with bomb sniffing equipt. that rove around ahead of troop movement,
explosives also degrade, when anything loses energy, they give off a magnetic trace that could be a "tell".most mines are made with plastique, which degrades reletivelly quicklly, some mines made with plastic shells, unburied, can be seen in thermal vision. as is the case of claymore mines, which sit on the ground, and have a plastic face.for instance, nukes give off such a tremendous signiture while normal degradation, that they can be spotted from space. im not trying to sound like a know it all, just listing ways that i know of that explosives can be detected, so that maybe some one could work one into a feasable portable device.