| L9 bar mine | |
|---|---|
L9 bar mine
| |
| Type | Anti-tank blast mine |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1969 - |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 11 kilograms (24 lb) |
| Length | 120 centimetres (47 in) |
| Width | 10.8 centimetres (4.3 in) |
| Height | 8.2 centimetres (3.2 in) |
| Filling | TNT |
| Filling weight | 8.4 kilograms (19 lb) |
The L9 bar mine is a large rectangular British anti-tank landmine. The bar mine's principal advantage is its long length, and therefore its trigger length. A typical anti-tank landmine is circular, and a vehicle's wheels or tracks, which make up only a small proportion of its total width, must actually press on the mine to activate it. To increase the probability of a vehicle striking the mine, the mine's effective trigger width must be increased.
The bar mine's shape allows a 50% reduction in the number of mines in a minefield without reducing its effectiveness. It was reported that it would take 90 sappers 150 minutes to lay a 1,000 yd (910 m) mine field consisting of 1,250 British Mark 7 anti-tank mines, weighing a total of 17 tonnes. By comparison, it would take 30 sappers 60 minutes to lay a 1,000 yard minefield consisting of 655 bar mines weighing a total of 7.2 tonnes.[1]
The long mines can also be laid through a simple plough attached to the rear of an FV432 armoured personnel carrier. Laying circular mines in similar fashion requires a far larger plough and more powerful towing vehicle. The bar mine laying FV432s were also usually fitted with launchers for L10 Ranger anti-personnel mines, to make subsequent clearing of the minefield by hand by enemy sappers more difficult; however, the L10 was withdrawn from service by March 1999, in line with several conventions regulating mines which have been agreed to by the United Kingdom.[2]
The bar mine is made of plastic, and cannot be detected by metal detectors. A metal plate is attached to bar mines which are intended to be subsequently recovered by friendly forces, usually for training purposes. A full width attack mine (FWAM) fuze and an anti-disturbance fuze are available for the bar mine; these are secured on the ends of the mine, adjacent to the pressure plate. There were two FWAM fuzes - one mechanical and one electronic. They were fitted at the opposite end of the pressure pad to the A/D fuze. Mines equipped with these fuzes were deployed using the Barmine Layer.
A training version of the mine is bio-degradable, and consists of sand or peat in a cardboard casing.
The L9 bar mine entered British service in 1969. A number of sub-variants of the mine exist, designated L9A1 through L9A8. It was replaced as an anti-tank mine in British service (by the Shielder minelaying system) in 2010.[citation needed]
The bar mine was used by small detachments of special forces of the British Army during the Gulf War in 1991. A number were captured from Kuwaiti Army stocks by the Iraqi Army in 1990, and subsequently used by them in the same conflict. It was reported that they disabled a number of M60A1 Rise Passive Patton tanks and other armoured vehicles belonging to the United States Marine Corps, even when these were fitted with mine-clearing ploughs. Unless the plough struck the mine squarely in the centre, the mine would often be rotated into a position in which it would pass between the tines of the plough, then blow up the track and front roller of the tank.[3]
The British Army has since been using bar mines simply as breaching frame charges, for instance to blow holes in tough compound walls in Afghanistan and Iraq.[4]
Among other users have been Denmark, where it was introduced as the Pansermine M/75, with the mine plough towed by the M113 armored personnel carrier. In 1989 an electromagnetic FWAM fuse replaced the original fuse as Pansermine M/88. Both mines have since been taken out of use.
In 2012, a parcel of forty bar mines being shipped by rail on a Ministry Of Defence (MOD) train from DMC Longtown to Oxfordshire disappeared while in transit. Twenty-eight were recovered promptly alongside the line near Warrington, but twelve (approximately 100 kg of RDX) were missing, Counter-terrorism officers together with the Royal Military Police led the enquiry.[5] Five men were later jailed for their part in the theft and the missing explosives were recovered.[6]
