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RECAP OF LANDMINE SITUATION

BOSNIA

FORMER REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAV (FRY) WAS A MAJOR PRODUCER OF LANDMINES

MINELAYING BEGAN BY JNA IN JULY OF 1991

VAST MAJORITY OF MINES ENCOUNTERED WERE MANUFACTURED IN THE FRY

MINES USED EXTENSIVELY BY ALL FACTIONS

OFTEN SEEN AS THE NUMBER 1 THREAT TO UN FORCES

THOUSANDS OF MINEFIELDS THROUGHOUT THE REGION

MOST MINEFIELDS ARE SMALL, POINT
CHECKPOINTS, STRATEGIC LOCATIONS, ETC

TRAVEL ON MOST MAIN ROUTES SAFE

MINEFIELDS AT CRITICAL

SHOULDERS, BY-PASS SITES, UNAPPROVED ROADS HIGHLY SUSPECT

BOTTOM LINE

UNPROFOR OPERATED SUCCESSFULLY IN REGION

MAJOR ROUTES CLEAR OF MINES

NO UN-COORDINATED OFF-ROUTE MOVEMENT SHOULD OCCUR

[blocks in formation]

Mr. WELDON. Thank you, Mr. Reeder.
General Gill.

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. CLAIR F. GILL, COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY ENGINEER CENTER/SCHOOL, U.S. ARMY General GILL. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, committee members. It is a pleasure to appear before these subcommittees in joint hearings today. I am Maj. Gen. Clair Gill, Commandant of the U.S. Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood in south central Missouri.

Engineer soldiers have a long history of service to our Nation in many diverse fields: as combat engineers within the maneuver task force, as construction engineers building the enabling infrastructure for both combat and for peace operations, and as the custodians of much of our Nation's natural treasures.

Today, I wish to focus on one aspect of the military engineer: countermine operations. We have this responsibility as part of the mobility battlefield operating system. Battlefield operating system is the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command's taxonomy for assigning attendant duties. My immediate superior is Gen. William Hartzog, the commander of Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, VA. The business of the Training and Doctrine Command is to prepare the future Army to execute the national military strategy. I would like to make the point that while I do not command operational forces, my responsibility extends to continual oversight and assistance to the Army in the field concerning engineer operations.

Some components of what we title countermine operations are within the purview of other Army branch school commandants, for example, the commandant of armor school has responsibilty for the tank-mounted rollers and plows. The infantry school commandant is responsible for some individual countermine measures such as hand-held explosive minefield breachers. However, most of the Army's countermine solutions are my responsibility.

Today's testimony will consist of two parts: a threat and operations panel and a technology panel. Some testimony will overlap, but it is not only because the panel members prepared for these hearings independently. Please consider that the overlap represents different perspectives of the same issues.

I believe it is important to establish three key definitions of terms early in the hearing. These terms are countermining, mine clearance, and demining.

Countermining are the tactics and techniques used to detect, avoid, breach and/or neutralize enemy mines. Mine clearance is the removal of mines within the minimum area required for friendly military operations. Demining is not a term in our military dictionary. I have borrowed the definition from "Hidden Killers," the State Department's seminal document on worldwide antipersonnel mine problems. Demining is a new term related to but out of the realm of conventional countermine. It refers to the complete removal of all landmines from an area in order to safeguard civilian populations.

Also, as a frame of reference we will occasionally speak of unexploded ordnance, or UXO. We are using a narrow application

and generally refer to battlefield unexploded ordnance. Today most modern artillery rounds and air-delivered bombs are carriers for submunitions, small explosive devices usually called cluster munitions, that enhance the effectiveness of area weapons. Coalition forces used large numbers of cluster munitions in the gulf war.

In Bosnia, we expect to find mostly older unitary or single-cased, high explosives-filled artillery and mortar shells. When we encounter unexploded ordnance, the effect is similar to mines and minefields. Therefore, while we have two different problems, there are similar sets of solutions. The high threat situation in Bosnia is mines, although we are alert for various types of unexploded ord

nance.

Developing soldier awareness is key. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of a mine aware soldier. All soldiers, not just engineers, receive unexploded ordnance [UXO] identification and hazard training during their initial entry training. The primary lesson objectives are to identify, avoid and report.

For engineers, this training is further reinforced during advanced individual training to include additional UXO and mine identification, marking, detection and removal. Our engineer leaders are also trained as sergeants and lieutenants in these same tasks, as well as the mechanics of training, planning, and leading countermine operations.

Our collective mission training plans cover detailed tasks, conditions and standards for countermine operations, and these tasks are backed up with our doctrinal how-to literature. After initial training, soldiers are trained in their unit on particular unit responses to mines and minefields. This phase of developing mine awareness is a unit responsibility.

Army units filter the plethora of training tasks through their mission essential task list or METL. The METL is designed to simplify and focus the training requirements for units based on the tasks they think they will most likely have to execute during wartime. Engineers typically focus on mine removal and breach training because these are some of their most likely and hazardous wartime tasks.

Finally, prior to any actual deployment, we conduct mission. training on the particular mine threat and effective countermine responses within that area of operations. The engineers have also trained soldiers of other branches of the Army, as well as Air Force and Navy personnel, in mine awareness.

Examples of this are the ongoing training taking place in Germany for all soldiers deploying to Bosnia, and the training teams the United States Army Engineer School has sent to both European and continental United States units to assist them in their predeployment training. Every soldier, sailor, airman, marine, and civilian deploying to Bosnia receives mine awareness training.

The U.S. Army Engineer School, with borrowed experts from Program Manager Mines, Countermines and Demolitions, Night Vision Engineering Lab and the Joint Project Office, Unmanned Ground Vehicles, formed a mobile training team that deployed to Germany to train the 16th, 23d, and 40th Engineer Battalions on the use of three developmental remote-controlled countermine systemsBadger, Panther, and a miniflail.

The mobile training team also assisted in the installation and use of antiblast or fragmentation protection blankets, body armor individual countermine and bolt-on protective kits for HMMWV and 5-ton vehicles. Additionally, the team demonstrated developmental countermine equipment such as the thermal line avoidance system, Barrett Rifles with explosive rounds, and the Field Expedient Countermine System.

There is no silver bullet to the complex mine threat. We train our soldiers and their leaders, write and apply effective doctrine, develop responsive organizations, and field a suite of high-, medium- and low-tech equipment. The thermal mine avoidance system is an example of high technology, the Barrett Rifle of medium technology, and a simple mine probe like one of these, low technology. Each has its place and all of these efforts assist and enhance field countermine operations. Our efforts are focused on developing a mine-aware and mine-alert soldier.

The mine threat is of great concern to us. We cannot guard every footfall, cannot prevent all innocent errors such as taking a wrong road, in spite of our care. We do the best job we possibly can to prepare and equip our soldiers.

Collectively, we know a great deal about the mine threat and about countermining. At the same time, we are continually looking for more good ideas, anything we can obtain from any source to evaluate and possibly apply to the countermine problem.

But not all ideas are good ones. We must not overwhelm the IFOR commander with dozens of raw ideas and requirements that place soldiers at greater risk. At the same time, we don't want to miss anything of value. I am confident that we have done and are doing all that we can do to protect our soldiers. Thank you very much.

Mr. WELDON. Thank you, General Gill.

[The prepared statement of General Gill follows:]

STATEMENT BY

MAJOR GENERAL CLAIR F. GILL

COMMANDER, US ARMY ENGINEER SCHOOL

UNITED STATES ARMY

BEFORE THE

JOINT SUBCOMMITTEES OF MILITARY PROCUREMENT AND

MILITARY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL SECURITY

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SECOND SESSION, 104TH CONGRESS

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT RESPONSE TO COUNTERMINE

THREAT IN BOSNIA

JANUARY 24, 1996

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

UNTIL RELEASED BY THE

HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMITTEE

25-974 96-2

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