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Good afternoon.

It is a pleasure to appear before these subcommittees in joint hearings today. I am Major General Clair Gill, Commandant of the US 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. have this responsibility as part of the "Mobility” battlefield operating system. Battlefield operating systems is the US Army Training and Doctrine Command's taxonomy for assigning attendant duties. While some of the components of what we title, "countermine operations" are within the purview of other Army branch school commandants, most of the parts are mine.

We

The US policy for dealing with the threat and for countermine operations by US Forces in Bosnia is that we will conduct only those countermine operations required to protect the US and NATO forces.

In Bosnia, we will protect the force on a continual basis and regard the countermine challenge in terms of "force protection," rather than the normative "mobility" battlefield operating system. By US Army doctrine (and NATO doctrine, which

is identical), the Army conducts minefield breaching operations to clear a safe path through a minefield for the use of troops and vehicles. Normally breaching is done under the threat of direct enemy intervention and fire. The Army also conducts "clearing," which is the removal of mines within the minimum area required for immediate military operations, an example of which would be to clear the area required for a forward supply point or a route such as Route Arizona in Bosnia. Also, if the US Army employs minefields, we are responsible for removing them. The Army does not conduct "demining, " which is defined as the complete removal of all landmines and unexploded ordnance from an area in order to safeguard civilian populations. Demining is an extremely soldier and time extensive operation and is normally contracted. Therefore, in Bosnia, we will conduct countermine operations in such places as bivouac and administrative areas, patrol routes, and required highways and their shoulders. Any minefields that we discover, but have no need to remove are marked and reported. We will also be prepared to conduct combat countermine operations should we have to conduct operations incidental to violations of the accord.

US Forces will not normally remove minefields and landmines employed by the former belligerent forces and will not directly conduct "humanitarian demining" operations.

Mines that are left over from the years of fighting are the responsibility of the former belligerents. Annex 1 Article IV

of the Dayton Agreement pledges the parties to "remove,

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extremely large. When we find mines or minefields they will be marked and reported to the same standards we use for our own minefields and the information will be provided to the host nation for their use. These minefields will only be cleared based on military necessity to support the operation.

US Forces have a complete "toolbox" to deal with the landmine threat in Bosnia.

Our countermine capability must be described in terms of the integrated application of doctrine, training, leader development, organization, and materiel. Because of differences of mines and their fusing (some 2,500 possible combinations world-wide), climatic conditions, soil types and mineral content, no single solution or single set of component solutions Often within a single minefield, there are

is possible.

varieties of mines and soils that require different countermine applications.

Developing soldier awareness is key. We train all soldiers to recognize and avoid mines. Most units within a combat zone are equipped with and trained in the use of mine detectors and

mine marking sets. Engineer soldiers are trained to conduct breaching and limited clearance operations. Armored forces are

equipped with and trained to use mine rollers and plows that either detonate mines harmlessly or push them out of the way. The current engineer system of choice for minefield breaching is the M58 Mine Clearing Line Charge or "MICLIC." During dismounted operations, the primary technique is to blow the mine in place by sympathetic detonation. Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) soldiers are trained to "render safe" or disarm mines and unexploded ordnance. EOD specialists respond when we cannot

Because the Army has only a

blow the mine or UXO in place.
relatively few EOD units and specialists, their support is
generally spread thin on an area support basis.

Soldiers receive UXO identification and hazard training during their initial entry training. This training is further reinforced during advanced individual training for engineers to include addition 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. This initial individual training is continued once the soldier arrives at his unit. Our collective mission training plans cover detailed tasks, conditions and standard 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 the particular unit responses to mines and minefields.

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 that they think they will most likely have to execute during wartime. Engineers 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 other arms soldiers 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 US Army Engineer School has sent to both European and CONUS units to assist them in their predeployment training.

The US 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, 23rd and 40th Engineer Battalions on

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