The Countermine System (CMS), also known as Venom Darts, Venom Penetrators and GBU-61, is an anti-land-mine system consisting of chemical or explosive projectiles released from modified GPS-guided bombs. The darts are used to detonate or deactivate land mines in beach and

surf zone The surf zone or breaker zone is the nearshore part of a body of open water between the line at which the waves break and the shore. As ocean surface waves approach a shore, they interact with the bottom, wave shoaling, get taller and steeper, an ...

s. The system was developed by the United States (U.S.) Navy and

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

at an initial cost of

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

153-million. The CMS is expected to be field ready by 2016.

Description

The CMS typically consists of 4,000 .50-caliber darts containing the chemical Diethylenetriamine (DETA) or a small amount of explosive, carried by GPS-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) systems. The tungsten tipped darts, each about long, are clustered in multiple layers within a tubular canister contained within the JDAM. The system uses data from the Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) system to locate surf zone mines. This positional data is used to program JDAM Assault Breaching System (JABS) bombs, which are dropped over

mine field Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging *Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun Mi ...

s from Air Force or Navy aircraft from an altitude of about . The JDAM bombs, identical in form to

BLU-109 bomb The BLU-109/B is a hardened bunker buster penetration bomb used by the United States Air Force (BLU is an acronym for Bomb Live Unit). As with other "bunker busters", it is intended to penetrate concrete shelters and other hardened structures ...

s, are equipped with a corkscrew mechanism that releases the inner canister with a rotational motion, causing panels to separate and the payload of darts to deploy in a diameter circular pattern. The darts penetrate the soil, or water and sand, at a velocity of per second. The darts, capable of penetrating more than of water or of sand, either detonate or deactivate the land mines. Remaining unactivated darts eventually become inert. Each CMS unit has a projected cost of $300,000 to $360,000.

Development

The system was developed by the U.S.

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

to address the problem of 70 million hidden land mines, some which have killed or maimed more than 13,000 U.S. soldiers since 2001. In 2008, the

Naval Surface Warfare Center The Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) is part of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) operated by the United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United Sta ...

awarded a $153-million contract to

to design and develop the system, along with a project team of defense contractors including

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales and fifth largest in the Unit ...

, and Nammo-Talley Defense Systems. The CMS is expected to be field operational by 2016.

References

External links

US Navy - Countermine System Fact Sheet
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Countermine dart system and method - patent grant
Equipment of the United States Navy Mine warfare countermeasures Military technology

Description

Development

See also

References

External links