As the latest tactic for the Taiwan military to build an asymmetrical combat power, Taiwan, codenamed "Nine Fronts Project", will begin to purchase the vehicle-mounted M136 "Volcano" land-based mobile minelaying system from the United States this year. It is estimated that the total budget will be as high as 4.9 billion new Taiwan dollar. According to Taiwan's wishful thinking, the system will be equipped with anti-tank mines and , which will be used for coastal mines and anti-landing operations.
In other words, the main purpose of the Taiwan Army equipped with this system is to deal with armored vehicles such as Type 05 amphibious assault vehicles, Type 96 and Type 99 series main battle tanks landed by the People's Liberation Army.
The vehicle-mounted "volcano" system quickly lays mines
Taiwan's "United Daily News" stated on the 20th that the vehicle-mounted "volcano" mine-laying system is a product of the Cold War, and it is divided into two versions: air and land. After Ray's Ottawa Treaty, the system was mothballed for 20 years and was only reactivated by the US military in 2017 after the 2014 Ukrainian conflict. Taiwan officials said that the "Nine Array Project" is going to purchase the vehicle-mounted version of the "Volcano" system. related treaties".
According to reports, the M136 "Volcano" vehicle-mounted mine-laying system is carried by heavy-duty tactical trucks. The US military's standard mine-laying tanks are equipped with BLU-91/B "war mine protection" or BLU-92/B "personnel mine mine". The BLU-91/B "war mine protection" that the Taiwan Army plans to purchase belongs to the bottom armor mine. The landmine is oblate, with a diameter of 140 mm, and is equipped with 0.8 kg of polymer bonded explosive, equipped with a magnetic induction fuze. When the tank passes over the mine, the magnetic induction fuze will work without directly touching the mine, and the mine will be detonated to blow up the track or blow through the bottom armor. At the same time, the armor fragments scattered at high speed may also kill the occupants and equipment in the vehicle.
The U.S. military filled the "Volcano" mining system during the exercise
However, the mines directly scattered on the ground are exposed, and it is not difficult to eliminate them. Therefore, their biggest role in wartime is not to kill the enemy, but to delay the opponent's attack Or limit the enemy's advance to achieve tactical goals. By quickly distributing thousands of mines to form a minefield , it can effectively prevent or force the enemy to pass through a specific area.
However, the BLU-91/B landmines claim to have the ability to self-destruct at a fixed time, but the failure of the self-destruct device will inevitably occur during large-scale deployment in wartime. These unexploded landmines will leave serious hidden dangers.
As we all know, clearing landmines remnants of war is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also highly dangerous. Those remaining landmines may even threaten the lives of surrounding residents decades later.
For example, in order to prevent the PLA from landing, the Taiwan military laid more than 100,000 landmines in the Kinmen area. Things have changed, and now these landmines that have already expired still cause panic and even casualties from time to time. In July 2020, Taiwanese people discovered two American-made M6 anti-tank mines on Kinmen Beach.
It can be said that if the Taiwan military dares to use this kind of landmine in the Taiwan Strait conflict, it is hard to say whether it will pose a threat to the armored forces of the PLA, but it is absolutely certain that it will threaten the lives of the people on the island. In addition, the introduction of this system by the Taiwan military is also facing another problem. Mei Fuxing, director of the "Taiwan Strait Security Research Center", said, "The planning of building a mobile minelaying system is very good, and it can be regarded as a relatively low-cost asymmetric defense capability." In service in the 1990s, production has been discontinued for many years. Even if Taiwan spares no expense today, it is doubtful whether new products can be purchased, or whether it is even possible to restart the production line.
Mei Fuxing said that even if the Taiwan military intends to purchase stock from the U.S. military, but the equipment that has been in service for 20 to 30 years, the supporting parts manufacturers may no longer be found, which will cause the Taiwan military an extremely headache. In fact, a few years ago, the U.S. military wanted to put the inventory of "volcanic"When the system was unpacked and redeployed, I faced a similar situation and had to renovate it first to restore it to a proper condition.
