Originally Posted by
Spunky Monkey
I remember a mine clearance presentation that described the petal mine. We were told that they were developed by the Russians for use in Afghanistan and made of brightly coloured plastic and were very light weight.
The design was for them to be thrown from helicopter doors over villages.
The kids would see them and play with them with the resulting limb and torso injuries.
We were horrified, more so when they were sown into cuddly toys with delay timers and tilt switches.
There was a quick realisation that the Russians didn't play by the same rule book as we did.
Somewhere in my distant brain I remember 10 mins to arm themselves, so they didn't go bang on landing, we had an inject on one exercise that the HAS entrance was blocked with the things and this Chief appeared with the equivalent of a BR platform sweeper and swept them all up in under 10
