Editing Land mine (section)

==== Cold War ====
[[File:US M18a1 claymore mine.jpg|thumb|[[Claymore mine]] with firing device and electric blasting cap assembly]]
During the [[Cold War]], the members of NATO were concerned about massive armored attacks by the Soviet Union. They planned for a minefield stretching across the entire West German border, and developed new types of mines. The British designed an anti-tank mine, the [[Mk 7 mine|Mark 7]], to defeat rollers by detonating the second time it was pressed. It also had a 0.7-second delay so the tank would be directly over the mine. They also developed the first scatterable mine, the [[No 7 Mk1 Dingbat mine|No. 7]] Dingbat. The Americans used the [[M6 mine|M6 anti-tank mine]] and tripwire-operated bounding anti-personnel mines such as the [[M2 mine|M2]] and [[M16 mine|M16]].<ref name=CrollCh7>{{harvnb|Croll|2008|loc=Chapter 7}}</ref>

In the [[Korean War]], land mine use was dictated by the steep terrain, narrow valleys, forest cover and lack of developed roads. This made tanks less effective and more easily stopped by mines. However, mines laid near roads were often easy to spot. In response to this problem, the U.S. developed the [[M24 mine|M24]], a mine that was placed off to the side of the road. When triggered by a tripwire, it fired a rocket. However, the mine was not available until after the war.<ref name=CrollCh7/>

The Chinese had a lot of success with massed infantry attacks. The extensive forest cover limited the range of machine guns, but anti-personnel mines were effective. However, mines were poorly recorded and marked, often becoming as much a hazard to allies as enemies. Tripwire-operated mines were not defended by pressure mines; the Chinese were often able to disable them and reuse them against U.N. forces.<ref name=CrollCh7/>

Looking for more destructive mines, the Americans developed the [[Claymore (mine)|Claymore]], a directional fragmentation mine that hurls steel balls in a 60-degree arc at a speed of 1,200m/s. They also developed a pressure-operated mine, the [[M14 mine|M14]] "toe-popper". These, too, were ready too late for the Korean War.<ref name=CrollCh7/>

[[File:L9 Bar mine.jpg|thumb|300px|An [[L9 Bar Mine]]]]
In 1948, the British developed the [[No 6 AP mine|No. 6 anti-personnel mine]], a minimum-metal mine with a narrow diameter, making it difficult to detect with metal detectors or prodding. Its three-pronged pressure piece inspired the nickname "carrot mine". However, it was unreliable in wet conditions. In the 1960s the Canadians developed a similar, but more reliable mine, the [[C3A1 mine|C3A1]] "Elsie" and the British army adopted it. The British also developed the L9 bar mine, a wide anti-tank mine with a rectangular shape, which covered more area, allowing a minefield to be laid four times as fast as previous mines. They also upgraded the Dingbat to the [[L10 Ranger Anti-Personnel mine|Ranger]], a plastic mine that was fired from a truck-mounted discharger that could fire 72 mines at a time.<ref name=CrollCh7/>

In the 1950s, the US Operation Doan Brook studied the feasibility of delivering mines by air. This led to three types of air-delivered mine. ''Wide Area Anti-Personnel Mines'' (WAAPMs) were small steel spheres that discharged tripwires when they hit the ground; each dispenser held 540 mines. The [[BLU-43 Dragontooth]] was small and had a flattened "W" shape to slow its descent, while the [[gravel mine]] was larger. Both were packed by the thousand into bombs. All three were designed to inactivate after a period of time, but any that failed to activate presented a safety challenge. Over 37 million gravel mines were produced between 1967 and 1968, and when they were dropped in places like Vietnam their locations were unmarked and unrecorded. A similar problem was presented by unexploded cluster munitions.<ref name=CrollCh7/>

The next generation of scatterable mines arose in response to the increasing mobility of war. The Germans developed the Skorpion system, which scattered [[AT2 mine]]s from a tracked vehicle. The Italians developed a helicopter delivery system that could rapidly switch between [[SB-33 mine|SB-33 anti-personnel mines]] and [[SB-81 mine|SB-81 anti-tank mines]]. The US developed a range of systems called the [[Family of Scatterable Mines]] (FASCAM) that could deliver mines by fast jet, artillery, helicopter and ground launcher.<ref name=CrollCh7/>