Several mine clearance machines have successfully completed testing in Türkiye, helping reduce risks and casualties during humanitarian mine clearance operations, Fatih Yel, head of a department at the Mine Action Centre of Türkiye’s Ministry of National Defence, said.
Yel made the remarks during a panel session titled “Technology and Innovation: Towards Safer and More Effective Humanitarian Mine Action”, held on the margins of the 4th International Mine Action Conference, Caliber.Az reports via local media.
He said technology’s most significant contribution to mine clearance today is its ability to provide information about suspected hazardous areas while reducing risks through remote-controlled detection systems.
“Drones can fly in the sky and identify mined areas. But the human eye cannot detect a mine from the air. When such factors are taken into account, it becomes clear how significant a contribution technology can make to mine clearance operations. However, technology is not yet capable of directly detecting and destroying mines,” Yel said.
He noted that mine clearance systems that have successfully passed testing in Türkiye have helped minimize casualties during clearance operations.
“These systems can be integrated into unmanned ground vehicles and operated remotely. This minimizes the risk to the lives of military personnel. These machines scan the ground using powerful microwave signals. By analyzing the reflected signals, they create a kind of X-ray image of what lies beneath the ground. Thanks to an artificial intelligence algorithm, they can immediately determine the type of explosive in the detected objects,” he said.
By Vafa Guliyeva
