Losing Anti-Personnel Landmines: An Economy of Force.

Abstract

The 1997 Ottawa Conference recently banned anti-personnel landmines (APLM) and created international pressure for non-signatories such as the United States, to abide by its mandate. This paper will address the operational need for landmines. It examines the role of landmines as an economy of force in operational maneuver and flexibility, as well as their affects on the operational factors of war. It will explore the impact of eliminating landmines on the Korean peninsula and offer alternatives to the Operational Commander. The paper will argue that the elimination of landmines, without a proven and cost efficient alternative to APLM, creates a substantial capability gap and ignores the increased risk to U.S. Forces. Finally, it will briefly examine future systems under exploration to replace APLM that might offer the Operational Commander an alternative capability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 05, 1999
Accession Number
ADA363214

Entities

People

  • David A. Ottignon

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter IED
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anti-Personnel Mines
  • Command And Control
  • Control Systems
  • Department Of Defense
  • Force Protection
  • Global Positioning Systems
  • Land Mines
  • Military Operations
  • Minefields
  • Multiple Launch Rocket System
  • Munitions
  • Nonlethal Weapons
  • Scatterable Mines
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Weapon Systems

Readers

  • Munitions and Ordnance Engineering
  • Strategic Security Studies