An Cosantóir

minewolf | 11 CLEARS THE WAY D BY WeSley BouRke PHOTOS BY aRMN NevIlle CoughlaN world, in parts of Africa, Asia, the Balkans, and the Middle East, where mines have been heavily used in the conflicts that blighted those regions. Even after years of peace, mines and other explosive remnants of war lying dormant under the soil still retain the power to injure, maim, or kill if they are disturbed. Mines are rela- tively cheap to produce and can take minutes to set, yet removing them can prove to be very expensive in time and other resources. Hence the slogan 'Be Mine Aware' is drilled into every peacekeeper prior to and during deployment. The Corps of Engineers (COE) is efence Forces personnel have served on many UN peace- keeping missions around the responsible for mine-clearance in the Defence Forces, and to complement its existing mine-clearing equipment and techniques the COE recently purchased two MineWolf (MW 240), remote-controlled, tracked, de-mining machines. We spoke to COE students on the first MW 240 Mechanics and Operators course. Swiss company MineWolf Systems is 240 comple- ments the COE's existing mine-clear- ance port- folio, which includes the larger Aard- vark Mk 4 Dedicated Landmine Clearance Flail, the smaller Doking MV4 mine flails, and various other equipment, such as a wide range of metal detection sys- tems used by the engineer specialist search and clearance (ESSC) teams. The MW 240's relatively light weight of mine- contaminated land all over the world have been effectively cleared using MineWolf products. The MW Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. Training on the course was provided a leading provider of technologies and services for the clearance of landmines and other explosive devices, whose solutions are in use worldwide by militaries and humanitarian aid agen- cies alike. Millions of square meters means it can be easily transported to remote areas. It is a robust and proven machine, designed to operate in chal- lenging environments and to withstand blasts from anti-tank and anti-person- nel mines and other explosive ordnance remnants. It is currently in use with several humanitarian de-mining organi- sations worldwide and is also in service with the British Army and German by MineWolf technicians Matt Ack- royd and Zeljko Tebes. "The MW 240 has become very popular because it is easily transportable and capable of getting in anywhere," Matt told us. "It can also be fitted with a range of multipurpose attachments: flail, tiller, robotic arm, dozer blade, or forklift, all of which help the operator in a multi- tude of scenarios. It also comes with its own winch." "It is proving very successful on peace-support operations," his col- league added. "German troops have successfully deployed the MW 240 www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE

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