United States of America

Key developments since May 2006: The Pentagon requested $1.66 billion for research on and production of two new landmine systems—Spider and Intelligent Munitions System—between fiscal years 2006 and 2013. Both of these systems appear incompatible with the Mine Ban Treaty. In June 2006 the US decided to begin low-rate initial production of Spider—the first production of antipersonnel mines by the US since 1997. The Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act was introduced in the Congress. The US government spent $108.3 million in fiscal year 2006 on humanitarian mine action programs in 28 countries, an increase of some $13 million from the previous fiscal year.

Mine Ban Policy

The United States of America has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. Its position has not changed since the Bush Administration announced its policy on the weapon in February 2004: “The United States will not join the Ottawa Convention because its terms would have required us to give up a needed military capability.”^[1] According to US policy, the use of any type of landmine, antipersonnel or antivehicle, that self-destructs and self-deactivates is permitted indefinitely without any geographic restriction. The use of non-self-destructing antipersonnel mines is permissible until 2010, but only in Korea. The use of non-self-destructing antivehicle mines will be allowed globally until 2010, but only after presidential authorization.^[2] The use of low metal content (non-detectable) non-self-destructing landmines was prohibited on 3 January 2005.^[3]

On 6 December 2006 the US was one of 17 states that abstained from voting on UN General Assembly Resolution 61/84 supporting the universalization and full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty. It has abstained on each annual pro-ban UNGA resolution since 1997.

The US attended intersessional Standing Committee meetings in May 2006, but did not attend the April 2007 meetings nor the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in September 2006.

The United States is a party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines. It attended the Eighth Annual Conference of States Parties to the protocol in November 2006, and submitted an annual national report on 6 November 2006, as required under Article 13. The US is not party to Protocol V on explosive remnants of war.

In August 2006 Senators Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter introduced legislation, the Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act of 2006, which would prohibit the United States from procuring landmines and other victim-activated weapons in any circumstances.^[4] The bill remained under consideration in mid-2007.

Use

The last recorded use of antipersonnel mines by the United States was in the first Gulf War in 1991.^[5] Landmine Monitor is unaware of any credible allegations or reports that US forces have used antipersonnel mines in combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere in this reporting period (since May 2006).^[6]

The extent to which US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere may exercise jurisdiction or control of existing mined areas, or utilize them for military benefit, and therefore incur obligations under Amended Protocol II, is not known. Among those obligations would be to ensure the effective exclusion of civilians from mined areas.^[7]

Production

Budget documents released in February 2007 reveal that a decade-long research and development effort, originally intended to develop alternatives to antipersonnel mines, has resulted in programs to produce two new landmine systems.^[8] The Pentagon requested US$1.66 billion for research and production of these new systems—Spider and Intelligent Munitions System—between fiscal years 2006 and 2013. This is an increase of $300 million over the previous year’s budget request. This includes $558 million for the Spider program and $1.1 billion for the Intelligent Munitions System. ^[9]

Mirroring the shift of emphasis in national landmine policy, which blurs the distinction between antipersonnel and antivehicle mines and focuses instead on the active life of the mine, these new programs rely on new methods of remote control and communication that can apply to various types of munitions that could have antipersonnel, antivehicle, and non-lethal effects. It appears these types of munitions will have a variety of ways of being initiated, both command-detonation (that is, when a soldier decides when to explode the mine, sometimes called “man-in-the-loop”) and traditional victim-activation (also called target-activation).^[10] Any victim-activated device is prohibited by the Mine Ban Treaty.

Spider

The Spider Networked Munitions System consists of a control unit capable of monitoring up to 84 hand-emplaced munitions that deploy a web of tripwires across an area. Once an enemy touches a tripwire, a man-in-the-loop control system allows the operator to activate either lethal or non-lethal effects. However, the US Army acknowledged in June 2006 that “when permitted by the rules of engagement for the mission, Spider has a mode that temporarily allows for target activation when an overwhelming hostile environment is imminent.  The operator may return to man-in-the-loop at any time.”^[11] This “battlefield override” feature makes the Spider system incompatible with the Mine Ban Treaty.

The Pentagon made the decision to begin low-rate initial production of Spider in June 2006. It awarded a $31 million contract on 3 July 2006 to a joint venture between Textron Systems Corporation in Wilmington, Massachusetts and Alliant Techsystems in Plymouth, Minnesota. The first Spider systems are scheduled to be delivered in September 2008. The $558 million program is scheduled to produce 839 Spider systems by fiscal year 2013.^[12] This constitutes the first production of antipersonnel mines by the US since 1997.

The US Congress has attempted to block a decision on full-scale production of victim-activated Spider systems by including a provision in the fiscal year 2006 defense appropriations bill, passed on 31 December 2005, that requires the Secretary of the Army to conduct a review of new landmine technologies and report on the possible indiscriminate effects of these new systems before any full-scale production decision is made. It was the inclusion of the battlefield override feature in Spider that led Congress to request the study.^[13] As of July 2007, the Secretary of the Army had not submitted a report, even though it went forward with a decision to begin low-rate initial production. If enacted, the Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act would prohibit production of Spider with a battlefield override feature.

Intelligent Munitions System

In June 2006 the army awarded the system design and development contract for the Intelligent Munitions System (IMS). The near-term goal of the IMS program is to provide a self-destructing and self-deactivating replacement for all non-self-destructing antivehicle mines in the US inventory by the 2010 deadline put forth in the national landmine policy.^[14]

According to its manufacturer, IMS is a “networked sensor and munition system” that relies on a “ground-based wide-area top-attack system for detecting, classifying and engaging enemy systems.” It is capable of attacking “light-wheeled through heavy-tracked vehicles, as well as enemy personnel” using a “proven top-attack mechanism found in the company’s Sensor Fuzed Weapon” that “is controlled by a soldier who follows established rules of engagement in order to identify friendly forces and non-combatants.”^[15]

Pentagon budget documents additionally stated that “IMS utilizes sensors linked to effects and is controlled over robust communications in either an autonomous mode or via Man-in-the-Loop control.”^[16] Budget justification materials from February 2007 noted that IMS is “capable of unattended employment” in engaging its targets.^[17] The terms “unattended employment” and “autonomous mode” appear to be synonymous with victim-activation, and would make this system incompatible with the Mine Ban Treaty. If enacted, the Victim-Activated Landmine Abolition Act would apparently prohibit production of IMS.

The army has requested a total of $1.1 billion for research activities and eventual production of 1,325 IMS units between fiscal years 2006 and 2013, including $307 million for research and $792 million for production.^[18] Textron Systems Corporation in Wilmington, Massachusetts was awarded a $276 million contract in June 2006 and was partnered with Northrop Grumman, ITT Industries and BAE Systems.^[19] The decision to begin low-rate initial production of IMS will be made in the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 (October-December 2008), with the first IMS units then scheduled to be produced in December 2009.^[20]

Stockpiling

The US stockpiles approximately 10.4 million antipersonnel mines and 7.5 million antivehicle mines, the third largest landmine stockpile in the world after China and Russia. The stockpile has 1.56 million non-self-destructing landmines, including 1.16 million M14 and M16 antipersonnel mines and about 403,000 Claymore mines. Systems that simultaneously deploy both self-destructing antipersonnel and antivehicle mines constitute only 11 percent of the overall stockpile.

The M14 and M16 antipersonnel mines are for use in any future resumption of war in Korea. US Army documentation indicates that the US stores nearly half of those mines in the continental United States, not in South Korea.^[22] The US military also keeps in South Korea a substantial number of self-destructing, scatterable antipersonnel mines. In 2005 the South Korean government reported that the US held 40,000 GATOR, 10,000 VOLCANO and an unknown number of MOPMS mines.^[23]

Transfer

US law has prohibited the export of antipersonnel mines since 23 October 1992. This moratorium has been extended several times, most recently until 23 October 2008.^[24]

Most of the US mines in South Korea are part of the more extensive War Reserve Stocks for Allies, Korea (WRSA-K). On 30 December 2005 President George Bush signed Public Law 109-159, authorizing the sale of items in the WRSA-K to South Korea during a three-year period, after which the WRSA-K program will be terminated.^[25] The law states that any items remaining in the WRSA-K at the time of termination “shall be removed, disposed of, or both by the Department of Defense.”^[26]

The Pentagon determines which items to offer for sale to South Korea, and it is not clear if antipersonnel mines are among the items that have been or will be offered.^[27] It is also not clear how any sale would be permitted under the comprehensive US prohibition on transfer or sale of antipersonnel mines in effect since 1992.

Landmine Casualties

The US military uses the term improvised explosive device (IED) to describe nearly all explosive devices encountered by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In reporting casualties, US military officials make no distinction between target-activated and command-detonated IEDs.^[28]

In Iraq in 2006 a total of 373 US military personnel were killed by attacks involving IEDs, according to Department of Defense casualty reports. Eleven of the casualties were the result of vehicle-born IED attacks. Mines were responsible for the deaths of four military personnel in 2006.^[29] For comparison, in 2005, 445 US military personnel were killed by IEDs in Iraq, and an additional seven were killed by mines.

In Afghanistan in 2006, 26 US military personnel were killed by attacks involving IEDs, three of which were killed in vehicle-born IED attacks.

Casualties in Iraq continued in 2007; between 1 January and 1 July, a total of 331 US military personnel died as the result of IED attacks in Iraq, including five killed in vehicle-born IED incidents. In addition, one soldier died from a landmine explosion and one from an accident involving unexploded ordnance.^[30]

In Afghanistan between 1 January 2007 and 1 July 2007, six US military personnel were killed as a result of IED attacks.^[31]

Mine Action Assistance

The US government spent $108.3 million in fiscal year (FY) 2006 on humanitarian mine action programs in 28 countries. This total is $13.2 million more than FY 2005, with most of the increase due to emergency funding for Lebanon for the clearance of unexploded ordnance, especially the large number of cluster submunitions, in the aftermath of the July-August conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The estimate for FY 2007 funding is $91.75 million.

While Landmine Monitor relies on official US sources for its mine action funding figures, in some official publications and public remarks by officials, the US government cites different figures for its mine action funding than those presented by Landmine Monitor.^[41]

The Department of State also reported a contribution to the Organization of American States (OAS) covering mine action in Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Nicaragua.^[43] Actual funding to some countries through the Department of State and Department of Defense, as reported to Landmine Monitor, varied in some cases from originally budgeted amounts noted above. Iraq received slightly more ($13,200,000) than budgeted, and Serbia and Montenegro received slightly less ($1,000,000). Rwanda received $476,000 and Guinea Bissau received $400,000 from the Department of State, but these were not included in its original budget. Senegal was not reported to have received the $400,000 allocated in the Department of State budget. In addition, Kosovo received $110,000 and Macedonia received $50,000 via the International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF). Lebanon received $1,427,000 from the Department of State and Department of Defense, in addition to $9,634,000 in emergency funds, for an actual total of $11,061,000.^[44]

Five countries received funds in FY 2006 that did not in FY 2005: Argentina, Colombia, Estonia, Guinea-Bissau and Tunisia. Among the countries assisted by the US contribution to the OAS in FY 2006, Honduras, Costa Rica and Guatemala did not receive US funds in the previous fiscal year. Nicaragua received US funds in FY 2005, also through the OAS.

Survivor Assistance Funding

The Patrick J. Leahy War Victims Fund, managed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), has been in operation in post-conflict and conflict-affected developing countries since 1989. The Fund was established to provide a dedicated source of financial and technical assistance for civilian victims of war who suffer from mobility-related injuries, including people who suffer from polio as a result of interrupted immunization services. This includes but is not limited to survivors of landmine and UXO incidents.

In Fiscal Year 2006, the Fund contributed an estimated total of $11.6 million, including $8 million to programs in Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Cambodia, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, Romania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam, as well as $3.6 million to numerous regional and international initiatives spanning multiple countries. The estimated budget for Fund in fiscal year 2005 was $14.4 million. To date, the Fund has provided over $143 million to more than 40 countries.^[45]

Funding for survivor assistance is also provided through the ITF. In calendar year 2006, the US Department of State allocated $1,809,196 to victim assistance via the ITF; approximately $980,130 was allocated in calendar year 2005.^[47]

In FY 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contributed funding of $3.15 million to Landmine Survivors Network (LSN). This was the only portion of CDC mine action funding allocated for survivor assistance. Of the total FY 2006 funding to LSN, $1,378,889 (or 44 percent) was allocated in varying amounts to LSN country programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Jordan, Mozambique and Vietnam.^[48] The CDC provided LSN with the same amount in fiscal year 2005.^[49]