Bob_Marley wrote:AP mines are banned by international treaty, IIRC, so it seems unlikly that the MEC would use them, as for the PLA I dont know if they are signatoryies...
77SiCaRiO77 wrote:why (if the AP mines are banned) does the US use cluster mines (actualy AP mine=cluster)?
Just because signatories of this treaty agreed not to use them does not mean that they or anyone else will not use them. The fact is they are cost effective, brutally so, for what they are intended to do.
BTW, "APERS" is the preferred acronym/abbreviation for "anti-personnel" so it does not get confused with "armor piercing" (AP).
Despite political pressure from the Vietnam Veterans of America the United States
did not sign the Ottawa Treaty (Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production, and Transfer of Anti-personnel Land Mines and Their Destruction) due to special circumstances, namely the Korean DMZ.
However, the US is a signatory of Protocol II (Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-traps, and Other Devices) of the
Geneva Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (UN Doc. A/CONF./95/15, 1980) and abides by the provisions laid forth in it. Under the Clinton Administration, it also tried to keep with the spirit of the Ottawa Treaty. The minefield around Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba has been completely dismantled, and the US has nearly completely destroyed its stockpile of non self-destructing mines except for those lining the border in Korea, and even those are clearly marked by a perimeter.
Only troops in stationed in Korea (and perhaps other places, with regards to special operations) receive training in the use of M16 series bounding APERS mines and the use of the M18 Claymore directional APERS mines in the tripwire activated mode. Unless ROE allows for it, the Claymore is only used by US forces in the command-detonated mode only.
foodmaniac2003 wrote:You do realize what the Bouncing Betty is right?
It was a AP mine, and did indeed bounce up then detonate for maximum damage, though it was
use by Nazi Germany including the SS and the Wehrmact. It would be very awkward to have a WWII weapon in a Realistic Modern mod eh?
Bounding APERS mines have been developed and used quite frequently since then and have always been informally referred to as "bouncing betties," including the US M16 series of bounding APERS mines. And considering how old the M2 Browning Machinegun is, it doesn't seem that awkward to me.
