For comparison of Stand Alone Mechanical Demining by KMMCS with work of manual deminers in terms of time and cost and reliability can be provided several calculations and one proove of severe methodically clearance falt serie of manual deminers.

1. Comparison of costs and speed in Mosambik at 56 ha (Costs per Mine, Costs per Hectar, Performance).
2. Comparison of speed in District Moamba at 44 ha / 56 ha
3. Comparison of speed in Report of german Bundesregierung from 20. Sept 1995 at Subcomittee for Dissarmament and Arm Controls, -712- UA1 -2401- Page 6/10, Extract from the Protokoll in german Dok 25  
4. Comparison of costs and speed in Germany at nearly 17 ha. Cleared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Based upon their own knowledge in manual demining they had calculated the effectiveness of the Krohn Mechanical Mine Clearance System (KMMCS) at an ordnance project at Combat Training Center, Hohenfels, Germany.
5. Comparison of quality in Croatia caused by clearance faults of manual deminning.

VLR Wokalek explained: ...(about international funding and documentation effort of Bundeswehr for the mostly used 600 mine types and bad experience of demining activity in Cambodia and remining shortly after demining)

"Zur Zeit habe man in Mosambik ein mechanisches Minenräumsystem in der Erprobung, das sehr gut funktioniere. Das mechanische Minenräumverfahren habe den großen Vorteil, daß es schnell und sicher arbeite. Während die manuelle Minenräumung durch ein Zweierteam im verbuschten Gelände eine Tagesleistung von etwa zwei Meter erreiche - und dies mit dem zusätzlichen Verletzungsrisiko -, schaffe das neue mechanische Minenräumgerät einen etwa vier Meter breiten und 500 Meter langen Streifen in einer Dreiviertelstunde."

"Actually we are proving a mechanical mine clearing system, which works very good. The mechanical mine clearance procedure has the great advantage, that it is fast and safe. While manual demining with a two-person team in bush covered area might reach a production per day of two meter - and this with the additional risk of injuries - the new mechanical mine clearance machine accomplishes a strip of approx. four meters width and 500 m in a quarter of an hour."

Field Test of a Mechanical Demining System on an Impact Area

From 26. June to 29. July 2000, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) tested the effectiveness of the Krohn Mechanical Mine Clearance System (KMMCS) at an ordnance project at Combat Training Center, Hohenfels, Germany.

The KMMCS was used to assist in the subsurface clearance of an impact area for antitank ordnance.  The site had also been used as a demolition area for many other kinds of ordnance.

Several factors led to the decision to test KMMCS. Concentrations of unexploded ordnance (UXO), ordnance scrap and target scrap were much heavier in the target area than had been expected. The clearance team had spent 8 days clearing one 25- by 25-meter grid to a depth of 4 feet, removing 61 UXO items and 2450 pounds of OE scrap and target scrap. Clearly, production was falling behind and other means of clearance must be explored.

At about the same time, USACE learned of the KMMCS through another clearance effort that had been performed at Hohenfels. The proposed cost for testing the KMMCS, approximately $9700 per acre, was significantly less than the estimated cost of clearing manually. This suggested a partial solution to the production problem.

The USACE was also interested in trying innovative technology, and the customer was supportive of the effort. The owner claimed that this machine could withstand detonations of up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms) net explosive weight of TNT. The machine could till the soil and destroy surface and subsurface anomalies to a depth of approximately 1 foot. It could travel at the rate of about 1 mile per hour. Under ideal conditions this would result in a clearance rate of about 6 acres per 10-hour day. The USACE was eager to test these claims and the Corps contractor, EODT Inc., was receptive to the prospect of trying out the system.

...

Cost Savings

In order to determine actual cost savings, grids were selected in medium and high density areas for comparison of production rates. The following tables show ordnance clearance rates for grids that were not tilled before clearance and grids tilled prior to clearance.

Effectiveness of Tilling in Areas of Heavy Anomaly Counts (More than 1000 per grid)

* Includes Material, Lodging and Per Diem spread over a 7 day period.

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Effectiveness of Tilling in Areas of Medium Anomaly Counts (Less than 1000 per Grid)

* Includes Material, Lodging and Per Diem spread over a 7 day period.

The following table shows the potential cost savings that could be realized for the entire project by tilling the grids prior to clearance.

Total Potential Cost Savings

Conclusions

Results of this test were very favorable, indicating that a tilling system will provide significant cost savings if used under favorable weather conditions and in the right configurations. Further use of mechanical clearance technology should be encouraged on projects where anomaly counts are high and where MSDs will allow safe operation. The lessons learned during this test will be useful in future applications of this and similar mechanical methods for UXO clearance.

Cerified an minefree after humanitarian (=manual) demining and follow up founds by KMMCS

High Voltage Powerline Tenja (Croatia): this strip had been declared minefree by local authorities. Even though 16 nonmagnetic Anti-Tank Mines were found and destroyed by KMMCS.

High Voltage Powerline Tenja (Croatia): detailled places of the found and destroyed Anti-Tank Mines .

Fragments of Anti-Tank Mine No.3, destroyed by machine I of KMMCS

Fragments of Anti-Tank Mine No.8, destroyed by machine I of KMMCS

Fragments of Anti-Tank Mine No.9, destroyed by machine I of KMMCS

Fragments of Anti-Tank Mine No.13, destroyed by machine I of KMMCS

Other place of founds: as demonstration of non-dangerous metal parts at which the metal detector alarms, which causes unnecessary and long lasting safety operations, that turn out as false alarms. Up to 90% of the alarms are false. Whereas approx. 70% of all layed mines are nonmagnetic and theretor can not be detected by metal detectors.

In the picture there are no mines, but civil metal parts (knife, chain of agricultural machine), found by metal detector.

Other place of founds: Non explosive metal-remians from mines, destroyed by KMMCS.

High Voltage Powerline Tenja (Croatia), after the first pass of machine I August 2001

High Voltage Powerline Tenja (Croatia), after the first pass of machine I August 2001

High Voltage Powerline Tenja (Croatia), after the first pass of machine I August 2001