U.S. Mulling New Generation of Land Mines

[Meeker Morgan]

From the (UK) Guardian:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon is close to deciding whether to produce a new generation of land mines, but the system is drawing fire from critics who say the military is ignoring international sentiment against such weapons.

Underscoring the unpopularity of the devices, defense officials working on the program, called Spider, declined to call the weapon a land mine. They opted instead for generic descriptions like ``networked munitions.''

The Spider has the same function as a field of land mines - to prevent anyone from crossing a piece of territory, either by killing them or scaring them away. But unlike a traditional minefield, it is designed to be monitored by a human operator, who can activate the system by computer when somebody enters the protected area.

It can also be set to function like a traditional minefield, without any human monitoring, officials involved with the program said in recent interviews. But they insisted that option would only be used in rare cases, with approval by senior officers on the ground. ...

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5271688,00.html

The bastards! :mad:

[Atman]

1. What, they want new one that work under 10 feet of Mississippi water?

nt