Congress Blocks New Landmine Production Requires Pentagon to Review Indiscriminate Effects of New Weapons Before Production

In a last minute decision at the end of 2005, the U.S. Congress has told the Pentagon not to begin production of any new landmines before studying the possible indiscriminate consequences for deploying this weapon.  The U.S. has not begun production of a new landmine since 1997.

According to budget documents submitted by the administration, the Defense Department had planned to make a decision in December 2005 on production of a particular new landmine called “Spider.”  However, Congress delayed the decision by including a provision in the fiscal year 2006 military (“defense”) appropriations bill, passed on December 31, 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 production decision is made. 

The idea for developing the Spider system grows out of a desire by the Clinton administration to develop alternatives to landmines.   Instead of joining the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty banning use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of antipersonnel mines, President Clinton initiated a program within the Pentagon to identify possible alternatives to antipersonnel landmines in order to “end reliance on [antipersonnel mines] as soon as possible.”  In May 1996, the U.S. began a search for alternatives to antipersonnel landmines that would enable the military to agree to a complete ban on the use of landmines.  Proposals for alternative weapons were supposed to be completed by 2006.

The Bush administration abandoned President Clinton’s commitment to eventually eliminate use of antipersonnel mines, but continued the research and development program looking for alternatives to conventional landmines.  The Pentagon has spent more than $320 million on researching alternatives to conventional antipersonnel mines since 1997.  The Spider mine system alone has already cost U.S. taxpayers $130 million. .

This alternative to antipersonnel landmines research program was tasked with developing technologies to replace conventional antipersonnel landmines that cannot distinguish between an innocent civilian and an enemy combatant.  Congress overwhelmingly supports developing alternatives to antipersonnel mines, but the devil is in the details.  Spider landmines differ from "conventional" mines because they are designed to detonate in a variety of ways.  Spider mines can explode both through command-detonation (when a human operator decides when to explode the mine) or through conventional victim-activation (when a victim detonates the weapon by stepping on or picking up the mine).  An operator would have the ability to turn the switch one way for command detonation and the other way for victim-detonation.  Once a soldier flips a switch, Spider would become a conventional victim-activated antipersonnel mine that cannot tell the difference between the boot of a solider and the foot of a child.  New landmines designed to permit victim-activation meet the definition of an indiscriminate weapon, and would be illegal under the Ottawa Mine-Ban Treaty.

While equipping Spider with command-detonated capabilities can be seen as more discriminate than conventional anti-personnel mines, the inclusion of a switch allowing victim-activation is particularly alarming to members of Congress.  It was the inclusion of this “battlefield-override” switch allowing indiscriminate detonation that led Congress to request the study.

The 500 U.S.-based organizations that make up the U.S. Campaign to Ban Landmine worked to alert policymakers about possible indiscriminate features of new landmine alternatives for more than five years, and continue to meet with policymakers on this issue regularly.  The recent action by Congress is a step in the direction of good government and effective congressional oversight.  When appropriating funds for alternatives to antipersonnel landmines, Congress did not intend to fund development of another conventional landmine, this time equipped with a switch.  Legislators must continue to provide oversight on this issue to insure that the U.S. uses its ample technological ability to ensure that innocent lives are spared.

The issue of new landmine development is only delayed.  The issue will come up again once the study is submitted to Congress.  The USCBL and its supporters will continue to monitor the issue and oppose any new production of landmines.

Please help stop new landmine production for good.  To write members of Congress on the issue, go to: http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=8951251

Scott Stedjan
Coordinator, US Campaign to Ban Landmines
January 2006