NATO-SCI 133 guides for planning and reporting tests of countermine equipment

Abstract

NATO Task group SCI-133 on "Countermine Technologies" under the NATO RTO (Systems Concepts and Integration) panel, has the goal to identify technologies for mine detection (close-in detection and remote detection) and mine neutralization (breaching, route clearing, area clearance) which provide the best short, medium and long-term potential in countermines operations. A brief overview of the activities will be given. The main focus of the paper is on the work of the NATO RTO SCI-133 task group on test and evaluation procedures for landmine-detection/neutralization and mechanical clearance equipment. Interpreting test results in test reports, is often difficult due to incomplete descriptions of test procedures and lack of clear definitions of test parameters. Task group SCI-133 prepared a list of issues that should be addressed in test reports of landmine-detection equipment. These guidelines also give references to documents containing relevant definitions. The presentation is in the form of a checklist of questions to be answered when designing, conducting, and reporting on test and evaluation efforts.