Armed OZM 3,4,72 anti-personnel mines
Armed OZM 4 anti-personnel mine in a minefield
OZM 3/4 anti-personnel mine schematic diagram
OZM 72 anti-personnel mine schematic diagram

The OZM-3, OZM-4 and OZM-72 are Soviet manufactured bounding type anti-personnel mines. (fragmentation-barrier mine, in the Russian and other post-Soviet armies as informally called "frog mine" or "witch" )

They are normally painted olive green, and issued with a spool of tripwires and two green painted wooden or metal stakes for affixing the tripwires. Both OZM-3 and OZM-4 have cast iron fragmenting bodies while the OZM-72 also contains preformed steel fragments, and all three are issued with empty fuze wells, so a variety of fuzing options are possible.

Operation

The mines can be activated by a variety of fuzes, including electronic fuzes or command initiation, although they are most commonly fitted with an MUV booby trap switch which is activated by a tripwire.

On firing, a metal base plate remains in the ground, while the mine body is thrown up by a small lifting charge, but remains attached to a strong wire tether. When the end of the tether is reached at a height of approximately 0.5 m, the main charge explodes and scatters fragments of the casing across a wide area.

OZM mine may sometimes be laid directly on top of an MS-3 mine. The MS-3 is an anti-handling device which closely resembles a PMN mine, except that it has a "blister" on top and operates purely as a pressure-release boobytrap. Lifting an OZM mine (without rendering safe the MS-3 placed underneath) will trigger detonation.

Variants

Soviet Anti-personnel landmines OZM-72, without and with fuse

OZM-3

Casing materialcast iron
Weight3.2 kg (7 lbs)
Fragmentation charge (TNT)75 gr (0.16 lbs)
Casing diameter76 mm (3 inches)
Casing height130 mm (5.1 inches)
Length of the sensor target (one-way)5 meters (16.4 ft)
Sensor sensitivity0.5–1 kg (1.1 - 2.2 lbs)
Radius of guaranteed lethal destruction9 meters (29.5 ft)
Temperature usage range-40 to +50*C (-40 to +138*F)
Sources[1]

OZM-4

Casing materialcast iron
Weight5.4 kg (12 lb)
Fragmentation charge (TNT)170 gr (0.39 lb)
Casing diameter90 mm (3.5 inches)
Casing height170 mm (6.7 inches)
Length of the sensor target (one-way)10 meters (33 ft)
Sensor sensitivity0.5–1 kg (1.1 - 2.2 lbs)
Radius of guaranteed lethal destruction13 meters (42 lbs)
Temperature usage range-40 to +50*C (-40 to +138*F)
Sources[2]

OZM-72

Casing materialiron
Weight5 kg (11 lbs)
Fragmentation charge (TNT)660 gr (1.49 lb)
Casing diameter108 mm (4.1 inches)
Casing height172 mm (6.7 inches)
Sensor sensitivity1.5–6 kg (3.3 - 13.2 lbs) with MUV-3 fuse
Radius of guaranteed lethal destruction25 meters (82.5 ft)
Radius of fragments50 meters (164 ft)
Temperature usage range-40 to +50*C (-40 to +138*F)
Number of preformed steel fragments2400 pcs.
Sources[3]

Ottawa Treaty

Since the Ottawa Treaty, a number of countries have decided to retain their OZM mines, but convert them to command detonation only by destroying all fuzes which can be indiscriminately activated potentially by non-combatants or animals. Belarus in particular has decided to keep 200,000 OZM-72.

See also

References

  1. "Anti-personnel mine OZM-3". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  2. "Anti-personnel mine OZM-4". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  3. "Anti-personnel mine OZM-72". Archived from the original on 9 October 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.


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