U.S. Army Uses 3D Printed Landmines for Training – Pictures

Landmines are a serious danger in many areas. They are actively used in some zones of conflict, and in others they are simply there, leftovers from the last two world wars or other extended armed confrontations.

Being trained to recognize, avoid, and disarm landmines isn't exactly easy, but at least it's safe, since the mines used in those sessions are harmless duds.

Still, they need to be realistic enough to emulate the actual mines one may encounter in the field. That is why a training mine can cost up to $700 / €521. This gave a certain group of people an idea. Called EOD Life, the startup company is offering 3D printed landmines for around $75 / €56 each.

EOD stands for Explosive Ordinance Disposal, military bomb squads that also oversee weapon/ammo logistics, at least in part. In fact, the company owner is part of an EOD.

In the picture above is the YM-1 landmine, which has a top piece that can push down when stepped on. An internal switch sends a wireless signal to a receiver (via the 315mhz RF frequency) to a recover box, which produces a loud siren. A fairly straightforward way to say “if this were real, you would be dead.”

There has been a surge of military applications for 3D printing technology lately. 3D printed uniforms and equipment are straightforward enough, but there have been bigger, borderline alarming applications as well, like 3D printed warheads.

There are some benign initiatives too, though, like facial reconstruction surgery. And let's not even get started on the Iron Man suit.

The EOD landmines are a pretty simple military application of 3D printing technology really, when compared to all of these things. It will, however, contribute to the survival of soldiers. Better training means being better prepared after all.

EOD Life has not disclosed any plans to make its designs open source, which means that military facilities and remote installations will not be printing their own dud mines anytime soon. Then again, we suppose nothing is really stopping them from creating their own CAD models, as long as they have a good enough designer of their own. It remains to be seen if EOD Life manages to establish a business foothold in spite of that.