Explosive Disposal Sector to Need A Lot of Funds, Innovative Tech.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew

When it comes to landmines, unexploded ordnance and the deadly debris that wars and conflict leave behind, it looks like the world is taking one step forward, and two steps back.

From the jungles of Colombia to the arid lands of Yemen to the once productive wheat and sunflower fields in Ukraine, there are probably more landmines and unexploded bomblets in the Earth's soil than ever.

Three decades after Princess Diana helped bring the world's attention to the topic and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize, Russia is seeding Ukraine with landmines every day and dropping cluster munitions. These are bombs that explode and spread smaller bomblets, often with high dud rates.

Ukraine, deciding that it needed every tool available to kick out the Russians, asked the United States for--and received--its own cluster munitions.

And the Biden administration --one would think after vigorous internal debate--agreed. The cold hard calculus: kill Russian soldiers today, bring a quicker end to the war --worry about the cleanup later. But there will come a "later" and a big bill to pay.

Russia was already using cluster munitions in Ukraine and now the U.S.-made bomblets will be added to the mix.

But the decision has been made. So, going forward, what now?

It will take a lot of funding to clean up the messes in Ukraine and Yemen--and to continue clearance operations in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Colombia--and the defense research and development community should be called upon to invent new, innovative ways to detect, dismantle or destroy unexploded ordnance and landmines. Developing more advanced robotics, sensors and protective gear to help the brave men and women tasked with clearing fields needs to begin now.

There are three streams that need to be funded: demining, or the cleanup; advanced technologies to detect, defeat and protect; and money to help victims.

It was depressing to listen in on a recent NPR report on a clinic in Yemen that is trying to fit bomb victims from its civil war with prosthetic limbs. Like many nongovernmental organizations, the nonprofit needs funds.

Sad. There's always enough money to drop bombs on people, but when it comes to helping the victims, the NGOs have to go around with their hats in their hands.

The three main players in the Yemen conflict--Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States--are oil-rich countries and need to do what's right.

If you can spend $400 million to bring a soccer player...