Approximately 6 million acres of government land at over 2000 FUDS and BRAC sites along with active training and test ranges are contaminated with UXO. Costs of remediation may be as high as $100 billion. Sites vary in topography from flat to mountainous with vegetation ranging from barren or low grass to heavy shrubs and trees. Sites such as Spring Valley, a residential area outside of Washington, D.C., may also unexpectedly be found which contain UXO. Manual excavation by experienced EOD technicians generally involves careful use of shovels and garden trowels to remove soil in thin layers after the mechanical equipment has stopped 6 inches to a foot above suspected UXO.

Key benefits for using AIR-SPADE Safe Excavation equipment and technology for UXO include:

• Offers the ability to dig in areas that have sensitive vegetation.
• Digging with air jets and vacuum is traditionally much faster than hand excavation.
• Since upwards of 90% of objects excavated during the course of UXO operations are found to be non-hazardous false alarms, costs should also significantly reduce.
• Offers improved safety for the operator if combined with remote digging operations.
• Finally, has wide application to other hazardous and radioactive waste applications in the DoD and DOE complexes.

Unexploded Ordnance Advanced Technology Demonstration Program

In late 1995, AIR-SPADE used the Soft Trencher to demonstrate the capabilities of Safe Excavation technology for remediation of unexploded ordnance for the US Army. Under Phase II of the Unexploded Ordnance Advanced Technology Demonstration Program conducted at the Jefferson Proving Ground, AIR-SPADE successfully uncovered 13 targets ranging from a 81mm howitzer shell to a 250-pound bomb in an 18-hour period. Excavation rates averaged 3 cubic feet per minute in undisturbed, field type conditions. This was the highest number of targets successfully uncovered by any remediation technology demonstrated during the two-year program. In addition, glass vials were successfully uncovered for a representative of the Corps of Engineers during the demonstration.
Operator runs telescoping boom using remote box
Example hole dug by the Soft Trencher at JPG with UXO target uncovered at bottom

In 1998 AIR-SPADE participated in Phase IV of the Controlled Site Advanced Technology Demonstration Program for UXO at Jefferson Proving Ground. Over 40 targets were excavated. Excavation rates averaged about 0.2 to 0.3 cu feet per minute using 60 scfm of supersonic air at 90 psig. Target depths varied from 1 1⁄2 to 6 feet.

Figures below show the SAFEX® utility unit in work at JPG IV along with two typical holes dug with the uncovered ordnance at the bottom. The unit shown is currently in Thailand for UXO operations.

To read more about AIR-SPADE’s interaction with the United States Army, please see the page entitled US Army under Special Projects on the navigational bar to the left.

To see video of the JPG operations, please go to the reference library.

Halo Trust Afghanistan

In 2004, a Humanitarian Demining Trailer was deployed in Kabul, Afghanistan. Mr Phil Straw, consultant to the US Army NVESD, trained four Halo Trust operators, the senior EOD officer, and the senior in-country expatriate on the use of the AIR-SPADE®. After initial in-compound training, the system first under went additional testing at a non-hazardous field location. According to Mr. Straw's report, "Both the air and water systems were operated in a variety of soil conditions. During the initial trials, the air system proved to be very effective in all soil conditions encountered. Generally the ground in Afghanistan is very hard baked soil." Live trials were then conducted in an area where ammunitions had been kept in dug pits. Over time these pits had collapsed leaving a large deposit of subsurface munitions. The pictures show the AIR-SPADE® in use in these pits. Discussions with the senior in-country expatriate indicate the system demonstrated good potential. It will be deployed as required from site to site as requested by field operatives. Halo believes, for example, clearance of anti-tank mines from road verges is also an ideal application since these are hard packed soil and aggregate.

   

The AIR-SPADE® has been evaluated by UXB International Inc. against anti-personnel land mines and UXO at a training field near Manassas, VA. With the AIR-SPADE® cart unit passes were made down three demining lanes containing 8 to 10 flagged and monitored mines buried at various depths. Using the AIR-SPADE® tool, the operator successfully uncovered these mines, which included PMN and PMD-6 types, without triggering. Against the PMD-6 box mine, even direct airflow from the AIR-SPADE® did not set it off. In an additional un-flagged lane with more overgrown vegetation, 3 anti-personnel mines were uncovered. Testing of the AIR-SPADE® was also done against 2 trip wire arrays holding the nozzle just shy of physical contact. Neither trip wire was set off while the jet moved up, down, and side to side along the entire length of the wire.