PMN mine

The PMN (Russian: противопехотная мина нажимная, romanized: protivopekhotnaya mina nazhimnaya, lit.

For comparison, most anti-personnel blast mines (e.g. the VS-50) contain around 50 g (1.8 oz) of high explosive, which typically destroys all or part of a victim's foot.

In marked contrast, a PMN-1 contains 249 g (8.8 oz) of explosive which can easily destroy a victim's entire leg (frequently requiring amputation high above the knee) in addition to inflicting severe injuries on the adjacent limb, which may also require some form of amputation due to blast injury.

However, the amount of explosive inside a PMN-1 mine is so large that the risk of victims dying is significantly greater and, assuming that they survive their injuries, the degree of disability inflicted is much more severe.

Pulling out the ring-pull starts an arming delay, which comprises a thin steel wire (held under tension by the spring-loaded striker) which must cut through a small strip of lead before it is freed.

At this point the mine is fully armed i.e. the only thing holding back the spring-loaded striker from the stab-detonator is a weak creep-spring on the pressure plate mechanism.

This allows the air-bellows inside the mine to be inflated by the compression spring, which in turn lifts a “safety” bar from the path of the slide, unblocking its travel.

[5] It is considered extremely dangerous to disarm PMN mines by removing the fuze, unless they have only recently been laid and are in good condition.

Even if this is the case, what appears to be a standard PMN-1 mine may in fact be the PMN-3 or MS-3 versions, which feature an integral anti-handling device which is specifically designed to kill deminers.

In any case it is very easy to boobytrap a standard PMN mine by attaching a pull-fuze to it, or by placing an ML-7 pressure-release antihandling device underneath.