Mine clearing vehicle

Apparatus for clearing land mines from below the surface of soil overgrown with vegetation and for rendering land cleared of mines suitable for agriculture or other use, said apparatus being mountable on a blast resistant vehicle that moves over the land along a line of movement, said apparatus comprising:

• at least one cylindrically shaped cutter member positionable ahead of the vehicle so as to precede the vehicle as the vehicle moves along the line of movement, said cutter member being rotatable about an axis normal to the line of movement of the vehicle;
• drive means for driving the cutter member to rotate about the axis of the member independently of any movement of the vehicle, said cutter member being driven at a peripheral speed of from 8 to 20 meters per second;
• means for mounting said cutter member on the front of the vehicle to lower the exterior of said rotating cutter member into the soil ahead of the vehicle to destroy the land mines and comminute vegetation into the soil as the vehicle moves along the line of movement;
• said cutter member being formed of a plurality of disks lying normal to the axis of said cutter member and spaced along the axis of the cutter member, the peripheries of said disks forming the exterior of said member, each of said disks of said cutter member having a plurality of cutting teeth circumferentially spaced along the periphery of the disk, certain of said teeth of each of said disks extending laterally from the disk toward an adjacent disk and into contiguity with similarly extending teeth of the adjacent disk so that the cutter member engages substantially the entirety of the swath of soil traversed by the cutter member during movement of the vehicle;
• and
• a shield interposable between said cutter member and the front of the vehicle for protecting the latter from debris discharged from said cutter member.