One Step Beyond – Mines – Bosnia – PMA-2

PMA-2 is a minimum-metal Anti-Personnel (AP) blast mine known within former Yugoslavia as `Pasteta' (meat-paste tin). The main body is a cylindrical plastic casing filled with TNT. The threaded central fuze well is sealed by a plug during transit and has a small pellet of RDX at the bottom to act as a booster. The fuze assembly has a six-pronged plunger protruding from the fuze body. Beneath the base of the plunger is a friction-sensitive composition, and below that a small detonator. The detonator, which has a thin aluminium casing, is attached to the fuze body by a threaded plastic cap which is bonded into place. A safety pin, attached to a length of string, runs through the fuze body and plunger to prevent initiation. The use of a pronged plunger gives this mine a high degree of blast resistance. The plunger and mine body are normally olive green, though some have been manufactured in white; the fuze body is black.

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