On Friday, soldiers with the US Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell conducted a mine-clearing training exercise using a rocket powered device.
The 21st Brigade Engineer Battalion along with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team “Rakkasans” spent nearly a week preparing for use of the trailer-mounted Mine Clearing Line Charge, known to them as a “MIC-LIC."
Sgt. 1st Class Wavy Shumate explains how it works.
“The Line Clearing Mine Charge, or MIC-LIC, is a 1,750-pound line of C4... and what happens is there’s this rocket that attaches to it, basically pulls this line out and lays the line on the ground and then that line blows up and blows all the mines away from the breach.”
It fires from a modified generator trailer clearing a one-vehicle-wide lane 100 meters long and 8 meters wide, allowing for safe passage of other vehicles and equipment.
Sgt. Shumate says the MIC-LIC's design hasn't changed much since it was first introduced in the waning days of WWII. Because the design is so simple, there's no need to improve it.
“I don't know what kind of Albert Einstein guy invented this but... it was needed, it was really needed for armored units," said Shumate. "When you’re in an armored unit, and you’re fighting a conventional force with tanks, you do NOT want to get out of the tank.”
video courtesy of Staff Sgt. Cody Harding, 3rd BCT Public Affairs, during the first testing of the MIC/LIC on Fort Campbell
