Developmental status of the U.S. Army's new handheld standoff mine detection system (HSTAMIDS)

The creation of a new handheld mine detection system for the U.S. Army, known as HSTAMIDS, was initiated in 1996. Following the current 30 month effort, which commenced in May 1996, production of HSTAMIDS will lead to replacement of the U.S. Army's present handheld metallic mine detection system, designated by the Army as the AN/PSS-12. Two competing HSTAMIDS designs are being fabricated by separate contractors. Each system is comprised of multisensor approaches of metallic and nonmetallic sizes varying from antipersonnel to antitank-sized mines. Stand-off alerting as to the presence of mines, out to 10 meters, is also provided by HSTAMIDS. This paper updates the program status and discusses developmental progress of the competing systems. Discussion of their performance during testing conducted by the Army test community in July/August 1998 is presented.