Effect of the Use of Self-Destruct U.S. Land Mines in the Gulf War Is Unknown

According to DOD, all the types of land mines in DOD’s arsenal were available and included in U.S. war plans for use if needed in the Gulf War. DOD reported that during the war, U.S. forces used no nonself-destruct land mines. U.S. land mines of all types were available and planned for use by U.S. forces. Services Reported that the United States Used about 118,000 Land Mines

The services reported that during the Gulf War, they used about 118,000 land mines from the approximately 2.2 million U.S. land mines that were taken to the Gulf War theater of operations and the millions of land mines available for use from U.S. worldwide stockpiles, which in total contained about 19 million land mines. DOD and service documents detailing when land mines were used did not provide evidence of the effects of that use. See appendix III for the reported numbers of casualties by service and cause. These concerns led to the reluctance of some U.S. commanders to use land mines in areas that U.S. and allied forces might have to traverse.Commanders’ fears arose because of two basic reasons: The first reason involved both the obsolescence of conventional U.S. mines and safety issues with both conventional and scatterable land mines.
What GAO Found

The utility of land mines on the modern battlefield has come into question in recent years, largely because of their potential for causing unintended casualties and affecting U.S. forces' maneuverability. These concerns were raised during the Persian Gulf War. U.S. land mines of all types--nonself-destructing and self-destructing, antipersonnel and antitank--were available for use if needed in the Gulf War from U.S. land mine stockpiles, which contained 19 million land mines. U.S. forces sent to the Gulf War theater of operations took with them for potential use over 2.2 million land mines. U.S. war plans included plans for the use of land mines if required by the tactical situation. According to Department of Defense (DOD) documents, no nonself-destructing or "dumb," land mines were used; and the reported number of self-destructing, or "smart," land mines used by the services totaled approximately 118,000. DOD did not provide information on the effect of U.S. land mine use against the enemy. According to U.S. service records, of the 1,364 total U.S. casualties in the Gulf War, 81, or 6 percent, were killed or injured by land mines. Concerns about land mines raised in DOD lessons-learned and other reports included the fear of fratricide and loss of battlefield mobility. These concerns led to the reluctance of some U.S. commanders to use land mines in areas that U.S. and allied forces might have to traverse.