§ Mr. Martyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on progress on the Army's proposed Dismounted Countermine Capability programme. [149540]
§ Mr. IngramThe Dismounted Countermine Capability (DCMC) programme is intended to provide dismounted personnel with an improved capability to locate and deal with anti personnel (AP) and anti tank (AT) mines. DCMC seeks to provide a solution based on the need to detect mines, mark individual mines and areas of mine contamination, neutralise individual mines, and communicate information about these actions to other forces on the battlefield.
DCMC gained Initial Gate approval in March 2003. In August 2003, following a competitive downselection, Thales Missile Electronics was awarded a contract to complete a Study Assessment Programme. Initial work suggests that a technological answer to the problem of detecting minimum metal and non metallic mines (modern mines made from plastics and other non metal materials) is likely to be feasible.