Drones are transforming the search for deadly landmines and unexploded ordnance in Ukraine by allowing experts to safely survey land in more detail than ever before.
Humanitarian charity The Halo Trust clocked up more than 1,400 hours of flying time in 2024 in regions contaminated during the Russia-Ukraine war.
Manual flights are predominantly used to recce areas that are under investigation to identify potential threats and evidence.
Michael Nevard, Halo’s director of capability, said: “Our survey teams have successfully used small drones to identify and confirm many pieces of unexploded ordnance, including landmines, rockets, missiles, and grenades, in different areas during the survey stage.
“For example, in Kherson Oblast our survey teams were able to identify a new anti-vehicle mine line on a track between trees that was not identified during a previous survey without using drones.”
Halo’s three regional drone teams include seven pilots trained to fly large drones with high resolution cameras to produce high quality maps of minefields. Some 80 pilots are also trained to use small mapping-capable drones.
The Daily Express witnessed the technology’s impact in eastern Ukraine, where we watched drone pilot Valentyna Vystozopska, 24, expertly capture images at a site around an hour’s drive from Kharkiv.
She said her team was also starting to use artificial intelligence to analyse images and speed up the process, but for now it makes more mistakes than humans. Valentyna added: “Sometimes AI can mistake a sunflower for a mine, for example.”
Halo’s drones spent more than 85,800 minutes in the skies in 2024, covering an area of almost 14 million square metres.
Mr Nevard added: “In total we have over 100 drones operating on the programme in different capacities, including survey, operations, and clearance.
“We have identified over 11,000 evidence points ranging from anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines to military positions and other forms of unexploded ordnance.
“Drone technology is also crucial for ensuring we know as much as possible about each minefield before we start working and can use the right clearance technology in the right place.”
Halo has “always been an innovator in the use of technology in mine action”, Mr Nevard said, and previously pioneered the use of heavy machinery and advanced electronic detectors.
Almost 20 years ago the charity started using detectors equipped with ground penetrating radar which can distinguish between landmines and other pieces of metal rubbish. This can increase productivity by 400% in the right conditions.
Other new tech includes a magnetic resonance sensor produced by Australian tech firm MRead, which is now being used in Angola.
Remote-controlled machinery can also reduce the risk to human deminers working in the most hazardous locations. This includes machines to cut vegetation and remove trip-wires, and excavators that can be operated from a safe distance to clear landmines.
Mr Nevard said he believed survey methods in the future would use multiple layers of remote sensing including satellite and drone imagery, analysed using AI, to build precise and detailed planning information.
But some jobs will remain quicker and easier with a human touch. He added: “The clearance technology will include detectors with far lower false alarm rates than now, so that nearly every detection is a landmine.
“Most landmines will be excavated using a semi-autonomous machine of some kind.
“Directing and managing equipment, and scanning with detectors, will likely continue to be a human job for a long time. Swinging a detector is generally not a hazardous job, and it is faster and easier to do it with a human than a robot.”
