The U.S. Army is playing up its ability to get high-tech tools to soldiers in the field more quickly and more affordably. -Jonathan Skillings Staff Writer, CNET News.com This isn’t a gold-plated weapon. Rather, it’s an $850 off-the-shelf magnetometer that troops are using to find weapons hidden in walls and under the ground. The civilian version of this metal detector is used to find buried power lines. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Rather than weapons, the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force is focusing on devices such as surveillance systems for searching out explosives, or handheld computers with voice recognition that carry a…

First Secretary Bounnhang Keosavang, Embassy of Laos, Washington, DC accepts a donation of 15 GA-72Cd magnetic locators from Michael B. Head, President, Schonstedt Instrument Company. The instruments will be used to find and clear cluster munitions in one of the world’s most contaminated countries. Also present for the occasion were Max Gaylard, Director, United Nations Mine Action Service, as well as dignitaries from the U.S. Department of State, the offices of U.S. Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, U.S. Representative Capito and West Virginia Governor Manchin. The ceremony underscored Schonstedt’s open-ended commitment of free tools for global humanitarian demining.

Schonstedt Instrument Company recently teamed with the U.S. Department of State to provide demining tools to underserved areas of the world. The donated equipment is made possible by – and in the name of – Schonstedt customers, nonprofit organizations and individual donors. United Nations humanitarian demining teams are currently using the donated equipment in Laos, Somalia, Kenya and Tajikistan. There, on a daily basis, they find and clear explosive remnants of war such as cluster bombs, grenades, mortars, shells and landmines.

This picture shows Schull mountain with the settlement nestling at its base. During the war, the mountains all along the Rasht Valley were cluster bombed with ShOAB and AO submunitions. The aluminum alloy casing of a ShOAB is visible on the right, and the rusted steel of an AO on the left. The town of Gharm in the Rasht Valley, central Tajikistan, is surrounded by steep hills and snow-capped mountains. During the civil war, some places on the high ground were defended with earthworks and trenches, the remains of which are still visible. These were mined defensively. Reports suggest that…

The Philadelphia Inquirer By Edward Colimore – Inquirer Staff Writer Tajikistan, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, is still feeling the aftereffects of a civil war that killed more than 50,000 people a decade ago. Trenches and earthen fortifications scar the high ground overlooking the Rasht Valley, and unexploded cluster bombs are claiming lives – often those of children who pick up the softball-size munitions. Thousands of miles away, in Woodstown, Salem County, Frank Lenik, a Quaker and former Peace Corps volunteer, knew of the plight of the people there and wanted to help. In his work as a surveyor, Lenik uses…

This article appeared in the February 2008 issue of Professional Surveyor Magazine and is displayed with permission. Copyright 2008 by Reed Business Geo, Inc. Frank Lenik, LS was the right man in the right place last March, when he spotted the Schonstedt Instrument Company booth at the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping conference in St. Louis, Missouri. A banner at the booth said, “Buy a locator, save a life,” … Download Article in PDF format

Schonstedt Instrument Company would like to congratulate Mr. Chris Clark and all the members of the UN Mine Action Programme in southern Lebanon on the announcement of the 2008 Nansen Award, the top distinction bestowed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for efforts to assist refugees. Mr. Clark and the programme were awarded the prize for their efforts to eliminate unexploded cluster munitions and other explosive remnants of war after the 2006 conflict in Lebanon. Schonstedt is proud that its magnetic locators served as an essential tool in the effort to locate and destroy unexploded cluster munitions and…

Donated Mine Detectors Bound for Darfur A shipment of thirty mine detectors will soon be in the hands of United Nations humanitarian deminers in the Darfur region of Sudan. The instruments have been donated by church groups, trade associations, individuals and customers of Schonstedt Instrument Company, which manufactures the demining tools and coordinates distribution to the world’s most mine-infested countries. Schonstedt matches each donated unit and ships them, according to UN priorities, to countries where humanitarian demining is most needed and where it would not otherwise be possible. There, demining teams find and clear explosive remnants of war such as…