Schonstedt Instrument Company announces the formation of the Munitions Response Group. The Group’s function is two-fold: To encourage and focus communication with users of Schonstedt demining tools To foster collaboration with industry partners to advance UXO/IED detection capabilities Visit the group’s website at www.findUXO.com or email us at schonstedt.info@spx.com

(From the United Nation’s wall placard) “The Schonstedt Instrument Company of West Virginia approached DPKO in 2007 with the concept for a Humanitarian Demining Initiative linking the donation of a Schonstedt magnetic locator (such as the one here) for use in locating UXO to the sale of other Schonstedt products. That concept was expanded to individual donations with the direct purchase of locators for donation by a meeting of Quakers from southern New Jersey. Since its inception in 2007, the Initiative has donated over 250 locators in coordination with UNMAS on behalf of the UN Mine Action Team (UNMAT) to…

Tackling Tajikistan’s cluster bombs By Natalia Antelava BBC News, Rashd Valley, Tajikistan High above the mulberry orchards and rolling hills of the Rashd Valley, and just beneath the soaring snow-covered peaks, lies the village of Chor Charokh. Donkeys wander amid the mud huts, and women in traditional colourful headscarves shy away from visitors. A group of small children, happily oblivious to the poverty that surrounds them, scream and laugh as they chase a dog along a stream. None of these children were born when the government and the opposition fought for control of these mountains. Yet, in a way, for…

The Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative, a program launched earlier in the year, has responded to an urgent request from the United Nations to provide five magnetic locators for removal of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Tajikistan. The tools will be used to detect live but unexploded submunitions (cluster bombs) on mountainsides. Due to the spring snowmelt, the bomblets are rolling down the mountains and into the town below. The Chief Technical Advisor on-site will launch an effort to locate the remaining munitions before they, too, dislodge. Schonstedt donated the units as part of its teaming effort with the United Nations to…

Schonstedt Instrument Company and the United Nations Mine Action Team have identified the International Mine Action Training Center, Nairobi, Kenya as the first recipient of free demining equipment under the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative.

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…

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…

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.