USACE Considering Canines For UXO Detection

Canines have been successfully used in airports and border crossing locations to search for hidden explosives. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is now looking to use them to detect landmines and other buried UXO at sites both here in the states and abroad.

The USACE Philadelphia District working in conjunction with the Baltimore District is looking into using explosive detection canines at the Surf City, New Jersey site and the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville is considering using canines in South Korea.

In support of the Surf City project, military working dogs from Fort Leonard Wood have been undergoing training on a special test area set up on the beach. Once the dogs are trained to work in a sandy beach environment, they will undergo a series of performance tests. The results of these tests will be used to determine whether or not dogs will be used at Surf City to look for other munitions potentially brought ashore as a result of USACE's beach replenishment project.

The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville on the other hand is planning on using a canine teams provided by a contractor. The project is located in South Korea at an active U.S. Army range complex. The 2,600+ acre range complex is undergoing upgrades and will continue to be used as an operational range area. U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville project manger John Younghans stated that the current plan is to use the dogs at three ranges within the complex to help delineate the extent of potential minefields in the area. Andrea Takash, Public Affairs Office, stated that this was the first Huntsville munitions related project where canines were being used as a detection technology.

The Huntsville project is scheduled to start after the New Year and is expected to be complete by the spring. Drivers to the schedule include required quarantine times for dogs brought into Korea. The Korea project will also use traditional detection technologies as well. The extent of any UXO and landmine clearance efforts will be determined after the survey phase is complete and based upon the needs of the U.S. Army.

UXOInfo.com will keep you updated on these projects and report back on how well the dogs perform in detecting explosives from buried UXO and landmines.