Monday, October 3, 2011

Raphael Dallaporta

Selections from Raphael Dallaporta's series Antipersonnel.

Antipersonnel Bounding Fragmentation Mine. M- 16. USA.
When detonated the M-16 antipersonnel bounding fragmentation mine is shot up approximately 1.5m in the air and explodes within 0.5 seconds, creating a lethal radius of 10m. Nicknamed the "Bouncing Betty," each mine is supplied with four tripwires (two olive-green, two sand-colored) and a wrench. In September 2002 (the most recent available statistics), the USA had 465, 330 M16s in stock.
d: 100mm
wght: 3.75kg

Antipersonnel Blast Mine. PDM-57. Soviet Union.
This obsolete antipersonnel blast mine is an improved version of the PDM-6, which was used by the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Decay of the mine's wooden casing means that it becomes increasingly unstable the longer it is left in the ground.
w: 130mm
wght: 500g

Submunition. ZAB-500. Russian Federation.
The flammable liquid in each of the 775 submunitions in a ZAB-500 incendiary bomb is designed to burn in the air, creating "fire rain." If dropped at an altitude of 300-600m a single ZAB-500 leaves a footprint of 5,600-9,000 square meters. The weapon can also be set so that the submunitions do not burn until they impact with the ground.
d: 60mm
wght: 400g

Antipersonnel Direction Fragmentation Mine. M-18/A1. USA.
A "Claymore" directional fragmentation mine releases 700 steel balls when detonated by a hand-turned dynamo, a tripwire or, when used with "Matrix" system, remotely using a laptop computer. (Multiple Claymores can also be linked together using a detonator cord). A 1966 Department of the Army field manual states that, "the number of ways in which the Claymore may be employed is limited only by the imagination of the user." In September 2002 (the most recent available statistics), Claymore made up to 403,096 of the 10,404,148 landmines stockpiled by the USA.
w: 210mm
wght: 1.58kg

Antipersonnel Blast Mine. GMMI-43. Germany.
Used by Nazi forces during the Second World War, this antipersonnel mine's glass construction and chemical fuse render it undetectable. Glass fragments- that enter the body after the mine is triggered by pressure on the interior glass plate- are also undetectable to X-rays. In 2004, Colombian government sources said that homemade glass mines were being used by guerrilla forces in the country.
d: 135mm
wght: 1.2kg