Micro Sensor Nets: An Alternative to Anti-Personnel Landmines

The nations of the world, including the United States, are increasingly under pressure from international organizations to abandon the use of anti-personnel landmines. The Congress has enacted a one-year ban on the use of these weapons starting in 1999 which is likely to be extended under international political pressure. A replacement for this weapon system is needed if the military is to avoid the equally unpopular option of placing more troops in the field to accomplish equivalent objectives. This proposal addresses the weaknesses of anti-personnel landmines and describes how a superior weapon system can be developed using advances in technology. This new weapon system is consistent with the Army goals for Force XXI, yet suffers from none of the moral and political objections to the system that it replaces. This project will introduce a new class of low power sensor networks which will not only be an early demonstration of Force XXI concepts, but will also have broad applicability to commercial markets requiring low cost, non-obtrusive monitoring of the environment. Initial non-Defense application is expected to be in industrial security systems.