The U.S. Army Is Qualifying New Units To Fly The UH-60 With The Controversial M-139 Volcano Mine Delivery System
December 28, 2020 Helicopters, Weapons
Stefano D'Urso
The M-139 Volcano Mine Delivery System, originally built in the 1980s and ’90s, has been in storage for more than 20 years.
Recently, the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, posted some photos of the unit’s aircrews conducting qualifications on the M-139 Volcano Mine Delivery System mounted to the UH-60M Black Hawk on its social media accounts. The system is designed to rapidly scatter mines to create large minefields, meant to delay/disrupt enemy movement and protect the flanks of friendly units on the ground, by laying 960 mines in under one minute.
The M-139 Volcano was originally built in the 1980s and ’90s and it was stored for more than 20 years before the U.S. Army decided to resuscitate the system to provide a scatterable mine capability to the ground forces. The decision to restore this capability and begin to qualify again the crews is a consequence of the tactical strategies shift of the recent years, which foresaw a return to confrontations with near-peer adversaries and a definitive FLOT (Forward Line of Own Troops).
2-82 AHB conducted aircrew quals on the Volcano Mine System yesterday. Huge win to validate these systems are still FMC. This system is capable of laying 960 mines in under one minute! This can delay and disrupt enemy movement and protect our flanks. @82ndABNDiv @18airbornecorps pic.twitter.com/o7TpR5kwGR
— 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade (@82ndCAB) December 18, 2020
https://theaviationist.com/2020/12/28/the-u-s-army-is-qualifying-new-units-to-fly-the-uh-60-with-the-controversial-m-139-volcano-mine-delivery-system/
