Summary

TAPE_NUMBER: EF00/0724 IN_TIME: 12:08:59 // 15:07:27 // 20:40:08 LENGTH: 02:56 SOURCES: VNR RESTRICTIONS: FEED: VARIOUS (THE ABOVE TIME-CODE IS TIME-OF-DAY) SCRIPT: English/Nat XFA A new British invention is set to revolutionise landmine clearance, making it safer, and quicker. Bigfoot and Mineworm are two remote-controlled machines which work in tandem, detonating mines and turning over soil to remove all explosive charges. The devices have been undergoing exhaustive tests set by a Ministry of Defence agency. There are an estimated one-hundred-million (m) landmines in the world today, the legacy of numerous wars, and yet landmine clearance methods have changed little since World War II. The manual method of de-mining is slow and perilous - each year thousands of people lose their limbs, and their lives, to landmines. Now a pioneering British invention that could dramatically improve the safety and speed of landmine clearance has completed trials set by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency or D-E-R-A. D-E-R-A is a Ministry of Defence agency funded by the Department for International Development. British company Redbus Land Mine Disposal Systems, or L-M-D-S has developed a remote-controlled device that removes the dangers to those clearing mines, and dramatically speeds up the process. This device is called "Bigfoot" and is the brainchild of Bob French, himself a former user of traditional landmine-clearing techniques. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I was watching the television news one night and saw Princes Diana in Africa, and she was with people who were poking sticks in the ground trying to find landmines. Well I was doing that thirty-five years ago, and I couldn't believe that people were still doing that, and why they weren't using mechanical devices. So I put my mind to it, and this is what we've come up with" SUPER CAPTION: Bob French, Inventor of Bigfoot and Mineworm, and Managing Director of Redbus LMDS Bigfoot has a row of feet that systematically move along, destroying the mines in their path. Cameras on the machine convey pictures to the operators as they control it from a vehicle nearby. A second remote-controlled device known as "Mineworm" follows behind Bigfoot, excavating the soil and removing unexploded ordnance, leaving the land safe. The speed at which Bigfoot covers ground far exceeds traditional mine-clearing methods. A demining team of 2 people would take a day to clear an area the size of a footpath, Bigfoot and Mineworm can, in the same amount of time, clear an area larger than a football pitch. Rigorous field trials at D-E-R-A showed Bigfoot capable of survival and repair after explosions as big as and anti-tank mine. Both machines are designed to be light, transportable, and easy to repair in the field. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I think Bob's demonstrated that the principles he's got are quite successful, both in the performance of clearing mines, and in its survivability and repairability. I think what we will see from the results of the work we've done in the last two weeks, that using that data, he'll be able to go on and perfect a machine which I think will be very successful" SUPER CAPTION: Colin Lowe, Project Manager, Counter-mine Warfare team, Defence Research and Evaluation Agency Independent mines experts are very encouraged by their potential. SOUNDBITE: (English) "In April we had an incident in a minefield above Sarajevo. Three children were injured by a fragmentation mine. One of the children was still alive, but by the time we had cleared our way, manually, in, the child had died. Something like Bigfoot could have got in there far quicker, and she might have had a chance of surviving" SUPER CAPTION: Pat Banks, Independent Mines Advisory Expert The first models should be available by the end of the year for export to any of the estimated eighty countries with landmine problems Redbus L-M-D-S was launched with the backing of Redbus Investments. The company has enough money to build the first models of Bigfoot and Mineworm, and run them in the field for a year - a cost of around 760-thousand U-S dollars including operators and maintenance. Redbus Investments was set up by entrepreneur Cliff Stanford, following the sale of his company Demon Internet, in 1998. SHOTLIST: Southern England, VNR, Recent and File VNR 1. Wide shot, Bigfoot 2. Mid shot, front of Bigfoot in operation 3. Bigfoot seen from the front 4. Close shot, Bigfoot stepping on simulated mine 5. Mid shot, Bigfoot 6. Mid shot, camera on top of Bigfoot 7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Bob French, Inventor of Bigfoot and Mineworm, and Managing Director of Redbus LMDS 8. Pan from operators to Bigfoot 9. Setup shot, Colin Lowe, Project Manager, Counter-mine Warfare team, Defence Research and Evaluation Agency 10. Operator looking at remote TV monitors 11. Image on monitor 12. Hands manipulating Bigfoot controls 13. Various, Mineworm 14. SOUNDBITE: (English) Colin Lowe, Project Manager, Counter-mine Warfare team, Defence Research and Evaluation Agency VNR Archive Footage - Free for use until June 2001 only 15. Various, landmine clearing using metal detectors in World War II 16. Pull out from landmine clearer in Bosnia VNR 17. SOUNDBITE: (English) Pat Banks, Independent Mines Advisory Expert 18. Group of people around Bigfoot 19. Wide shot, man in front of Bigfoot 20. Observers inside shelter 21. Explosion under Bigfoot?