The PMN in Pictures

This section has many detailed color pictures of the PMN anti-personnel land mine, many of which have never been seen before in unclassified Western sources. Almost everything that can be photographed has been, although it will take some time to post here. To view a specific part of the weapon simply click on the desired part below. Warning: some graphics pages can take a little while to load.

The Exterior of the Mine

This is a general picture of the underside of the PMN anti-personnel mine. In this picture you can easily see the red-brown bakelite body, the fuse and arming wells. For a picture of the whole mine see the picture at the top of this page.

There are many small markings all over the bottom of the mine. These marks are described here, as they cannot easily be seen in the picture.

Top left Quadrant
710-76 stamped in black ink

Top Right Quadrant
A black square, a Cryllic 'I' within a black square, a number 7 within a black square, and a large number 5

Bottom Left Quadrant
The letter K in a circle with the number 74 beneath it. These are molded parts of the mine body and are probably the year it was made.

Bottom Right Quadrant
OTK-1 within a large black square

The picture to the right is a closeup of the mine's rubber cover which has 15-32-7 T stamped on it in faded yellow ink. I have no idea what this means, its more than likely a factory code or quality control stamping. We added the red circle to highlight the markings which can be quite difficult to see otherwise.

Interior Cutaway View

The picture to the right is what the inside of the rubber cover looks like. The thin sheet of bakelite plastic is the pressure plate that sets the detonation process in motion.

Directly below is a cutaway view of the mine so you can see some of the interior components. The yellow portion is the TNT filler. The spring loaded striker is on the left side of the mine with the safety pin and ring. The MD-9 detonator is on the right side of the mine. When disarming the PMN it is this section that must be removed first.

PMN With Cover and Explosive Removed

From this top down view you can see the center cavity where the trigger spring is located and the large area where the explosive main charge is placed. The knob on the left is where the detonator is located, while the arming assembly is located within the knob on the right side.

  

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