Countermining

In military mine warfare and combat engineering, countermining is the set of techniques for defeating enemy mines, by military forces, by detonating them or disabling them with kinetic shock. This is most often accomplished with sympathetic detonation from deliberately placed explosives, or with gunfire.

On a small scale, the explosives may be placed on or near the mine, which may be sandbagged or otherwise have its damage pattern limited. Larger breaches through minefields may be made with line charges creating paths, or by use of fuel-air explosives or other bombs producing blast over a large area.