Orbital Screener a Global influence in Humanitarian
Mine Clearance

I have had the privilege of being able to work across the world as the mechanical manager in two of the biggest Humanitarian Mineclearance Organisations, The HALO Trust and Mines Advisory Group albeit in war affected countries where the work is extremely stimulating. The challenges are difficult to find off the shelf machinery and equipment to deal with the after war contamination and the investigation leads us to lots of interesting and motivated people particularly when they find out what we want the machines for, Orbit Screens have shared that enthusiasm with support above and beyond.

The first association with Orbit Screens in early 2000 was with the US DOD, in particular Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) or as it is now called, Humanitarian Demining Research and Development (HD R&D) who I have had the privilege to have  worked with for over 15 years. The team from HD R&D were looking for a versatile screening unit that was robust, economical, manoeuvrable and simple to operate, particularly in war ravaged countries. My contact with Orbit Screens started with the first unit going into Afghanistan courtesy of US DOD where it was used to screen soil excavated from minefields in the central, northern and western regions, the soil was excavated and fed into the screener and anti-personnel mines and unexploded munitions would appear from the Overs Conveyor. By the time I left Afghanistan there were at least three Orbital Screeners in country, some of those worked around Bagram US Base and I would sometimes wonder whether the Military personnel who would watch us work from behind the wire actually realised that the Orbital Screeners came from the US. Due to the successful use of the Orbital Screener we then bought another one and I accompanied it into Mozambique where it carried out anti-personnel mine clearance working on stockpiled earth along a 70 mile long electric pylon line, which links South Africa. The job entailed screening stockpiled soil that had been bulldozed away from the pylons, which were all minefields, so that after the war the national Electric Company could get access to the pylons for maintenance work. The work took approximately 4 years to complete and the Orbital Screener was the predominant clearance machine, clearing in excess of 10 thousand anti-personnel mines and ordnance.

The move to MAG included an evolution of innovation, which inevitably included the Orbital Screener, which we brought into Northern Iraq, where it worked on legacy minefields from the Iran - Iraq war to the Gulf war barrier minefields and the border minefields of Turkey and Syria, which in recent times the Orbital Screener helped with safe passage for refugees. Again thousands of mines and ordnance have been cleared using the Orbital Screener with over 5000 hours and one engine change and very little in the way of component replacements. This provided the impetus to then buy and bring another Orbital Screener into Lebanon where we are running it on the Israeli - Lebanese border minefields. The continued support from Brad and the company has been great and any issue whether big or small has been met with the same enthusiasm as it has always been.

Guy Petts
Global Mechanical Operations Manager         
Mines Advisory Group