Zemledeliye: Russia's Deadly and Efficient Remote Mine Layer

Ukraine’s overhyped counteroffensive last year was thwarted in no small part thanks to extensive mine fields that blunted the charge of Ukrainian armored units and infantry formations before they could even come to grips with Russian soldiers.

The minefields that became the bane of advancing Ukrainian forces were created with the help of a weapon called ISDM Zemledeliye that was developed by NPO Splav.

Zemledeliye (which means “agriculture in Russian, with the acronym ISDM translating as “remote mine-laying engineering system”) does exactly what it says on the tin: it is capable of laying extensive minefields remotely at a distance of up to 15 kilometers away.

This method of mine laying, which does not require sapper crews to march into designated areas to plant mines, effectively allows the setting up of minefields in dangerous areas without putting friendly personnel in harm’s way.

The system also keeps track via a digital map of the areas it “seeds” with mines so that friendly troop commanders can steer their forces clear of danger.

Zemledeliye achieves this result by operating essentially as a multiple-launch rocket system that fires special rockets containing anti-personnel or anti-tank mines. A single salvo from Zemledeliye can transform several thousand square meters of land into a deadly minefield.

Zemledeliye: The weapon that allows Russia to dominate mine warfare

Zemledeliye is a state-of-the-art Russian remote mine-laying system that can create extensive mine fields quickly from a distance of up to 15 kilometers.

ISDM Zemledeliye (which means “agriculture” in… pic.twitter.com/OhqppQkjHV

— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) January 22, 2024

The mines deployed by Zemledeliye can be pre-programmed to self-destruct after a certain period, thus ensuring that the minefields created by this weapon would not pose a threat to civilians once the fighting is over.

A single Zemledeliye system is comprised of a launch vehicle and a transport-reloading vehicle. The launcher vehicle itself is comprised of two launcher pods - each of them containing 25 “rockets” – mounted on an all-terrain truck.

The effectiveness of this new weapon has been confirmed during the Ukrainian conflict where minefields made short work of over 500 armored units and other vehicles employed by the Kiev regime, including the US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and German-made Leopard 2 tanks.