The RSD Chubby

After thirty years combating the land-mine, the South African defence industry leads the fight against the world’s most feared weapon.

The South African defence industry is renowned for combat-proven and innovative products such as the Rooikat wheeled armoured vehicle, the G6 mobile artillery weapon and the Rooivalk attack helicopter, but it is in the area of life preservation, the destruction of land-mines, that the country has established an unbeatable technological lead.

Countermine humanitarian warfare

Alone in the world’s defence community, South Africa recognised the danger of the mine when used in unconventional warfare. In the early 1960s extensive R&D was undertaken by leading scientists at CSIR, the premier African research establishment, to combat mines by protection from detonation, mobile mine detection and clearance, and use of trained dogs to detect the presence of land-mines from concentrated air samples. In contrast, the rest of the world has focused on military minefield breaching where South Africa also possesses great expertise.

Chubby system with the Meerkat and Husky

While South Africa has declared a unilateral moratorium on the production and sale of land-mines, an estimated 110 million are lying in wait for accidental detonation in Europe, the Middle East, south America, the Far East and in Africa. In Angola alone, it is estimated that there could be over 15 million mines that kill or maim more than 25,000 innocent civilians every year, 80 per cent of whom are children.

The Chubby system

One of the most successful systems in South Africa’s mine-clearance toolbox is the Chubby system from RSD, a division of Dorbyl Ltd. Chubby, a term of affection selected by its users, was conceived in the early 1970s when freedom-fighter activities caused disruption to transport communication in the Ovamboland and Caprivi Strip areas of Namibia. On the region’s unpaved roads land-mines could be laid easily during darkness and if left undetected could have caused serious damage to non- mine-protected (soft-skinned) civilian vehicles.

Initial crisis measures included deployment of hand-held metal detectors, but sweeping kilometres of roads on foot was inefficient and slow. The solution was obvious to South African experts. The revolutionary concept for the vehicles that were to make up the operational set was to incorporate the proven blast-deflecting V-shaped hull with an open-framed vehicle that offered little resistance to blast. The powered units were fitted with specially developed electronic mine-detection pans, and although the vehicles weighed several tons, large, broad road tyres exerted too little ground pressure to detonate most pressure-activated mines. The final innovation in the design was the use of main-vehicle separate detonating wheel sets, with staggered wheel separation and high ground pressure.

The operational mine clearance set comprises a mine detection vehicle called the Meerkat that sweeps ahead of a convoy at a speed of up to 35km/h, and can detect and mark locations of potential land-mines for normal sapper clearance. The second vehicle known as the Husky because of its sledge-towing prowess, also is fitted with liftable mine-detector pans, but also tows the two loaded Duisendpoot trailer mine-exploding sets.

Normally, the Meerkat because it travels at speed will detect but not explode a mine. After detection, the vehicle is backed up and using metal-detection pans, accurately pin-points the mine location and drops a marker. Apart from the South-African designed detection system being self-nulling, it is so sensitive it can distinguish between a potential mine and an old beer or coke can. If the Meerkat locates a mine a warning signal is transmitted to the Husky automatically, instructing its driver to halt.

If a mine is not detected by the Meerkat, it is likely that the Husky will. In this event, normal mine-removal techniques again are used. In the unlikely event that both vehicles miss the mine, it will be detonated by the high ground pressure exerted by the Duisendpoot. All vehicles and trailers are designed with proven South African wheel-replacement kits. If any units detonate a mine, the blast will pass the driver’s cab harmlessly, but may cause a wheel to be blown off. A follow-up mine-protected Samil army truck and trailer carries a full repair kit, including spare-wheel modules that are designed to be replaced within 30 minutes. Compared with human lives, these wheel modules are cheap and all sensitive electronics are located within the blast-protected cab.

In operational use, a Chubby can cover up to 200km during daylight in Africa on mined roads. The alternators of all vehicles are switched off when in the sweep mode to avoid interference, and this means battery recharging or replacement, every six hours.

The Chubby system is now a standard part of the SANDF countermine operation inventory, and is in use by Mechem in its humanitarian mine-clearing operations in Angola. It is verification of unequalled South African expertise in countermine activities, necessary to deal with life-threatening situations in Bosnia, Somalia, Afghanistan and the Falkland Islands where 15,000 mines are estimated to remain from the abortive Argentine invasion.

The world market

The sale of the first Chubby system outside South Africa was to Uganda who purchased two sets during 1995. More recently, France, once South Africa’s main supplier of armaments, placed a Chubby on extensive trials over a period of 10 weeks, testing the system (according to NATO requirements) to its limits, and purchasing five units. The deployment of IFOR in Bosnia, with a mandate very different to the original UN peacekeeping role, has resulted in the UK (based on NATO evaluation) purchasing three sets. The first two were flown directly from Johannesburg International Airport, close to RSD Dorbyl’s Boksburg plant, directly to Split in Croatia, demonstrating the ease of deployment of the Chubby in a rapid-reaction role.

The Duisendfoot forming part of the Chubby system

Remarkably, the Chubby has been on extensive trials this year at the US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground, a thorough examination that it passed with flying colours. As the indigenous American counterpart is not expected to be operational until the next century, there is no doubt that US orders are imminent for use in Bosnia and possibly also the Middle East.

Continued technological development

This remarkable vehicle is undergoing upgrades to keep pace with advances in mine and detection technology. A South African enhancement already is available to deal with the new threat of the Soviet-designed Bosnia killer mine, while on-board radar is another option being explored. RSD is also aware of the advanced mine-detection systems being developed in the US, and the Chubby provides the ideal, inherently safe platform on which to incorporate these devices as they are developed.