Discovery news is reporting today that the US army is disarming mines in Afghanistan, not with wire clippers or other metal tools, but with water. Wait, what?
Almost every schoolchild knows that you can use water to dig, and most engineers are familiar with pressurized water being able to slice through steel, but why mines? Because mines are a danger to people and property. This system, positionable by both humans and robots, sacrifices a bit of water and energy to slice IEDs in half, whereupon they explode. You lose only some dirty water and maybe a piece of hose. Both are very cheap in Afghanistan. Expensive assets, like human personnel, are quite safely out of the area when the mines explode.
And I'm all for it, with the aphorism that "One who saves one life, saves the whole world."
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