M18 Claymore Mine

The M18 Claymore is an American directional anti-personnel mine developed in the 1950s and fielded from the 1960s onward, a curved rectangular case packed with plastic explosive behind roughly 700 steel balls that, on detonation, are propelled outward in a fan-shaped pattern across roughly a 60-degree arc, lethal to a considerable range in front of the device while leaving the area behind it comparatively safe for the operator. Set on small folding legs and typically command-detonated by a soldier using a wired electrical firing device rather than triggered automatically by a victim, the Claymore let defending troops cover a likely avenue of enemy approach, such as a trail or a gap in wire obstacles, with a single well-aimed weapon rather than a wide scatter of mines. The Claymore saw extensive use by American forces in the Vietnam War and has remained in the United States military inventory and in the arsenals of many other countries since, with its distinctive case marking, Front Toward Enemy, becoming a widely recognized piece of military iconography.