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CRREL working to keep ‘people out of harm’s way’ by using drones to find and identify unexploded ordnance

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center

Video by Justin Campfield

June 8, 2026 | 1:46

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It’s estimated that up to ten percent of ordnance does not detonate when it impacts training ranges and combat zones. That means that even after a conflict or live-fire training are over – sometimes even decades later – unexploded bombs, missiles, and artillery shells still pose a deadly threat to military personnel and civilians.

Finding them and cleaning them up, usually done by personnel on the ground, is dangerous work.

But a team of researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and Dartmouth College is pioneering a new way to keep humans out of harm’s way by using drones to find and identify unexploded ordnance.

“We use what's called electromagnetic induction so generally we just create a really strong magnetic field and that magnetic field interacts with these metallic targets that are in the subsurface,” said CRREL Research Physical Scientist Michele Maxson. “We're able to use physics to look at that magnetic field and say, ‘OK this metal target in the subsurface, what is its shape, what is its size?’ Once we're able to figure out what its shape is and what its size is and what its depth is as well, we can say ‘that is going to be a munition,’ or ‘that's going to be a coke can.’”

The custom built, electromagnetic array that detects and categorizes the unexploded ordnance is light enough to be flown by a group 2 octo-rotor drone that is already widely used by the U.S. Army.

“This is intended to ultimately be our rapidly deployable, mid-scale solution,” said Brian Quinn, a CRREL research general engineer. “This is the best way to enter an austere environment and do some investigation. We'd certainly rather keep people out of harm's way, and we can put equipment in their place.”

Beyond its battlefield applications, researchers are also exploring ways the system could be used on civil works or even everyday construction projects, such as finding lead pipes, alerting workers to buried items before they begin digging or locating underground infrastructure.

Archive videography by: Airman 1st Class Trevor Bell, Spc. Elijah Magana, Airman 1st Class Makenna Patterson, Pfc. Nicholas Bryan and Lance Cpl. Kanoa Thomas, Petty Officer 2nd Class Jackson Adkins, Sgt. Marla Ogden, and William Lewis. More