Front-line support: how UK industry is helping tackle Ukraine’s landmine challenges

Brought to you in partnership with Pearson Engineering

At the core of its activity in the country, Pearson Engineering provides a range of vehicle-mounted engineering systems for Ukrainian platforms, delivering critical capabilities including mobility, obstacle reduction, route clearance and demining. This includes integration kits that allow armoured vehicles to utilise self-protection mine ploughs.

Much of this equipment is provided through Taskforce Kindred, a UK Ministry of Defence team that has overseen the delivery of British military support to Ukraine since March 2022. Moreover, Pearson Engineering is working closely with governments, armed forces, donors and industry partners in the UK and beyond to deliver capabilities, spares and support where it is needed in Ukraine, explained the company’s head of sales, defence manufacturing.

“We’ve got a lot of front-end equipment in Ukraine, which is being utilised on the front line,” he said. “Our responsibility is to support all this equipment to the greatest degree possible.”

Among the systems in use are Pearson Engineering’s full-width and track-width mine ploughs, route-proving and self-protection rollers, MineWolf MW370 platforms and vehicle integration kits. Equipment has been fitted to various types of Western-supplied and Ukrainian legacy main battle tanks (MBTs) and other armoured vehicles.

Technological innovation

As the largest land war in Europe since 1945, the conflict in Ukraine has become a testbed for many new technologies in defence. This is also a key priority for Pearson Engineering, its head of sales, defence manufacturing said, with the company exploring opportunities to provide the newest innovations from its Armstrong Works facility in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North East England, to the country.

“We are looking to utilise opportunities to deliver them into Ukraine and further support their armed forces,” he explained.

For example, this could include Threat-Sense, an AI-powered capability that enables military vehicles and uncrewed aerial vehicles to automatically analyse video streams to detect surface landmines. Pearson Engineering is also looking into the potential of in-country deployment of its MineWolf MW370 Next Generation remote-controlled land clearance platform, which will offer advances such as increased automation.

Cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine and local industry is important on different levels, said the head of sales, with a clear moral imperative to support Kyiv as it resists Russian aggression.

From a technological and operational perspective, he also highlighted “the opportunity to use world-class equipment, particularly in mine clearance, to make Ukraine safer”. This activity offers crucial insights for Pearson Engineering into the use of mines in warfare today, he added, which supports the development of technologies like Threat-Sense.

Product focus: Self-Protection Mine Plough

Pearson Engineering’s Self-Protection Mine Plough is designed to give tracked vehicles the ability to move through minefields when operations demand it.

Ground-engaging tines are positioned across two track-width blades, bringing concealed or buried mines and improvised explosive devices to the surface and moving them away from the vehicle’s path. Fold-out blade extensions help push threats beyond the cleared route, while the system stows compactly when not required, and is designed to avoid interference with the vehicle’s weapon system.

Built around proven principles, the system is blast-resistant, suitable for a range of soil conditions and designed for low maintenance. It can be combined with additional equipment for tasks such as marking cleared lanes or addressing alternatively fused mines.

Find out more about the Self-Protection Mine Plough

Industry alliances

Pearson Engineering has deepened its connections with Ukrainian industry to help it respond more effectively to evolving requirements. This is highlighted by its collaboration with a defence systems integrator that provides support and organisational services to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The companies signed a memorandum of understanding at DSEI 2025, which has since expanded into a licensing agreement covering repair and maintenance services, training for users of equipment, and the further development of an in-country support capability for Pearson Engineering.

Pearson Engineering’s head of sales, defence equipmernt said the company and its Ukrainian partner are looking to deepen collaboration in the coming years, with the potential to work together on the further development of novel technologies in demining and beyond, such as the MW370 Next Generation and Threat-Sense.

The collaboration offers lessons in the future of defence manufacturing, he noted. Because Ukraine is at war, its industry has accelerated its ability “to not just create and design technology, but to build it and manufacture it and get it to the front line,” he emphasised. “We are learning lessons from them in how to quickly develop and produce equipment.”

Ongoing support

Pearson Engineering has worked closely with the Armed Forces of Ukraine to support their use of the company’s equipment, with Ukrainian personnel visiting Armstrong Works to support their training needs and maintenance capabilities.

This partnership – and the collaboration with the Ukrainian systems integrator noted above – is significant in its own right, said a support engineer at Pearson Engineering who works specifically on Ukraine projects. He noted that while many Western defence companies are still working to build ties in the country, Pearson Engineering is at a more advanced stage. “That’s a significant achievement – it’s become quite a strong partnership already,” he said.

The company will seek to further develop its work with its Ukrainian partner business in future, said Pearson Engineering’s head of sales, defence equipment, aiming to produce equipment in Ukraine that could benefit both the country’s military and other customers worldwide.

“The ideal situation is that we have a factory in Ukraine that makes MineWolf Next Generation, sending it straight to minefields that need to be cleared for the safety of Ukrainian civilians,” he added.

But more widely, Pearson Engineering sees it as vital to support Ukraine to meet humanitarian demands. It is the most-mined nation in the world, meaning clearance and explosive ordnance disposal are vital tasks to protect the local population.

Summarising the company’s efforts, Pearson Engineering’s CEO Ian Bell concluded: “Ukraine has given us an invaluable understanding of the challenges facing mine clearance today. Our continued support is not only helping meet an immediate and vital need; it is also informing how we develop the technologies that will make mine action safer and more effective in the future.”