"The uncrewed aerial system with a magnetometer attached to it moves along a predetermined trajectory over the area to be inspected. During the flight, the device continuously records the parameters of the Earth's magnetic field in a 2 metre wide strip with their exact coordinates. This system can detect explosive ordnance not only on the surface of the soil but also underground."
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/05/2/7510314/
This unfortunately doesn't address all the chemical contamination of war, that is a burden among others that should be enough to make us all understand how catastrophic war is and that we shouldn't engage in it since once you contaminate the ground and water beneath your feet you have foreclosed a future for people in that place no matter who they are.
However that caveat aside, very high resolution magnetometers mounted on UAVs have immense promise for locating mines. There is a LOT going on in these spaces, and the technology is evolving fast but there is a lot of hope here. ESPECIALLY if crews can start proactively flying drones over landscapes to survey them BEFORE they become mined so that in the aftermath a sweep with the same magnetometer would when compared against the original magnetometer sweep make the new additions of land mines stick out like a sore thumb.... but even being used to map areas for the first time these are immensely useful life saving tools.
Mines are awful weapons, I don't blame Ukraine for using them but that doesn't negate how awful they are as weapon systems.
I think this technology will be fielded very fast and in great number even during the active war effort as there is no reason that important logistics routes couldn't have magnetometer flights over them periodically to check and see if anything has been tampered with/mines have been placed to sabotage a logistics convoy.
If Ukraine is conducting an armored assault on the other hand in an area Russia has mined themselves... well it would sure as hell be cheaper to fly a magnetometer drone out in front of the tanks if the immediate enemy forces can be subdued enough to open a window... a tank costs a lot more than a magnetometer mounted drone... and is a lot harder to move to the front.
Or.. better yet the magnetometer drone flies a route the night before the attack clandestinely with a magnetometer and maps out where the mines are so that very very very precise locations can be given to the armor to drive through the minefield with the least likelihood of hitting enemy mines. Pair one of these drones with a mine clearing tank and you can also start to get wayyy more efficiency out of your anti-mine clearing which could be absolutely critical while under fire.
Hopefully this will supercharge war recovery efforts with these tools as well. Ukraine is going to want to map a good portion of it's landscape with very high resolution magnetometers for this very purpose among others.
Speaking to AFP, he said: “We are able to innovate and bring technology such as satellite imagery, drone imagery, all helping us just to drill down to identify where those pockets of concentration of landmines and explosive ordnance are.”
He describes analysts looking at drone and satellite images “pixel by pixel” to locate mines and employing AI algorithms to aid the search. Yet while enthused by such developments, Smith adds: “It’s not an industrial process yet.”
“We’re getting low-level benefits,” he adds. “But I think it is that area where we will continue to grow.”
I am not going to lie, I am bit surprised by this article in that it doesn't mention this area of technology. The thing is, this isn't just useful for clearing mines, this is a broadly useful technology being refined for many different things, and as such the innovation in this area will be fast and in many directions.
Here is another link to an article about it, I made another post in the Ukraine community with the url link as well because I thought it was interesting enough to make seperate post.
https://militarnyi.com/en/news/ukraine-develops-ai-drone-for-mine-detection/