JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: In Britain, an unusual partnership has been formed between the country's defense ministry and a flamboyant entrepreneur. The goal, to eradicate a deadly legacy of war. CNN's London bureau chief Tom Mintier has the story.</s>TOM MINTIER, CNN LONDON BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Clearing land mines is a tedious and dangerous job. Minefields have to be cleared inch by inch. This airship may bring old and new technology together in a way never envisioned. The small blimp is outfitted with sophisticated mapping radar that recognizes shapes in the ground. It is so advanced that it can even detect plastic mines invisible to most mine detectors.</s>SIR JOHN CHISHOLM, CHMN., DEFENSE EVALUATION & RESEARCH AGENCY: We have to show that's it's going to work in all the various circumstances: in muddy fields as well as in grassy fields, amongst rocks and all that kind of thing.</s>MINTIER: Researchers say it will take about 18 months before the system is ready for action. One of the people behind the project is Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airlines and a balloonist himself. His company, the Lightship Group, designed the airship jointly with the British Ministry of Defense.</s>RICHARD BRANSON, THE LIGHTSHIP GROUP: Well, the advantage that an airship has is that it can go very slowly, it's a very stable platform, whereas if you use a plane, it's noisy, it goes too fast.</s>MINTIER: One of the biggest problems for mine clearance is the unreliable maps military units create when they plant the mines. When you are talking about 60 or 70 million individual mines, just locating them is a real problem. (on camera): The airship is called Mineseeker, with the ability to travel 100 meters or 300 feet a second. It may not remove mines, but it does increase the probability of locating them, something that until now was done on hands and knees. Tom Mintier, CNN, London.
Billionaire Richard Branson Pitches in With British Defense Ministry to Make Clearing Land Mines Safer