By George Galdorisi
At no time because the finish of World Conflict II have so many countries fielded blue water navies which have roamed the globe. Navies from Australia, China, Japan, Russia, the UK, and america have regional and worldwide commitments. Whether or not it’s reinforcing or difficult rules-based order at sea, displaying resolve to reassure allies and deter rivals, or exercising with different navies, these fleet additionally acknowledge that they should be ready for high-end conflict at sea. Comparative naval benefit has returned as a crucial unit of measure in nice energy competitors.
However regardless of rising threats, navies have turn out to be accustomed to traversing the oceans and littorals with close to impunity. This capability is now being more and more jeopardized, and never essentially by standard high-end threats. For hundreds of years, sea mines have introduced an inexpensive and efficient possibility in naval warfare. That menace is rising at this time. The variety of international locations with mines, mining belongings, mine manufacturing capabilities, and the intention to export mines has grown dramatically over the previous a number of many years. Greater than fifty international locations possess mines and mining functionality. Of those, thirty international locations have demonstrated an indigenous mine manufacturing functionality and twenty have tried to export these weapons. Moreover, non-state actors have used these low-cost and plentiful weapons to hazard business vessels and disrupt commerce on the oceans.
When policymakers, army leaders, and analysts examine the qualities of varied navies, they sometimes suppose by way of numbers of ships, submarines, plane, and different standard belongings. Nevertheless, contemplating the rising menace of sea mines worldwide, the aptitude to make use of and defeat mines types one other core consideration in gauging the steadiness of naval benefit. Navies should think about learn how to discipline inexpensive and risk-worthy unmanned methods at scale to satisfy the mine menace.
A Centuries Outdated Problem
Mine warfare just isn’t new. Precursors to naval mines had been first invented by innovators of Imperial China. The primary plan for a sea mine within the West was drawn up by Ralph Rabbards, who introduced his design to Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1574. For the reason that invention of the Bushnell Keg in 1776 (a watertight keg full of gunpowder that was floated towards the enemy, detonated by a sparking mechanism if it struck a ship), mine warfare has been an essential ingredient of naval warfare.1 Whereas the primary try to ship the Bushnell Keg from America’s first fight submarine, the Turtle, in opposition to a British warship in 1776 failed, subsequent makes an attempt to make use of these early mines had been profitable.2
Over 150 years in the past, Admiral David Farragut grew to become well-known for “damning torpedoes” (which had been really mines) on the entrance to Cell Bay throughout the Civil Conflict.3 Certainly, within the early levels of the Civil Conflict, Admiral Farragut wrote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles concerning the sea mine menace posed by the Confederacy, stating, “I’ve at all times deemed it unworthy of a chivalrous nation, however it doesn’t do to provide your enemy such a determined superiority over you.” Farragut’s warning was eerily prescient. 4
The usage of sea mines and countermeasures to those weapons have figured considerably in each main conflict and almost each regional battle wherein america has been concerned because the Revolutionary Conflict. Certainly, the naval mine has been a mainstay of recent warfare. The North Sea Mine Barrage, a big minefield laid by the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy between Scotland and Norway throughout World Conflict I, inhibited the motion of the German U-boat fleet. Throughout World Conflict I a couple of thousand service provider ships and warships had been misplaced due to the 230,000 mines used.5 NATO navies proceed to clear these mines to this present day.6
Mines launched by U.S. Navy submarines and dropped by U.S. Military Air Power B-29 bombers within the Western Pacific throughout World Conflict II sank a whole lot of Japanese warships, service provider ships, and smaller vessels. Throughout World Conflict II 2,665 ships had been misplaced or broken by 100,000 offensive mines.7
In Korea throughout the early Fifties, the Soviets offered North Korea with 1000’s of sea mines. These had been used to defend key harbors and a number of U.S. warships struck mines. Through the Vietnam Conflict, over 300,000 American naval mines had been used. In 1972 Haiphong Harbor was seeded with 11,000 destructor mines and was shut down utterly for months, and it took years to filter all of the American mines.8
Prior to now a number of many years, rogue states have indiscriminately employed sea mines. Libya used mines to disrupt commerce within the Gulf of Suez and the Strait of Bab el Mandeb. Within the Nineteen Eighties Iran laid mines to hazard army and business site visitors within the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, resulting in the devastating mine strike in opposition to USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58). Throughout Operation Desert Storm in 1990-1991, the specter of mines precluded the efficient use of the Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary job power off Kuwait and hazarded all U.S. and coalition forces working within the Arabian Gulf. Certainly, Operation Desert Storm highlighted the significance of mine warfare with the heavy injury dealt to USS Princeton (CG 59) and USS Tripoli (LPH 10). The U.S. Navy has an considerable historical past of using mines and putting them, however it stays unclear what the U.S. Navy’s mine technique is for contemporary naval warfare.
At this time’s Ongoing Mine Problem
Mine warfare stays a crucial ingredient of naval functionality. When it comes to availability, selection, affordability, ease of deployment, and potential affect on naval operations, mines are a number of the most tasty weapons accessible.
Sea mines are arduous to search out, troublesome to neutralize, and may current a lethal hazard to any vessel—particularly these ships particularly designed to hunt them. They will additionally closely form conduct and weigh on the operational calculus of commanders, making them a supply of potent psychological results within the battlespace.
Nice energy rivals are prone to make use of mines in any battle with america. Scott Truver highlighted the hazard posed by China’s mine warfare capabilities, in addition to these of different probably hostile nations:
“The mine warfare experiences of America and different nations usually are not misplaced on the Individuals’s Liberation Military Navy (PLAN). Chinese language naval analysts and historians perceive the uneven potential for mine warfare to baffle the enemy, and thus obtain distinctive fight outcomes.’ Mines present what some have described as inexpensive safety through uneven means.”9
Seth Cropsey echoed comparable challenges and highlighted the mining capabilities China and Russia would convey to the battle. He centered totally on the menace from China, noting:
“One of many prime world mine threats comes from China. It has been estimated that Beijing has as many as 100,000 such weapons. These vary from the old school moored contact mine to incorporate mines which have rocket-propelled weapons and goal detection methods. Within the occasion of a battle with China, america is unlikely to method warfare from the land. That leaves us with the seas because the place the place battle is more than likely to play out.
Beijing would doubtless focus on creating choke factors in areas such because the archipelagos that separate East Asia from the Center East and the South China Sea. That implies that sea management and navigating round China’s anti-access and space denial capabilities might be essential. It’s cheap to count on that the Chinese language would use mines there, and cheap to count on that they’d use mines in the event that they determined to make use of power in opposition to Taiwan. Shifting via these straits is essential and with the ability to clear them of mines is equally essential.”10
The hazard of naval mines being employed wanting main conflict is acute within the Center East. In October 2020, a Maltese-flagged tanker was broken by a mine whereas taking up crude oil the Yemeni port of Bir Ali. MV Syra reportedly suffered vital injury, leading to an oil spill.11 Shortly after this occasion, in November 2020, a mine within the Pink Sea exploded and broken a Greek oil tanker.12 In December 2020, a Singapore-flagged tanker berthed on the Saudi Arabian port metropolis of Jeddah was broken by a mine, with Houthi militia from Yemen strongly linked to this assault.13 In January 2021, an oil tanker off the coast of Iraq found a mine connected to its hull.14 Regional navies, assisted by U.S. and U.Ok. navies, have stepped up mine countermeasures workout routines within the Arabian Gulf.15 Most not too long ago, France, the UK, and america carried out the Artemis Trident MCM Train in Arabian Gulf.16
As a part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia mined the waters off the Crimean Peninsula. A few of these mines both broke unfastened or had been minimize unfastened and drifted into transport lanes utilized by Ukrainian and NATO ships.17 Russia has continued to make use of sea mines extensively throughout the battle in Ukraine. One of the distinguished examples concerned Russian forces laying mines alongside the Dnieper River to the north of Kherson metropolis to make it tougher for the Ukrainians to cross.18
Different incidents have included Russian drifting mines which were discovered alongside the coasts of Turkey and Romania, in addition to elsewhere within the Black Sea. An Estonian cargo ship within the Black Sea was sunk by a Russian mine throughout this conflict.19 Extra not too long ago, in February 2023, Turkish media claimed {that a} drifting sea mine exploded close to Agva on the Black Beach.20
The flexibility of the U.S. Navy to take care of the rising menace of sea mines just isn’t getting higher, it’s getting worse. The platforms that embody the U.S. Navy’s major mine countermeasures (MCM) functionality—the MH-53E AMCM plane and the Avenger-class minesweeper—are scheduled to retire within the subsequent few years, which can depart the totality of the Navy’s MCM functionality within the discrete variety of Littoral Fight Ships (LCS) to be outfitted with the Mine Countermeasures mission package deal, which has suffered a number of delays throughout testing and improvement.
This isn’t the MCM functionality wanted by a worldwide navy dealing with a pervasive mine menace. Neither is it an answer that eliminates the acute hazard to Sailors who’re pressured to work in a minefield to perform their mission, particularly when the minefield is overlayed with the superior anti-ship and anti-air capabilities of an ideal energy adversary. Happily, know-how has superior to the purpose that with the right dedication the Navy can conduct MCM remotely by leveraging unmanned methods and take the Sailor out of the minefield.
Leveraging Unmanned Applied sciences to Defeat Lethal Sea Mines
For all navies, there is just one strategy to utterly take the Sailor out of the minefield and that’s to leverage unmanned applied sciences to hunt and destroy mines from a distance. Whereas this precept is instantly acknowledged, it isn’t a scarcity of want that has impeded the Navy’s efforts, however relatively technological maturity. Prior to now, unmanned automobile applied sciences weren’t mature sufficient to tackle the complicated job of mine searching. However at this time, they’re now succesful sufficient. These capabilities are now not primarily based on ideas or early prototypes. Quite, each essential element has been within the water and examined in operational environments.
The next proposal relies on three subcomponent candidates that may ship a single-sortie, autonomous mine countermeasures answer with autonomous goal recognition. This design can even flexibly accommodate varied towed sonars and remotely operated autos (ROVs).
The MARTAC Satan Ray T38 is meant because the autonomous platform for the package deal, and can host a communications and information transmission hub, along with above-water and underwater sensors.
The ThayerMahan Sea Scout Subsea Imaging System is particularly designed for missions resembling mine searching. The Sea Scout system relies on the in-production COTS Kraken Robotics Katfish-180 tow-body mounted artificial aperture sonar. The system is designed to seek for mine-like objects and is built-in by ThayerMahan’s distant operations and communications system.
The Pluto Gigas is an current, standalone, third era ROV with a number of methods deployed globally and with over 3,000 mines destroyed. The Pluto Gigas deploys an acoustically armed and detonated countermine cost that’s low-cost each in manufacturing and in logistics and sustainment. A number of fees will be loaded onto the T38 to allow single-sortie discipline clearance.
These three elements can mix to ship an efficient mine searching answer. The driving precept of this answer is to include mature {hardware} that may reduce danger to the host platform throughout execution of the MCM mission. To that finish, the load and out of doors dimensions of the mission package deal are inside a number of inches of the scale of a standard 11-meter RHIB. Launch and restoration needs to be simply achieved utilizing customary naval small craft dealing with procedures for the host vessel.
Whereas this MCM answer is element agnostic, the main commercial-off-the-shelf candidates for the preliminary answer had been chosen primarily based on their technical maturity, in addition to their present use by varied navies. Leveraging these commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) methods will allow this MCM answer to maneuver ahead at an accelerated tempo to speedily ship a fleet functionality within the close to time period.
The Have to Take Motion At this time to Tackle the MCM Problem
As a result of ships and Sailors function each day in hurt’s approach, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps—and by extension different allied navies—can be well-served to speed up their efforts to take care of lethal sea mines. The important elements for such a system exist at this time, and a strong COTS MCM answer can attain fruition within the near-term.
Whereas packages of report are growing next-generation know-how, navies ought to put money into parallel-path options that leverage mature subsystems which are prepared to offer functionality at this time. It’s time to put a speedy answer within the palms of Sailors.
To realize victory, navies should get to the battle within the face of anti-access space denial capabilities of adversaries. Given the low price, ease of deployment, and rising proliferation of naval mines, the flexibility to search out and clear these lethal mines makes for a serious pacing problem for navies. Growing and fielding mine countermeasures capabilities, ignored for too lengthy, needs to be a primary order precedence for navies at this time.
Captain George Galdorisi is a profession naval aviator and nationwide safety skilled. His 30-year profession as a naval aviator culminated in 14 years of consecutive service as govt officer, commanding officer, commodore, and chief of workers. He enjoys writing, particularly speculative fiction about the way forward for warfare. He’s the writer of 18 books, together with 4 consecutive New York Occasions bestsellers. His newest e book, revealed by the U.S. Naval Institute, is Algorithms of Armageddon: The Affect of Synthetic Intelligence on Future Wars.
References
[1] Tyler Rogoway, “The Revolutionary Conflict Gave Start to the Age of Naval Mine Warfare,” The Conflict Zone, July 4, 2016, accessed at:
[2] Christopher Hevey and Anthony Pollman, “Reimagine Offensive Mining, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, January 2021.
[3] Farragut’s boldness is particularly putting as a result of in 1862 a Accomplice mine sank USS Cairo within the Yazoo River.
[4] U.S. Navy Reality File, “U.S. Navy Mines,” accessed at:
[5] See, for instance, Paul Ahn, “A Story of Two Straits,” U.S. Naval Institute Naval Historical past Journal, December 2020 for a concise historical past of naval mine warfare.
[6] “NATO Forces Clear Mines off Port of Dieppe,” The Maritime Govt, April 9, 2020, accessed at:
[7] US Navy Reality File, “US Navy Mines,” accessed at
[8] “Floor Forces: Mines Revisited,” Technique Web page, March 13, 2020, accessed at:
[9] Scott Truver, “Taking Mines Severely: Mine Warfare in China’s Close to Seas,” Naval Conflict School Assessment, Spring 2012, accessed at:
[10] Yasmin Tadjdeh, “Navy Invests in New Mine Warfare Know-how,” Nationwide Protection Journal (on-line), April 6, 2020, accessed at:
[11] Edward Lundquist, “Tanker Loading Crude Broken by Floating Mine in Yemen,” Seapower, October 9, 2020, accessed at:
[12] Ryan White, “Greek-Operated Tanker Broken by Mine at Saudi Terminal,” Naval Information, November 25, 2020, accessed at:
[13] Sam Chambers, “Hafnia Tanker at Jeddah Turns into Newest Mine Sufferer,” Splash 247.com, December 14, 2020, accessed at:
[14] “Oil Tanker Close to Iraq Finds Mine on Hull as Gulf Dangers Mount,” Newsmax, January 4, 2021, accessed at:
[15] “Saudi, UK, U.S. Naval Forces Conduct Mine Countermeasures Coaching,” Protection-Aerospace, November 29, 2020, accessed at:
[16] Naval Information Workers, “U.S. France and UK Full Artemis Trident MCM Train in Gulf,” Naval Information, April 13, 2023.
[17] “Weapons: Naval Mines in The Black Sea,” Technique Web page, February 2, 2023, accessed at:
[18] Gerrard Kaonga, “Russia Mines River as Troopers Put together Kherson Retreat: Kyiv,” Newsweek, October 25, 2002.
[19] Scott Savitz, “The Drifting Menace,” Actual Clear Protection, (undated), accessed at:
[20] Tayfun Ozberk, “Sea Mine Explodes on Turkey’s Black Sea Coast,” Naval Information, February 14, 2023.
Featured Picture: An unmanned floor automobile is craned aboard the Independence-variant littoral fight ship USS Canberra (LCS 30), as part of the primary embarkation of the Mine Countermeasures (MCM) mission package deal. (U.S. Navy photograph by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Vance Hand)
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