For centuries, sea mines have presented an affordable and effective option in naval warfare. That threat remains today. However, what is equally concerning is the recent use of sea mines by terrorist groups and other non-state actors as cheap and plentiful weapons to hazard commercial vessels and disrupt commerce on the oceans.
The U.S. Navy has put numerous systems in place to provide a robust mine-countermeasures (MCM) capability. However, these systems are now approaching the end of their service lives and will soon “sunset.” The Navy is moving forward to evaluate autonomous systems that can provide an effective MCM solution and, just as importantly, keep Navy sailors out of minefields.
A centuries-old challenge
Mine warfare is not new. The first plan for a sea mine in the West was drawn up by Ralph Rabbards, who presented his design to Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1574. Since the invention of the Bushnell Keg in 1776 (a watertight keg filled with gunpowder that floated toward the enemy, detonated by a sparking mechanism if it struck a ship), mine warfare has been an important element of naval warfare.
Over 150 years ago, Union Adm. David Farragut became famous for “damning torpedoes” (mines) at the entrance to Mobile Bay during the Civil War. The use of sea mines has figured significantly in every major armed conflict and nearly every regional conflict in which the United States has been involved since the Revolutionary War.
In the past several decades, rogue states have indiscriminately employed sea mines. Libya used mines to disrupt commerce in the Gulf of Suez and the Strait of Bab el Mandeb. Iran laid mines to hazard military and commercial traffic in the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. During Operation Desert Storm, the threat of mines precluded the effective use of the Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary task force off Kuwait and hazarded all U.S. and coalition forces operating in the Arabian Gulf.
Today’s ongoing mine challenge
Today, mine warfare remains a critical element of naval warfare capability. In terms of availability, variety, cost-effectiveness, ease of deployment and potential impact on naval expeditionary operations, mines are some of the most attractive weapons available to any adversary. Worldwide proliferation of mines compounds this challenge. The number of countries with mines, mining assets, mine manufacturing capabilities, and the intention to export mines has grown dramatically over the past several decades. More than 50 countries possess mines and mining capability. Of these, 30 have demonstrated a mine production capability and 20 have attempted to export these weapons.
The ability of the U.S. Navy to deal with the threat of sea mines is not getting better; it is getting worse. The platforms that embody the U.S. Navy’s primary mine-countermeasures capability—the MH-53E AMCM aircraft and the Avenger-class minesweeper—are scheduled to sunset in the next few years, which will leave the totality of the Navy’s capability in the discrete number of littoral combat ships to be outfitted with the mine-countermeasures mission module.
This is not the capability needed by a global navy. Fortunately, technology has advanced to the point that, with the proper commitment, the Navy can conduct MCM remotely by leveraging unmanned systems.
Leveraging unmanned technologies to defeat deadly sea mines
There is only one way to completely “Take the sailor out of the minefield,” and that is to leverage unmanned technologies to hunt and destroy mines at a distance. As naval analyst Norman Friedman pointed out, the severe damage done to U.S. Navy ships, USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58), USS Tripoli (LPH 10) and USS Princeton (CG 59) by simple sea mines is something that must be avoided in the future.
It is not a lack of “want,” or even a lack of money (although MCM funding has lagged other procurement priorities) that has impeded the Navy’s efforts. In the past, unmanned vessel technologies were not mature enough to take on the complex mine-hunting and mine-clearing task. They are today.
While a complete description of the solution to the Navy’s MCM challenge is beyond the scope of this article, it is important to emphasize that the components are not based on just concepts or early-stage prototypes. Rather, every component has been in the water and tested in the operational environment.
While this mine countermeasures solution is designed to accommodate various towed sonars and remotely operated vessels, the following description is based on these three leading candidates as sub-components that will deliver a single-sortie autonomous mine countermeasures solution. The basic elements of this solution include:
- The MARTAC Devil Ray T38 unmanned surface vessel is intended as the autonomous platform (the “truck”) for the package, and will host a communications and data transmission hub, in addition to above water and underwater sensors.
- The ThayerMahan Sea Scout Subsea Imaging System is a sonar specifically designed for missions such as mine hunting. The Sea Scout system is founded on the in-production COTS Kraken Robotics Katfish-180 tow-body mounted synthetic aperture sonar.
- The Pluto Gigas MNS ROV is an existing third-generation mine neutralization system with several units deployed globally, and over 3,000 mines destroyed. The Pluto Gigas deploys an acoustically armed and detonated countermine charge to destroy mines.
While this MCM solution is component agnostic, the leading commercial-off-the-shelf candidates for the initial solution were chosen based on their technical maturity, as well as their current use by various navies and other entities.
The Navy is taking action
Because ships and sailors operate daily in harm’s way, the U.S. Navy is moving forward to accelerate efforts to deal with deadly sea mines. The essential components for such a system exist today, and a robust solution can reach fruition in the near term.
To be clear, this is not a platform-specific solution, but rather a concept. When operators see a capability with any unmanned COTS platforms in the water successfully performing the mine countermeasures mission, they will likely press industry to produce even more capable platforms to undertake the autonomous mine-hunting and mine-clearing task.
George Galdorisi is a career naval aviator and national security professional. His 30-year career as a naval aviator culminated in 14 years of consecutive service as executive officer, commanding officer, commodore, and chief of staff. He is a 40-year Coronado resident and enjoys writing, especially speculative fiction about the future of warfare. He is the author of 16 books, including four consecutive New York Times best sellers.
