"Sea Mine Warfare"

Korean War quote about Wonson: “The U.S. Navy has lost control of the seas in Korean waters to a nation without a Navy, using pre-World War I weapons, laid by vessels that were utilized at the time of the birth of Christ.”Rear Admiral Allen “Hoke” Smith.

What happens if a modern nation takes sea mines seriously?

See Chinese Mine Warfare: A PLA Navy 'Assassin's Mace' Capability(pdf) (2009):

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While photos of a first Chinese carrier will no doubt cause a stir, the Chinese navy has in recent times focused much attention upon a decidedly more mundane and nonphotogenic arena of naval warfare: sea mines. This focus has, in combination with other asymmetric forms of naval warfare, had a significant impact on the balance of power in East Asia.

People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) strategists contend that sea mines are “easy to lay and difficult to sweep; their concealment potential is strong; their destructive power is high; and the threat value is long-lasting.”3 Key objectives for a Chinese offensive mine strategy would be “blockading enemy bases, harbors and sea lanes; destroying enemy sea transport capabilities; attacking or restricting warship mobility; and crippling and exhausting enemy combat strength.”

While somewhat dated, the analysis holds true. Mines are easy to lay, hard to clear, and potential show stoppers.

U.S. Navy Has a Coastal Mine Detection System

U.S. has a coastal mine detection system reports Megan Eckstine at USNI News

The Navy completed the first phase of its initial operational test and evaluation on the AN/DVS-1 Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) airborne mine detection system and is awaiting Littoral Combat Ship availability to complete the remaining testing.

COBRA is a sensor payload that operates onboard the MQ-8B Fire Scout and can detect beach zone mines in the daytime to help plan amphibious landings. An eventual block upgrade would add nighttime and surf zone detection capabilities.
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Using air vehicle operators and mission payload operators from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 1, maintainers from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21 and operators from USS Independence (LCS-2) and the LCS Squadron (LCSRON) 1, the LCS program proved to the Operational Test and Evaluation Force that COBRA can effectively and reliably meet its mission requirements.

“Right now, in order for us to do the kind of reconnaissance you need in advance of an amphibious landing, you’ve got to put sailors and Marines, you’ve got to put somebody in there with eyes on target to see what’s there, see if there’s any obstacles. People are involved in it,” Taylor said.
“With this capability, you’re able to go from the LCS with an unmanned vehicle, you’re able to recon a whole line of beach – not just one or two areas, you can look at the whole beach, you can look at all the lanes that are possible without putting somebody there – which allows you to come back and look at that and choose which lane or lanes are available and which are not.”

COBRA aircraft component (U.S. Navy photo)

More on COBRA here:

The COBRA airborne payload will be carried on the MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned air system. This allows operators and other personnel to remain at a safe distance from the mine and obstacle belts and enemy direct and indirect fire. COBRA will be embarked in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) as part of the mine countermeasures (MCM) mission package (MP).

Wonder who will protect the LCS at its "safe distance." And what is that distance in today's battlespace?

More UAVS: Mine Detection System

The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research reports Navy Tests New Unmanned Mine-Detection System:

During a recent technology demonstration at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Dr.

ONR photo

Rosemarie Oelrich and Dr. Cory Stephanson unveiled a new way to detect buried and submerged mines.

Oelrich, a scientist at Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Carderock’s Combatant Craft Division, and Stephanson, president and chief executive officer of Broadband Discovery Systems (BDS), stared at an Android tablet showing search data from an unmanned aerial drone they had just flown. The device’s screen glowed as a green fluorescent map appeared, splashed with red clusters of varying sizes and shapes.

“See that large cluster?” asked Stephanson. “That’s the dummy mine we buried. The smaller blotches near it are construction rebar we found nearby. The drone detected and localized these items quickly and accurately, which would be extremely valuable in a real combat scenario.”

Oelrich and Stephanson were testing the new Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability (MIW RAC) system. Sponsored by the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) TechSolutions program, MIW RAC consists of a one-pound quadcopter outfitted with an ultra-sensitive magnetometer sensor system to detect mines and provide real-time search data to a handheld Android device.

“This technology will help Sailors and Marines who are approaching a beachfront to rapidly clear, or at least determine the location of, mines or other hazards that are in their way,” said ONR Command Master Chief Matt Matteson. “It could potentially save a lot of lives.”

MIW RAC is a portable, remote-controlled system that can detect buried or underwater mines during amphibious beach landings. It’s designed to help explosive ordnance disposal teams quickly find mines and dangerous metal obstacles within coastal surf zones and very-shallow-water zones. MIW RAC would provide a new, real-time aerial complement to existing underwater mine-detection capabilities.

“Everyone wants to know where they are going and what they are about to get into,” said Oelrich, who is overseeing the development of MIW RAC. “It helps to have a rapid capability to just fly something in the air and survey an area before you put troops on the ground or bring a vessel ashore.”

While the quadcopter and tablet device are available commercially, the heart of MIW RAC is its proprietary magnetometer sensor suite—which has an extensive detection range and uses complex algorithms to differentiate between various types of objects.

MIW RAC originated in 2015, when the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) sent a request to ONR’s TechSolutions program for a portable system that could detect potential hazards in surf zones, be easy for warfighters to use and fit diverse platforms. TechSolutions is ONR’s rapid-response science and technology program that develops prototype technologies to address problems voiced by Sailors and Marines, usually within 12-18 months.

With TechSolutions guidance, NECC partnered with NSWC Carderock, Combat Direction Systems Activity Dam Neck and two commercial companies—BDS and Physical Sciences, Inc.—to develop the components of MIW RAC.

“We took our inspiration from a stationary scanning system developed by BDS,” said Oelrich. “It was sensitive enough to not only detect weapons, but identify the hidden location of the object on a person and the angle in which it was oriented—a knife in a front pocket or gun turned sideways, for example.

“We flipped that concept on its head,” she continued. “Instead of a stationary system detecting moving objects, we have a moving system detecting relatively stationary objects.”

U.S. Counter- Mine Warfare: Getting a New Package to the Fleet

Interesting USNI News report from Megan Eckstein Navy Finalizing Counter-Mine Package for Littoral Combat Ships:

Northrup Grumman photo H-60S with ALMDS

The initial package would include the MH-60S helicopter towing the Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) and Airborne Mine Neutralization System (AMNS) – all three of which reached initial operational capability in November – and an unmanned vehicle to tow the AN/AQS-20A sonar. This initial package provides detect-to-engage capabilities, but eventually the service will also add a buried- and high-clutter bottom search capability, a beach and surf zone search capability, a near-surface neutralizer and a minesweeper, with each being added as they wrap up development and test.

Raytheon photo AMNS

“We want to make the systems as flexible as possible, so while they will remain tied to the LCS as a capability LCS will have, we want to be able to put them aboard other ships if required to provide additional capacity, or capability in areas where the LCS aren’t currently” deployed, he said.
“The intent is to make [the package] as expeditionary as possible so we could deploy it rapidly. Now in some places where we know there might be a threat we can preposition the gear, either to await a ship or (on a ship) if we have a ship there. For instance, the ESBs, we have one deploying to 5th Fleet [area of responsibility] in 2017, that would be a likely candidate for additional integration.”
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As for shore-based expeditionary mine countermeasures, there’s reason to believe an

Mk18, Mod 2 "Kingfish" USN photo by MC2 Blake Midnight

operator ashore could conduct blue-water mine countermeasures operations – at a greater distance than the shore-based expeditionary explosive ordnance disposal and mine countermeasures units using the Mk 18 Mod 2 unmanned vehicle for harbor and other near-shore activities.

“Right now the control systems are tied to the consoles aboard the LCS, both classes of LCS, but they are potentially deployable in a mobile system,” Owens explained.
“We had one (mobile console) we experimented with in exercise Unmanned Warrior in Scotland a few months ago using different (unmanned) systems, but the concept is viable. We put together a command and control suite inside what really is a 20-foot container unit and were able to control a variety of surface, undersurface and air platforms simultaneously.”

More about ALMDS here.

More about AMNS here.

Earlier post on "Unmanned Warrior" exercise here.

Cool.

Fun with Drones: Autonomous Undersea Vehicles Operating Cooperatively

The Ocean News headline understates the import of the exercise in Iver3-AUV Plays Active Role in Unmanned Warrior (UW) 2016

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Multiple Iver AUVs were put in active roles by members of the Royal Navy, US Navy and the Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC). The Iver-3 systems were used in a segment of Unmanned Warrior known as Hell Bay, during which groups of underwater vehicles demonstrate how they collaborate to carry out autonomous tasks like target location and recognition.

Several of the Iver3 AUVs were equipped with SeeByte Neptune, an open architecture enabling autonomous multivehicle collaboration. Designed to enhance Mine Counter-Measure (MCM) missions, the system offers launch and recovery software management, water column flight management, static and dynamic exclusion zones, survey and re-acquire tasks, and real-time progress and status monitoring. The Iver3 MCM systems come equipped with high resolution side-scan sonar, RDI Explorer DVL w/ADCP, WHOI Micro modem, Iridium Communications and an operator console.
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The ON report is based on a Iver3-AUV manufacturer, OceanServer press release.

This is very cool stuff. Autonomous cooperation and deconfliction of the water space are vital for future ops.

More, please.