Naval Mine Warfare. Operational and Technical Challenges for Naval Forces
Abstract
U.S. naval forces are organized, trained, and equipped to engage in the full spectrum of military operations in the deep sea, the littorals, or inland. Yet today, sea mines in the hands of hostile forces are a growing threat to mobility, as evidenced in the Gulf War. To meet the threat of the proliferation and ever increasing sophistication of sea mines, the Department of the Navy has adopted an integrated approach to countermine warfare that attempts to balance dedicated (special-purpose forces) and organic (multimission, general-purpose forces) capabilities intended to leverage emerging technological opportunities. As with other warfare areas, the mine warfare community also must deal with limited resources and legacy systems. These constraints complicate the process of defining the optimal long-term strategic balance between dedicated and organic assets, the transition path to achieving the objective, and the technological capabilities (and underlying research and development) needed to meet those objectives. Naval mine countermeasures (MCM) programs for countermine warfare employ a mix of undersea, surface, and airborne systems (including special warfare, marine mammal, and explosive ordnance disposal units). The resulting capabilities, together with support from other command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems, are intended to provide the naval forces with minefield intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) to facilitate minefield avoidance, minefield clearance, mine neutralization, and mine and obstacle removal and destruction. Their operational utility depends also on access to key environmental data, and modeling and simulation systems.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA413076
Entities
Organizations
- National Research Council