Category Archives: Mine Warfare Topic Week

Mine Warfare Topic Week

The U.S. Navy Needs AWNIS for Mine Warfare

1 Comment

Mine Warfare Topic Week

By LT Colin Barnard, USN

Earlier this year, General Scapparotti, former Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO forces, sounded the call for a greater U.S. Navy presence in the Euro-Atlantic region to counter Russian aggression. The U.S. Navy has been increasing its presence in the region since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, most notably conducting patrols in the Baltic and Black Seas. More recently, the U.S. Navy reestablished U.S. Second Fleet in Norfolk, Virginia, the commander of which will also head NATO’s new Joint Force Command in the same location, and is providing the flagship for Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 for all of 2019, one of four groups that make up NATO’s Standing Naval Forces.

Despite these increases, General Scapparotti was correct to say that an even greater U.S. Navy presence in the region is needed. However, greater U.S. Navy presence in Europe means greater involvement in NATO; and greater involvement in NATO requires greater use of NATO doctrine, some of which is not currently practiced by the U.S. Navy.

One such doctrine is the Allied Worldwide Navigational Information System, or AWNIS, which is crucial for conducting military operations at sea, especially mine warfare, while minimizing disruption to merchant shipping. This crucial doctrine can help modify and reroute sea lines of communications as they become threatened and endure combat operations. But unfortunately, the U.S. Navy knows very little about this system, its processes, or its merits.

What AWNIS Is

AWNIS is not a technical system but rather “instructions for the promulgation of navigational dangers during times of war,” as the first NATO Military Committee document described it in 1952. AWNIS is necessary to conduct operations at sea while minimizing disruption to the maritime domain because it provides the procedures to promulgate Safety and Security of Navigation (SASON) information on navigation hazards that result from military operations—e.g. sea mines—fulfilling legal obligations specified in international humanitarian law and conventions such as Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).

To accomplish this, AWNIS collates inputs from tactical units—e.g. mine countermeasure (MCM) forces—then disseminates the information to merchant and military ships based on classification level. To promulgate the information to merchant ships, AWNIS uses the existing civilian Worldwide Navigation Warning System (WWNWS) architecture to transmit Navigation Warnings (NAVWARNs). To promulgate the information to military ships, AWNIS uses the Q-Message system. More information on AWNIS processes can be found in the primary AWNIS publication, Allied Hydrographic Publication 01 (AHP-01). The Q-message system is specified in a classified supplement to AHP-01.

AWNIS’ Origins

The British Royal Navy, in conjunction with what is now called the U.K. Hydrographic Office (UKHO), developed the AWNIS doctrine in response to lessons learned during WWI and WWII. During WWI, Central Powers sank more than 5,000 allied and neutral merchant ships in the North Atlantic Ocean with projectiles, torpedoes, and mines, creating navigational dangers for all seagoing vessels, including submarines. However, there was no procedure in any navy at the time to track the shipwrecks and sea mines, or disseminate their locations while taking into account operational security. Additionally, mine clearance and salvage operations take time, as do chart corrections.

Without a procedure in the military to identify and share information about navigational hazards during the war, civilian institutions had to locate and mitigate these hazards when the war ended. To this day, shipwrecks from the wars of the 20th century and, more dangerously, sea mines, are still being discovered in the waters around Europe. Germany placed over 40,000 mines around the British Isles during WWI alone. A key part of the AWNIS doctrine is post-conflict stabilization, which ensures all hazards to navigation that emerge during a conflict are tracked, then declassified and shared with civilian institutions to ensure restoration after the conflict is over.

AWNIS and Mine Warfare

In NATO, the AWNIS doctrine facilitates Mine Danger Areas (MDAs) and Q-Routes, in addition to other threats to safety and security of navigation. AWNIS Officers embarked with MCM forces draft MDA requests to the AWNIS lead, known as the Safety of Navigation Information Coordinator (SONIC), who is co-located with the MDA establishing authority, usually the Maritime Component Commander.

While it is crucial that MDAs be reported to all friendly naval forces, this detailed information is classified and cannot be shared with merchant shipping. If merchant shipping were told where MDAs are established, the enemy responsible for laying the mines would know which mines have been found. Thus, the details of an MDA are classified and distributed via the Q-Message system only. To fulfill the legal obligation to inform merchant shipping of the mine threat, NAVWARNs are used to establish Areas Dangerous to Shipping (ADS), which can cover a wider area than actually affected in order to maximize the safety of the merchant mariner and, ideally, freedom of maneuver for naval forces. Similar to a Maritime Exclusion Zone, which is also established by NAVWARN, an ADS should be carefully planned in order to ensure the least disruption to the maritime domain. Another doctrine exists in NATO and works closely with AWNIS in this effort—Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping (NCAGS).

AWNIS and NCAGS

More than 50,000 merchant ships sail the world’s oceans, carrying more than 90 percent of the world’s trade. Conversely, only 1,500 warships sail the world’s oceans, of which approximately 200 are at sea at any given time, the rest remaining in port for maintenance and training. While vastly outnumbered, what warships do at sea can greatly affect merchant shipping, potentially disrupting its free movement and thus the global economy. AWNIS and NCAGS work in concert to reduce this potentiality.

While the AWNIS doctrine is responsible for managing the environment on which both military and merchant ships sail, the NCAGS doctrine provides the procedures for military forces to cooperate with and guide merchant shipping, effectively assisting shipping to travel from point A to B safely, i.e. freedom of navigation. This can be accomplished using basic routing guidance like Sailing Information, or through more tactical measures like group transit and lead-through operations. NCAGS relies on the AWNIS overview of the environment to accomplish this task. In the event of lead-through operations, NCAGS also relies on Q-Routes, which are pre-planned channels and routes surveyed during peacetime. Utilizing the Q-Message system, Q-Routes are activated as needed to ensure access to ports or other areas of operational importance for military and merchant ships.

AWNIS and SLOC Protection

In addition to closely cooperating with mine warfare and NCAGS, AWNIS also collates information necessary for the Maritime Component Commander to efficiently position assets to protect sea lines of communication (SLOCs). When navigational hazards like minefields and shipwrecks caused by mines, torpedoes, or missiles are plotted, the Maritime Component Commander is able to visualize the battlespace and the threats to SLOCs. Overlay the operational intelligence picture of the adversary’s naval and anti-access capabilities, especially coastal missiles, and the picture becomes mostly complete.

NCAGS officers have the means to recommend routes for both merchant shipping and strategic sealift around these threats, effectively establishing a SLOC. This also aids in the deconfliction of military activity from merchant shipping. For example, during a scenario in which merchant ships must sail from the U.K. to Norway during a major conflict, NCAGS would rely on AWNIS to show where all recent missile and mine strikes have occurred at sea or in ports, all MDAs, and activated Q-Routes in order to accurately advise the ships where to sail. NCAGS officers deployed in ports or on merchant vessels would be used to communicate sensitive information such as the details of a Q-Route.

AWNIS and Hybrid Warfare

The AWNIS doctrine is increasingly relevant in the context of an aggressive Russia that is openly challenging the laws of the sea through hybrid maritime activity. In November 2018, Russia closed the Kerch Strait to innocent passage, first by promulgating a false NAVWARN, then by placing a merchant vessel under the Crimean Bridge to block the strait. More recently, Russia has been promulgating NAVWARNs for naval exercises in the Black Sea that cover larger areas than necessary, seemingly with the intent of disrupting freedom of navigation. In most cases, the Russian Federation Navy (RFN) does not fully use these exercise areas.

While the RFN is ultimately responsible for the safety of merchant vessels passing in or near these exercise areas, accidents are possible. Even worse, it is difficult to foresee how the international community would respond to such an accident, especially if there were indications the accident was intentional, e.g. to disrupt the passage of a merchant vessel bound for a Ukrainian port. Regardless, as long as Russia continues to abuse the international systems in place for disseminating SASON information, the international shipping community would be right to distrust information promulgated by and for the RFN. Conversely, the U.S. Navy and NATO need to take care to always use these systems correctly, which the AWNIS doctrine seeks to ensure. In peacetime, crisis, and conflict, the U.S. Navy and NATO stand ready to be recognized as trusted brokers of SASON information.

Practicing the AWNIS Doctrine

The U.S. Navy should look to other NATO navies in order to establish AWNIS expertise for its own purposes. The already well-established U.S. Navy NCAGS community, part of the Reserve Component, should become the primary AWNIS expertise for the U.S. Navy. This is how the navies of the U.K., Norway, the Netherlands, and Belgium manage the system. As AWNIS and NCAGS are inseparable in practice, the majority of reserve officers with warfare backgrounds in the U.S. Navy NCAGS community should be trained in both. From this new U.S. Navy AWNIS and NCAGS community, every numbered fleet commander should be assigned a Staff AWNIS and NCAGS Officer, acting as the principal adviser on SASON and ready to act as the SONIC in the event of an operation. If MCM forces are involved, reserve officers should be ready to support them with AWNIS expertise.

The central location for AWNIS and NCAGS expertise in NATO is the NATO Shipping Centre (NSC), part of NATO Maritime Command in Northwood, U.K. Though tasked with wider maritime situational awareness responsibilities, the NSC should play a role in establishing AWNIS expertise in the U.S. Navy, bearing in mind that AWNIS is not only relevant to the littorals of Europe. The mine threat is equally existential, if not more so, in the Strait of Hormuz and Taiwan Strait.

With the AWNIS organization in place, military units at sea and merchant shipping could be confident in the U.S. Navy’s ability to manage SASON information during crisis or conflict. More importantly, the Joint Force Commander could be confident in the Maritime Component Commander’s ability to protect SLOCs and help both merchant shipping and strategic sealift make it to their destination, whether to support the civilian population or the Land Component Commander.

AWNIS is not the only NATO doctrine the U.S. Navy needs to practice, but it is fundamental. No longer can the crew of a destroyer wait until they “chop” under NATO operational control to dust off the NATO publications on the back shelf. As recently argued by VADM Lindsey and members of his staff at NATO’s Combined Joint Operations from the Sea Center of Excellence (CJOS-COE), U.S. Navy knowledge gaps in NATO doctrine need to be identified and filled to ensure successful integration and interoperability with NATO forces. The U.S. Navy’s mine warfare community is already ahead of other warfare communities in this endeavor, through participation in NATO exercises like DYNAMIC MOVE. Adopting AWNIS is a natural next step.

Lieutenant Barnard is serving as a staff operations and plans officer at NATO Maritime Command in Northwood, U.K. He was previously gunnery officer onboard USS ARLEIGH BURKE (DDG 51) and weapons officer onboard USS FIREBOLT (PC 10), and he was recently selected to be a foreign area officer in Europe. He graduated from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland with a master’s in terrorism studies and holds a bachelor’s in political science from Abilene Christian University in Texas. His views are his own and do not represent the views of the U.S. Navy or Department of Defense.

Featured Image: HMCS St. John’s performs manoeuvres with other members of Standing NATO Maritime Group One while on Op REASSURANCE in the Baltic Sea, March 21, 2018. (Photo: CPL TONY CHAND, FIS)

Mine Warfare Topic Week

Meeting the Mine Warfare Challenge with Unmanned Systems

Leave a comment

Mine Warfare Topic Week

By Andrea Daolio

“We have lost control of the seas 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 E. “Hoke” Smith

Mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare share many features, from the fact that both are very difficult and time-consuming tasks (often akin to finding a needle in a haystack). And despite how both submarines and mines achieved tremendous wartime success in the past, the peacetime effort and resources dedicated toward countering them are usually far less than what is required. By harnessing unmanned systems and machine learning, the U.S. Navy can bridge the gap between its own mine countermeasures capability and the growing mine warfare threat.

Historical Successes of Mine Warfare

During World War II, Operation Starvation which mined Japanese home waters severely disrupted Japanese maritime traffic and sunk more than 1.2 million tons of shipping for the loss of only 15 airplanes, while demanding only 5.7 percent of the XXI Bomber Command’s total sorties. Yet a few years later the U.S. Navy was unprepared when it had to face enemy mines itself in the Korean War, resulting in the delay of the amphibious landing at Wonsan. At the end of the war, the mine countermeasures forces, which accounted for less than two percent of all UN naval forces, had suffered 20 percent of naval casualties.

The 1987-1988 and 1991-1992 Gulf crises once again showed how deadly mines can be even for a totally superior force, damaging the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), the flagship for Airborne Mine Countermeasures operations USS Tripoli (LPH-10) and the USS Princeton (CG-59). Since World War II, mines have damaged or sunk four more times more US Navy ships than all other weapons.

U.S. Navy mine casualties chart. (From “21st Century U.S. Navy Mine Warfare” Program Executive Office Littoral and Mine Warfare – Expeditionary Warfare Directorate – US Navy 2009)[Click to expand]
These events have been studied in detail by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and other potential adversaries of the U.S. like Iran and North Korea, and all those nations have significant mine arsenals. China has a fleet of 33 mine warfare vessels and over 50,000 mines (some put the estimate as high as 80,000 or even 100,000), consisting of over 30 varieties of contact, magnetic, acoustic, water pressure and mixed reaction sea mines, remote control sea mines, rocket-rising and mobile mines.1

Russia has a fleet of 47 Mine Warfare vessels and inherited an arsenal of “upwards of 250,000” mines from the Soviet Union, while Iran is estimated to have between 3,000 and 20,000 mines and North Korea is said to have 50,000 mines.2 As if these numbers were not threatening enough, Iraq was able to damage two U.S. Navy ships by deploying only around 1,000 mines, many of them old types dating back to before World War I that can be replicated cheaply (contact mines cost as little as $1500) even by third world nations. More than 30 countries produce and more than 20 countries export mines, and even highly sophisticated versions of the weapon are available in the international arms trade.

Chinese mine depot with warshot and training mines. The bands on the ninety-eight mines on the left side of the image indicate that they are exercise shapes, and could support a robust exercise program. The solid colors on the similar number of mines to the right suggest that they are warshots. (From Chinese Mine Warfare: A PLA Navy ‘Assassin’s Mace’ Capability by Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and William S. Murray, China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, 2009)

NATO on the other hand has the largest MCM fleet in the world with 149 ships (as of 2016), but those ships are becoming old and obsolete (many are second-hand vessels retired by their original owner and then sold to smaller NATO countries). And only 7 percent of these vessels are part of the U.S. Navy. The need to renovate and enlarge this force is immediately apparent.

Countering the Threat

Mines can be put in place by aircraft, surface ships, pleasure boats, submarines, and combat divers and even from pickup trucks crossing bridges. They can be found from the surf zone to deep water (greater than 200 feet) and can be of many different and increasingly capable types. These range from simple contact mines to more complex magnetic, acoustic or pressure mines; from advanced mines that are a combination of the preceding types to computerized mines that can be even set to be detonated only by some specific ship type.

Mines are increasingly difficult to detect. The underwater environment is already a difficult medium to search through, as the currents, differences in salinity and temperature, and seafloor clutter (which is often littered with a vast array of debris) impede search. Meanwhile, mines are becoming even more elusive as stealthy mines made of fiberglass can be extremely difficult to detect. Furthermore, modern sonars are hardly capable enough to find advanced types of mines buried under the seafloor.

Types of naval mines: A-underwater, B-bottom, SS-submarine. 1-drifting mine, 2-drifting mine, 3-moored mine, 4-moored mine (short wire), 5-bottom mines, 6-torpedo mine/CAPTOR mine, 7-rising mine. (Wikimedia Commons)

But even if mines have always had an advantage over mine countermeasures, new technologies are emerging that will be able to greatly reduce or even eliminate this advantage.

Once in the water, mines are difficult to detect, but even if mines can sometimes remain deadly for an extended period of time (such as how fishermen still get injured or killed in the Baltic Sea by leftover mines from the world wars), the damaging effects of the marine environment (from corrosion to marine growth) mean that mines can’t be reliably set in the sea for long periods of time.

Therefore an adversary will likely have to deploy mines shortly before a confrontation, and that will give the U.S. a golden opportunity to stop mines before they are deployed via a more favorable preventative strategy.3

Satellites and High-Altitude Long-Endurance (HALE) drones will be able to detect signs of the major logistical efforts necessary to take mines from ammunition depots to the ports and then load them onto platforms, offering military and diplomatic opportunities to halt the mining operation.

Even if an enemy wants to place only a few mines, persistent surveillance (such as through satellites or unmanned systems with a long endurance capabilities) can monitor the area for signs of strangely behaving ships (the capture of the Iranian-improvised minelayer Iran Ajr is a good example of American forces stopping a mining operation before the mines are deployed).

Using unmanned aircraft for the task will ensure that the area will be monitored for long periods of time at a fraction of the cost and without risking lives. Machine learning and AI systems are already used for guiding military and civilian UAVs4 and even for monitoring,5 therefore these systems can be implemented in the software of an UAV to automatically tell the signs of suspect behavior of enemy assets without humans having to painstakingly watch hours of video feed and thus reducing the workload of the crew. Likewise, a fleet of small Unmanned Underwater Vessels (UUVs) can loiter in the suspected area and identify telltale signs of mining operations to stop it before it is too late. Similarly, underwater hydrophone arrays like those of the DADS and the Autonomous Off-Board Surveillance Sensor (AOSS) programs,6 even if intended to track quiet diesel-electric submarines, are capable of detecting airplanes, ships, and submarine mine-laying operations and monitor the water entry and the bottom impact of mines.

If these systems fail to stop the deployment of mines, once these are in the water, then the task gets more difficult and dangerous. Yet, unmanned systems and new technologies can greatly help the U.S. Navy in the task. Knifefish UUVs and Fleet-class USVs (Unmanned Surface Vessels) are already part of the MCM module of LCS ships and are a great step forward for mine countermeasures.7 The Knifefish has an endurance of up to 16 hours and uses onboard synthetic aperture sonar to detect floating or buried naval mines, identify them thanks to an onboard database and analytical computer, and mark them for the successive removal.

Various types of mines. (Image from “21st Century U.S. Navy Mine Warfare”. Program Executive Office Littoral and Mine Warfare – Expeditionary Warfare Directorate – US Navy 2009)

Machine learning and algorithms can also improve the ability of a UUV to recognize mines and identify objects on the seafloor. The NATO Science and Technology Organisation,  Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (STO CMRE) of LaSpezia (Italy) has recently developed an advanced algorithm that will automate the time-consuming task of mine identification and disposal and further advances in this field will greatly improve MCM operations.8 Moreover, adding an advanced lightweight hydrophone array to UUVs will improve the capability to detect and localize underwater objects (and will give the UUV an improved secondary ASW capability).9

Likewise, unmanned systems can greatly help MCM operations in the air and on the surface. The experience gathered by DARPA with the ASW Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) could be used to create an advanced and completely autonomous MCM ship. Using powerful sensors, advanced automation software and MCM gear, an MCM ACTUV will be able to take many of the tasks now given to the Avenger-class minesweepers. A fully autonomous large fleet of inexpensive unmanned UUVs and USVs could sweep large portions of the sea while avoiding all risk to sailors.

While ships, USVs, and UUVs are the best platforms to neutralize mines, airplanes and helicopters are the fastest platforms to sweep the sea. The laser-based ALMDS (Airborne Laser Mine Detection System) and the unmanned COBRA (Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis System) have recently entered service, but more systems can be deployed in the future.10 UAVs are the perfect choice for persistent reconnaissance and can be adapted for the MCM task and augmented to field the COBRA and ALMDS systems.

While the Navy arguably gives less attention to mine countermeasures than it deserves, it gives even lesser attention to its own offensive mining capability. If the U.S. Navy wants to maintain a solid deterrent against rivals then it should improve and expand its own mine arsenal. The new Hammerhead mine and the Clandestine Delivered Mine (CDM) are a good step in the right direction and more should follow.11 But the vast majority of U.S. mines are Quickstrike mines converted from general-purpose bombs. Dedicated bottom and buried advanced mines (similar to the advanced British Stonefish mine) should be developed and the number of platforms able to deploy mines should be expanded to include UAVs, USVs, and UUVs. Moreover, air-launched mines should get extended-range winged kits similar to those employed by the HAAWC High Altitude ASW Weapons Concept torpedo to give launching aircraft the ability to deploy the mine much further away from enemy positions.12

U.S. Air Force employees calibrate MK62QS MOD3 naval mines at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, July 10, 2018. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Ted Daigle/released)

Conclusion

“Hoke’s right: when you can’t go where you want to, when you want to, you haven’t got command of the sea. And command of the sea is the rock-bottom foundation of all our war plans. We’ve been plenty submarine-conscious and air-conscious. Now we’re going to start getting mine-conscious—beginning last week.” –Admiral Forrest P. Sherman, USN Chief of Naval Operations October, 1950

Until recently the task of minesweeping has been extremely dangerous for sailors, but with new technologies such as unmanned systems and machine learning, it is time to invest heavily in these avenues of capability and convert a greater part of the U.S. Navy to fully autonomous and unmanned MCM operations.

The importance of mine warfare and of mine countermeasures for any modern Navy can never be stressed enough. Given how mining can achieve great results and inflict huge losses with relatively low risk and cost argues for greater investment in these weapons and the means to counter them.

Andrea Daolio, from Italy, has an engineering background and a longstanding passion for wargaming and for geopolitical, historical, and military topics. He has been a finalist in New York’s MTA Genius Transit Challenge. He is currently collaborating with video game developer Slitherine on the popular wargame Command: Modern Air/Naval Operations. His views are his own.

References

[1] Andrew Erickson, Chinese Mine Warfare, http://www.andrewerickson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/China-Maritime-Study-3_Chinese-Mine-Warfare_Erickson-Goldstein-Murray_200906.pdf

[2] Sydney J. Freedberg jr., Minefields At Sea: From The Tsars To Putin

[3] Sydney J. Freedberg jr., Sowing The Sea With Fire: The Threat Of Sea Mines

[4] Marcus Roth, AI in Military Drones and UAVs – Current Applications, https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/ai-drones-and-uavs-in-the-military-current-applications/

[5] Luis F. Gonzalez , Glen A. Montes , Eduard Puig , Sandra Johnson , Kerrie Mengersen  and Kevin J. Gaston , Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Artificial Intelligence Revolutionizing Wildlife Monitoring and Conservation, https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/1/97/htm

[6] Naval Mine Warfare: Operational and Technical Challenges for Naval Forces, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10176/naval-mine-warfare-operational-and-technical-challenges-for-naval-forces

[7] Sydney J. Freedberg jr., From Sailors To Robots: A Revolution In Clearing Mines

[8] NATO CMRE, Autonomous Naval Mine Countermeasures, https://www.cmre.nato.int/about-cmre/fact-sheets/1292-autonomous-naval-mine-countermeasures-1/file

[9] Venugopalan Pallayil, Ceramic and Fibre Optic Hydrophone as Sensors for Lightweight Arrays – aComparative Study, https://arl.nus.edu.sg/twiki6/pub/ARL/BibEntries/venu_oceans_anchorage17.pdf

[10] Captain Danielle George, U.S. NAVY Mine Warfare Programs, https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Portals/103/Documents/Exhibits/SNA2019/MineWarfare-George.pdf?ver=2019-01-17-133139-817

[11] Joseph Trevithick, US is betting big on Naval Mine Warfare with these Sub-launched and Air-dropped types, https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/25235/the-u-s-is-getting-back-into-naval-mine-warfare-with-new-sub-launched-and-air-dropped-types

[12] MK 54 Lightweight Torpedo and High-Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Capability (HAAWC), https://www.dote.osd.mil/pub/reports/FY2017/pdf/navy/2017mk54.pdf

Featured Image: September 22, 1987 – Contact mines partially covered by a tarpaulin on the deck of the captured Iranian mine-laying ship Iran Ajr (PH3 Cleveland, U.S. National Archives)

Mine Warfare Topic Week

Mine Warfare Week Kicks Off on CIMSEC

Leave a comment

By Dmitry Filipoff

This week CIMSEC will be featuring articles submitted in response to our Call for Articles issued in partnership with the U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants.

As Dr. Sam Taylor, Mine Warfare Lead at PEO USC discussed in the Call for Articles, “…the legacy MCM inventory is becoming increasingly costly to maintain and is rapidly approaching the end of its useful service life. Today the Navy is approaching a strategic juncture in MCM where a host of emerging technologies provide new opportunities for widening the traditional approach to mine warfare and could, if successfully executed, bring about a 21st Century renaissance in MCM.”

Below are the articles featuring during the topic week. We thank these authors for their contributions. 

“Meeting the Mine Warfare Challenge with Unmanned Systems” by Andrea Daolio
“The U.S. Navy Needs AWNIS for Mine Warfare” by LT Colin Barnard, USN
“Embracing an Unmanned Solution for the U.S. Navy’s Mine Warfare Renaissance” by U.H. “Jack” Rowley and Craig Cates
“Swarming to Solve the Navy’s MCM Problems” by Dr. Joseph Walsh III
“A Pervasive and Persistent Approach to Mine Countermeasures” by Dr. Keith Aliberti and Mike Kobold

Dmitry Filipoff is CIMSEC’s Director of Online Content. Contact him at Content@cimsec.org. 

Featured Image: The Hirashima-class minesweeper JS Yakushima (MSC-602) detonates a mine (Japanese Ministry of Defense photo)