Page 18: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2022)

EYE ON THE NAVY

What you can’t see can hurt you

Getting to the bottom of mine warfare’s top challenge

To find the mine warfare challenge with the highest degree of difficulty, start at the bottom.

By Edward Lundquist

Lurking unseen below the surface, naval mines pose a se- Navies have developed ships to hunt for mines in the water rious problem. They’re cheap, relatively easy to deploy and column so they can be avoided or destroyed, use in? uence can in? ict heavy damage against even the most sophisticated sweeps to detonate them; or cut their moorings so they surface warships. They can be hard to detect and dif? cult to counter. and can be destroyed. Aircraft can also tow systems to ? nd or

What you can’t see can hurt you. And the most dif? cult mines induce mines to detonate. Unmanned systems can help ? nd to ? nd and eliminate are bottom and buried mines. mines in the water column or see objects on the bottom that

The General Dynamics Mission Systems Blue? n Robotics Knife? sh UUV detects, classi? es and identi? es volume, proud and buried mines in high- clutter underwater environments, and is a critical element of the LCS Mine Countermeasure (MCM) mission package. Knife? sh’s job is to detect, avoid and identify mine threats, reducing the risk to personnel by operating in the mine? eld as an off-board sensor while the host ship stays outside the mine? eld boundaries. Knife? sh also gathers environmental data to provide intelligence support for other mine warfare systems.

Courtesy General Dynamics Mission Systems 18 January/February 2022

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