Page 11: of Marine Technology Magazine (March 2024)

assist in identifying mines and act as a neutralization device.

About the Author

Bottom mines pose even greater chal-

David R. Strachan is a defense analyst and founder of lenges. Unlike contact mines, bottom

Strikepod Systems, a research and strategic advisory mines utilize a range of sensors to de- focusing on autonomous undersea systems.

tect their prey – acoustic, magnetic, pressure – and as such pose a hazard to manned MCM vessels. To safely detect, identify, and classify these mines, AUVs would be deployed from standoff range to scan the seabed using high resolution underwater imaging systems, including sidescan and synthetic aperture sonars, as well as laser scanners. Ukraine is al- ready in possession of six Remus 100

AUVs provided by the Royal Navy for

MCM purposes, but a multinational mine clearance operation would em- ploy numerous AUVs to measure mine- ? eld scale and density. Once mapped, the mine? elds could be neutralized by hunting one mine at a time, or sweep- ing them using a towed in? uence sweep system that emits acoustic and magnetic signatures to induce mine detonation.

While sweeping can be a relatively quick and effective means of neutraliz- ing mines, many modern bottom mines are equipped with “counter-countermea- sures” - the ability to identify and ignore spoofed signatures, or to count ships and delay detonation, greatly complicat- ing mine sweeping operations. Further complicating matters will be the count- less natural and unnatural “mine-like objects” (MLOs) littering the Black Sea, including thousands of World War II-era unexploded mines and artillery shells.

Post-con? ict mine clearance in the

Black Sea will be critical to the safety and security of regional maritime opera- tions. But this will be neither quick nor easy given the volume of mine-like ob- jects scattered across the bottom of the

Black Sea, and an unknown number and type of sea mines laid (and yet to be laid) by both Ukrainian and Russian forces.

Modern MCM technologies and related

CONOPS will ? nally come into their own, furnished with a live ? re environ- ment in which to re? ne techniques and procedures, and to build a valuable foun- dation of knowledge for use not only in future post-con? ict clearance ops, but during future con? ict scenarios as well.

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