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line the mooring cable is clamped the anchor continues sinking down to the bottom of the sea pulling the mine below the water surface to a depth equal to the length of the deep line 6 thus even without knowing the exact seafloor depth an exact depth of the mine below the water surface can be set limited only by the maximum length of the mooring cable drifting contact mines edit drifting mines were occasionally used during world war i and world war ii however they were more feared than effective sometimes floating mines break from their moorings and become drifting mines modern mines are designed to deactivate in this event after several years at sea the deactivation mechanism might not function as intended and the mines may remain live admiral jellicoe s british fleet did not pursue and destroy the outnumbered german high seas fleet when it turned away at the battle of jutland because he thought they were leading him into a trap he believed it possible that the germans were either leaving floating mines in their wake or were drawing him towards submarines although neither of these was the case after world war i the drifting contact mine was banned but was occasionally used during world war ii the drifting mines were much harder to remove than tethered mines after the war and they caused about the same damage to both sides 54 churchill promoted operation royal marine in 1940 and again in 1944 where floating mines were put into the rhine in france to float down the river becoming active after a time calculated to be long enough to reach german territory remotely controlled mines edit frequently used in combination with coastal artillery and hydrophones controlled mines or command detonation mines can be in place in peacetime which is a huge advantage in blocking important shipping routes the mines can usually be turned into normal mines with a switch which prevents the enemy from simply capturing the controlling station and deactivating the mines detonated on a signal or be allowed to detonate on their own the earliest ones were developed around 1812 by robert fulton the first remotely controlled mines were moored mines used in the american civil war detonated electrically from shore they were considered superior to contact mines because they did not put friendly shipping at risk 55 the extensive american fortifications program initiated by the board of fortifications in 1885 included remotely controlled mines which were emplaced or in reserve from the 1890s until the end of world war ii 56 modern examples usually weigh 200 kg 440 lb including 80 kg 180 lb of explosives tnt or torpex citation needed influence mines edit german parachute retarded magnetic mine dropped by luftwaffe bomber during wwii and landed on the ground fuze mechanisms are visible these mines are triggered by the influence of a ship or submarine rather than direct contact such mines incorporate sensors designed to detect the presence of a vessel and detonate when it comes within the blast range of the warhead the fuzes on such mines may incorporate one or more of the following sensors magnetic passive acoustic or water pressure displacement caused by the proximity of a vessel 57 first used during wwi their use became more general in wwii the sophistication of influence mine fuzes has increased considerably over the years as first transistors and then microprocessors have been incorporated into designs simple magnetic sensors have been superseded by total field magnetometers whereas early magnetic mine fuzes would respond only to changes in a single component of a target vessel s magnetic field a total field magnetometer responds to changes in the magnitude of the total background field thus enabling it to better detect even degaussed ships similarly the original broadband hydrophones of 1940s acoustic mines which operate on the integrated volume of all frequencies have been replaced by narrow band sensors which are much more sensitive and selective mines can now be programmed to listen for highly specific acoustic signatures e g a gas turbine powerplant or cavitation sounds from a particular design of propeller and ignore all others the sophistication of modern electronic mine fuzes incorporating these digital signal processing capabilities makes it much more difficult to detonate the mine with electronic countermeasures because several sensors working together e g magnetic passive acoustic and water pressure allow it to ignore signals which are not recognised as being the unique signature of an intended target vessel 58 modern influence mines such as the bae stonefish are computerised with all the programmability this implies such as the ability to quickly load new acoustic signatures into fuzes or program them to detect a single highly distinctive target signature in this way a mine with a passive acoustic fuze can be programmed to ignore all friendly vessels and small enemy vessels only detonating when a very large enemy target passes over it alternatively the mine can be programmed specifically to ignore all surface vessels regardless of size and exclusively target submarines even as far back as wwii it was possible to incorporate a ship counter function in mine fuzes this might set the mine to ignore the first two ships passing over it which could be minesweepers deliberately trying to trigger mines but detonate when the third ship passes overhead which could be a high value target such as an aircraft carrier or oil tanker even though modern mines are generally powered by a long life lithium battery it is important to conserve power because they may need to remain active for months or even years for this reason most influence mines are designed to remain in a semi dormant state until an unpowered e g deflection of a mu metal needle or low powered sensor detects the possible presence of a vessel at which point the mine fuze powers up fully and the passive acoustic sensors will begin to operate for some minutes it is possible to program computerised mines to delay activation for days or weeks after being laid similarly they can be programmed to self destruct or render themselves safe after a preset period of time generally the more sophisticated the mine design the more likely it is to have some form of anti handling device to hinder clearance by divers or remotely piloted submersibles 58 59 moored mines edit the moored mine is the backbone of modern mine systems they are deployed where water is too deep for bottom mines they can use several kinds of instruments to detect an enemy usually a combination of acoustic magnetic and pressure sensors or more sophisticated optical shadows or electro potential sensors these cost many times more than contact mines moored mines are effective against most kinds of ships as they are cheaper than other anti ship weapons they can be deployed in large numbers making them useful area denial or channelizing weapons moored mines usually have lifetimes of more than 10 years and some almost unlimited these mines usually weigh 200 kg 440 lb including 80 kg 180 lb of explosives rdx in excess of 150 kg 330 lb of explosives the mine becomes inefficient as it becomes too large to handle and the extra explosives add little to the mine s effectiveness citation needed bottom mines edit bottom mines sometimes called ground mines are used when the water is no more than 60 meters 200 feet deep or when mining for submarines down to around 200 meters 660 feet they are much harder to detect and sweep and can carry a much larger warhead than a moored mine bottom mines commonly use multiple types of sensors which are less sensitive to sweeping 59 60 these mines usually weigh between 150 and 1 500 kg 330 and 3 300 lb including between 125 and 1 400 kg 280 and 3 100 lb of explosives 61 unusual mines edit several specialized mines have been developed for other purposes than the common minefield bouquet mine edit the bouquet mine is a single anchor attached to several floating mines it is designed so that when one mine is swept or detonated another takes its place it is a very sensitive construction and lacks reliability anti sweep mine edit soviet anti sweep mine mz 26 on exposition in naval museum gdynia poland the anti sweep mine is a very small mine 40 kg 88 lb warhead with as small a floating device as possible when the wire of a mine sweep hits the anchor wire of the mine it drags the anchor wire along with it pulling the mine down into contact with the sweeping wire that detonates the mine and cuts the sweeping wire they are very cheap and usually used in combination with other mines in a minefield to make sweeping more difficult one type is the mark 23 used by the united states during world war ii oscillating mine edit the mine is hydrostatically controlled to maintain a pre set depth below the water s surface independently of the rise and fall of the tide ascending mine edit the ascending mine is a floating distance mine that may cut its mooring or in some other way float higher when it detects a target it lets a single floating mine cover a much larger depth range homing mines edit a captor mine being loaded onto a b 52 stratofortress in 1989 these are mines containing a moving weapon as a warhead either a torpedo or a rocket rocket mine edit a russian invention the rocket mine is a bottom distance mine that fires a homing high speed rocket not torpedo upwards towards the target it is intended to allow a bottom mine to attack surface ships as well as submarines from a greater depth one type is the te 1 rocket propelled mine torpedo mine edit a torpedo mine is a self propelled variety able to lie in wait for a target and then pursue it e g the mark 60 captor generally torpedo mines incorporate computerised acoustic and magnetic fuzes the us mark 24 mine code named fido was actually an asw homing torpedo the mine designation was disinformation to conceal its function mobile mine edit the mine is propelled to its intended position by propulsion equipment such as a torpedo after reaching its destination it sinks to the seabed and operates like a standard mine it differs from the homing mine in that its mobile stage is set before it lies in wait rather than as part of the attacking phase one such design is the mk 67 submarine launched mobile mine 62 which is based on a mark 37 torpedo capable of traveling as far as 16 km 10 mi through or into a channel harbour shallow water area and other zones which would normally be inaccessible to craft laying the device after reaching the target area they sink to the sea bed and act like conventionally laid influence mines nuclear mine edit during the cold war a test was conducted with a naval mine fitted with tactical nuclear warheads for the baker shot of operation crossroads this weapon was experimental and never went into production 63 the seabed arms control treaty prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons on the seabed beyond a 12 mile coast zone daisy chained mine edit this comprises two moored floating contact mines which are tethered together by a length of steel cable or chain typically each mine is situated approximately 18 m 60 ft away from its neighbor and each floats a few meters below the surface of the ocean when the target ship hits the steel cable the mines on either side are drawn down the side of the ship s hull exploding on contact in this manner it is almost impossible for target ships to pass safely between two individually moored mines daisy chained mines are a very simple concept which was used during world war ii the first prototype of the daisy chained mine and the first combat use came in finland 1939 64 dummy mine edit plastic drums filled with sand or concrete are periodically rolled off the side of ships as real mines are laid in large mine fields these inexpensive false targets designed to be of a similar shape and size as genuine mines are intended to slow down the process of mine clearance a mine hunter is forced to investigate each suspicious sonar contact on the sea bed whether it is real or not often a maker of naval mines will provide both training and dummy versions of their mines 65 mine laying edit captured iranian mine layer iran ajr left with us navy landing craft alongside 1987 camouflaged iraqi mines hidden inside oil barrels on a shipping barge in the persian gulf 2003 historically several methods were used to lay mines during wwi and wwii the germans used u boats to lay mines around the uk in wwii aircraft came into favour for mine laying with one of the largest examples being the mining of the japanese sea routes in operation starvation laying a minefield is a relatively fast process with specialized ships which is today the most common method these minelayers can carry several thousand mines citation needed and manoeuvre with high precision the mines are dropped at predefined intervals into the water behind the ship each mine is recorded for later clearing but it is not unusual for these records to be lost together with the ships therefore many countries demand that all mining operations be planned on land and records kept so that the mines can later be recovered more easily 66 other methods to lay minefields include converted merchant ships rolled or slid down ramps aircraft descent to the water is slowed by a parachute submarines launched from torpedo tubes or deployed from specialized mine racks on the sides of the submarine combat boats rolled off the side of the boat camouflaged boats masquerading as fishing boats dropping from the shore typically smaller shallow water mines attack divers smaller shallow water mines in some cases mines are automatically activated upon contact with the water in others a safety lanyard is pulled one end attached to the rail of a ship aircraft or torpedo tube which starts an automatic timer countdown before the arming process is complete typically the automatic safety arming process takes some minutes to complete this allows the people laying the mines sufficient time to move out of its activation and blast zones 67 aerial mining in world war ii edit see also parachute mine germany edit in the 1930s germany had experimented with the laying of mines by aircraft it became a crucial element in their overall mining strategy aircraft had the advantage of speed and they would never get caught in their own minefields german mines held a large 450 kg 1 000 lb explosive charge from april to june 1940 the luftwaffe laid 1 000 mines in british waters soviet ports were mined as was the arctic convoy route to murmansk 68 the heinkel he 115 could carry two medium or one large mine while the heinkel he 59 dornier do 18 junkers ju 88 and heinkel he 111 could carry more soviet union edit the ussr was relatively ineffective in its use of naval mines in wwii in comparison with its record in previous wars 69 small mines were developed for use in rivers and lakes and special mines for shallow water a very large chemical mine...
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