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d while conducting simulated mine clearing operations minesweeper uss tide after striking a mine off utah beach 7 june 1944 note her broken back with white smoke billowing amidships main article minesweeping a sweep is either a contact sweep a wire dragged through the water by one or two ships to cut the mooring wire of floating mines or a distance sweep that mimics a ship to detonate the mines the sweeps are dragged by minesweepers either purpose built military ships or converted trawlers each run covers between one hundred and two hundred metres 330 and 660 ft and the ships must move slowly in a straight line making them vulnerable to enemy fire this was exploited by the turkish army in the battle of gallipoli in 1915 when mobile howitzer batteries prevented the british and french from clearing a way through minefields if a contact sweep hits a mine the wire of the sweep rubs against the mooring wire until it is cut sometimes cutters explosive devices to cut the mine s wire are used to lessen the strain on the sweeping wire mines cut free are recorded and collected for research or shot with a deck gun 95 minesweepers protect themselves with an oropesa or paravane instead of a second minesweeper these are torpedo shaped towed bodies similar in shape to a harvey torpedo that are streamed from the sweeping vessel thus keeping the sweep at a determined depth and position some large warships were routinely equipped with paravane sweeps near the bows in case they inadvertently sailed into minefields the mine would be deflected towards the paravane by the wire instead of towards the ship by its wake more recently heavy lift helicopters have dragged minesweeping sleds as in the 1991 persian gulf war 96 the distance sweep mimics the sound and magnetism of a ship and is pulled behind the sweeper it has floating coils and large underwater drums it is the only sweep effective against bottom mines during wwii raf coastal command used vickers wellington bombers wellington dw mk i fitted with degaussing coils to trigger magnetic mines 97 in a parallel development the luftwaffe adapted some junkers 52 3m aircraft to also carry a coil operated by electricity supplied from an onboard generator the luftwaffe called this adaption minensuch e lit mine search 98 in both cases pilots were required to fly at low altitude up to about 200 feet above the sea and at fairly low speeds to be effective modern influence mines are designed to discriminate against false inputs and are therefore much harder to sweep they often contain inherent anti sweeping mechanisms for example they may be programmed to respond to the unique noise of a particular ship type its associated magnetic signature and the typical pressure displacement of such a vessel as a result a mine sweeper must accurately mimic the required target signature to trigger detonation the task is complicated by the fact that an influence mine may have one or more of a hundred different potential target signatures programmed into it 99 another anti sweeping mechanism is a ship counter in the mine fuze when enabled this allows detonation only after the mine fuze has been triggered a pre set number of times to further complicate matters influence mines may be programmed to arm themselves or disarm automatically known as self sterilization after a pre set time during the pre set arming delay which could last days or even weeks the mine would remain dormant and ignore any target stimulus whether genuine or false 99 when influence mines are laid in an ocean minefield they may have various combinations of fuze settings configured for example some mines with the acoustic sensor enabled may become active within three hours of being laid others with the acoustic and magnetic sensors enabled may become active after two weeks but have the ship counter mechanism set to ignore the first two trigger events and still others in the same minefield with the magnetic and pressure sensors enabled may not become armed until three weeks have passed groups of mines within this mine field may have different target signatures which may or may not overlap the fuzes on influence mines allow many different permutations which complicates the clearance process 99 mines with ship counters arming delays and highly specific target signatures in mine fuzes can falsely convince a belligerent that a particular area is clear of mines or has been swept effectively because a succession of vessels have already passed through safely minehunting edit pinguin b3 minehunting drone such are operated from frankenthal class minehunters of the german navy as naval mines have become more sophisticated and able to discriminate between targets so they have become more difficult to deal with by conventional sweeping this has given rise to the practice of minehunting minehunting is very different from sweeping although some minehunters known as mine countermeasures vessels mcmvs can do both tasks minehunters use specialized high frequency sonars and high fidelity sidescaning sonar to locate mines which are then inspected and destroyed either by divers or rovs remote controlled unmanned mini submarines 91 18 it is slow but also the most reliable way to remove mines as it circumvents most anti minesweeping countermeasures minehunting started during the second world war but it was only after the war that it became truly effective sea mammals mainly the bottlenose dolphin have been trained to hunt and mark mines most famously by the us navy marine mammal program mine clearance dolphins were deployed in the persian gulf during the iraq war in 2003 the us navy claims that these dolphins were effective in helping to clear more than 100 antiship mines and underwater booby traps from umm qasr port 100 french naval officer jacques yves cousteau s undersea research group was once involved in minehunting operations they removed or detonated a variety of german mines but one particularly defusion resistant batch equipped with acutely sensitive pressure magnetic and acoustic sensors and wired together so that one explosion would trigger the rest was simply left undisturbed for years until corrosion would hopefully disable the mines 101 mine running edit seehund rovs of the german navy used for minesweeping a more drastic method is simply to run a ship through the minefield letting other ships safely follow the same path an early example of this was farragut s actions at mobile bay during the american civil war however as mine warfare became more developed this method became uneconomical this method was revived by the german imperial german navy during world war i left with a surfeit of idle ships due to the allied blockade the germans introduced a ship known as sperrbrecher block breaker the type was also used during world war ii typically an old cargo ship loaded with cargo that made her less vulnerable to sinking wood for example the sperrbrecher was run ahead of the ship to be protected detonating any mines that might be in their path the use of sperrbrecher obviated the need to continuous and painstaking sweeping but the cost was high over half the 100 or so ships used as sperrbrecher in wwii were sunk during the war alternatively a shallow draught vessel can be steamed through the minefield at high speed to generate a pressure wave sufficient to trigger mines with the minesweeper moving fast enough to be sufficiently clear of the pressure wave so that triggered mines do not destroy the ship itself these techniques are the only way to sweep pressure mines that is publicly known to be employed the technique can be simply countered by use of a ship counter set to allow a certain number of passes before the mine is actually triggered modern doctrine calls for ground mines to be hunted rather than swept a new system is being introduced for sweeping pressure mines however counters are going to remain a problem 102 103 an updated form of this method is the use of small unmanned rovs such as the seehund drone that simulate the acoustic and magnetic signatures of larger ships and are built to survive exploding mines repeated sweeps would be required in case one or more of the mines had its ship counter facility enabled i e were programmed to ignore the first 2 3 or even 6 target activations counter mining edit another expedient for clearing mines especially in a hurry is counter mining by this method an explosive is detonated in the area of a known or suspected minefield and the blast either trips off the fuzes or the actual explosive contained within the mine or mines this latter is known as a sympathetic detonation counter mining is normally used as a last resort or if other equipment is not available one example was at the entrance to grand harbour valletta malta in ww2 when the british dropped depth charges into the harbour entrance to detonate suspected mines prior to the arrival of an important convoy it is especially useful against acoustic or pressure mines due to their activation by sound or increases in water pressure national arsenals edit us mines edit the united states navy mk56 asw mine the oldest still in use by the united states was developed in 1966 more advanced mines include the mk60 captor short for encapsulated torpedo the mk62 and mk63 quickstrike and the mk67 slmm submarine launched mobile mine today most us naval mines are delivered by aircraft mk67 slmm submarine launched mobile mine the slmm was developed by the united states as a submarine deployed mine for use in areas inaccessible for other mine deployment techniques or for covert mining of hostile environments the slmm is a shallow water mine and is basically a modified mark 37 torpedo general characteristics type submarine laid bottom mine detection system magnetic seismic pressure target detection devices tdds dimensions 0 485 by 4 09 m 19 1 by 161 0 in depth range shallow water weight 754 kg 1 662 lb explosives 230 kg 510 lb high explosive date deployed 1987 mk 62 quick strike deployed from a p 3 orion mk65 quickstrike the quickstrike 104 is a family of shallow water aircraft laid mines used by the united states primarily against surface craft the mk65 is a 910 kg 2 000 lb dedicated purpose built mine however other quickstrike versions mk62 mk63 and mk64 are converted general purpose bombs these latter three mines are actually a single type of electronic fuze fitted to mk82 mk83 and mk84 air dropped bombs because this latter type of quickstrike fuze only takes up a small amount of storage space compared to a dedicated sea mine the air dropped bomb casings have dual purpose i e can be fitted with conventional contact fuzes and dropped on land targets or have a quickstrike fuze fitted which converts them into sea mines general characteristics type aircraft laid bottom mine with descent to water slowed by a parachute or other mechanism detection system magnetic seismic pressure target detection devices tdds dimensions 0 74 by 3 25 m 29 by 128 in depth range shallow water weight 1 086 kg 2 394 lb explosives various loads date deployed 1983 mk56 general characteristics type aircraft laid moored mine detection system total field magnetic exploder dimensions 0 570 by 2 9 m 22 4 by 114 2 in citation needed depth range moderate depths weight 909 kg 2 004 lb explosives 164 kg 362 lb hbx 3 date deployed 1966 royal navy edit according to a statement made to the uk parliament in 2002 105 the royal navy does not have any mine stocks and has not had since 1992 notwithstanding this the united kingdom retains the capability to lay mines and continues research into mine exploitation practice mines used for exercises continue to be laid in order to retain the necessary skills however a british company bae systems does manufacture the stonefish influence mine for export to friendly countries such as australia which has both war stock and training versions of stonefish 106 unreliable source in addition to stocks of smaller italian mn103 manta mines 65 the computerised fuze on a stonefish mine contains acoustic magnetic and water pressure displacement target detection sensors stonefish can be deployed by fixed wing aircraft helicopters surface vessels and submarines an optional kit is available to allow stonefish to be air dropped comprising an aerodynamic tail fin section and parachute pack to retard the weapon s descent the operating depth of stonefish ranges between 30 and 200 metres the mine weighs 990 kilograms and contains a 600 kilogram aluminised pbx explosive warhead modern mine warfare edit mine warfare remains the most cost effective form of asymmetrical naval warfare mines are relatively cheap and being small allows them to be easily deployed indeed with some kinds of mines trucks and rafts will suffice at present there are more than 300 different mines available some 50 countries currently have mining ability the number of naval mine producing countries has increased by 75 since 1988 it is also noted that these mines are of an increasing sophistication while even the older type mines present a significant problem it has been noted that mine warfare may become an issue with terrorist organizations mining busy shipping straits and mining shipping harbours remain some of the most serious threats 91 9 see also edit bomb disposal hmhs britannic corfu channel case land mine minesweeper minelayer destroyer minesweeper wwii royal navy s admiralty mining establishment pinfire cartridge firearm cartridge with similar impact prone vulnerability to a hertz horn royal naval patrol service shock factor mine planter vessel singer naval mine submarine mines in united states harbor defense stonefish influence mine operation pocket money aerial mining campaign against north vietnam in 1972 george gosse references edit notes edit farragut s actual wording has been recorded as damn the torpedoes four bells captain drayton go ahead jouett full speed citations edit mcdonald wesley 1985 mine warfare a pillar of maritime strategy proceedings 111 10 united states naval institute 48 paul o mahony 16 june 2009 swedish navy locates german wwii mines the local europe ab archived from the original on 9 march 2016 retrieved 8 march 2016 isle of wight ww2 sea mine detonated by navy bbc news 19 may 2019 archived from the original on 7 november 2020 retrieved 18 november 2020 1 2 3 4 greer william l bartholomew james 1986 the psychology of mine warfare proceedings 112 2 united states naval institute 58 62 needham volume 5 part 7 203 205 asiapac editorial 2007 origins of chinese science and technology 3 ed asiapac books p 18 isbn 978 981 229 376 3 permanent dead link 1 2 needham volume 5 part 7 205 needham volume 5 part 7 199 historic figures cornelius drebbel 1572 1633 bbc history archived from the original on 27 december 2019 retrieved 5 march 2007 robert routledge 1989 discoveries and inventions of the 19th century bracken books p 161 isbn 1 85170 267 9 national research council u s ocean studies board national ...
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