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y 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 was designed to sink through ice with the aid of a melting compound special aerial mine designs finally arrived in 1943 1944 the amd 500 and amd 1000 70 various soviet naval aviation torpedo bombers were pressed into the role of aerial mining in the baltic sea and the black sea including ilyushin db 3s il 4s and lend lease douglas boston iiis 71 united kingdom edit in september 1939 the uk announced the placement of extensive defensive minefields in waters surrounding the home islands offensive aerial mining operations began in april 1940 when 38 mines were laid at each of these locations the elbe river the port of lübeck and the german naval base at kiel in the next 20 months mines delivered by aircraft sank or damaged 164 axis ships with the loss of 94 aircraft by comparison direct aerial attacks on axis shipping had sunk or damaged 105 vessels at a cost of 373 aircraft lost the advantage of aerial mining became clear and the uk prepared for it a total of 48 000 aerial mines were laid by the royal air force raf in the european theatre during world war ii 72 united states edit a b 29 superfortress dropping sea mines over japanese home waters as early as 1942 american mining experts such as naval ordnance laboratory scientist dr ellis a johnson cdr usnr suggested massive aerial mining operations against japan s outer zone korea and northern china as well as the inner zone their home islands first aerial mines would have to be developed further and manufactured in large numbers second laying the mines would require a sizable air group the us army air forces had the carrying capacity but considered mining to be the navy s job the us navy lacked suitable aircraft johnson set about convincing general curtis lemay of the efficacy of heavy bombers laying aerial mines 73 b 24 liberators pby catalinas and other bomber aircraft took part in localized mining operations in the southwest pacific and the china burma india cbi theaters beginning with a successful attack on the yangon river in february 1943 aerial minelaying operations involved a coalition of british australian and american aircrews with the raf and the royal australian air force raaf carrying out 60 of the sorties and the usaaf and us navy covering 40 both british and american mines were used japanese merchant shipping suffered tremendous losses while japanese mine sweeping forces were spread too thin attending to far flung ports and extensive coastlines admiral thomas c kinkaid who directed nearly all raaf mining operations in cbi heartily endorsed aerial mining writing in july 1944 that aerial mining operations were of the order of 100 times as destructive to the enemy as an equal number of bombing missions against land targets 74 a single b 24 dropped three mines into haiphong harbour in october 1943 one of those mines sank a japanese freighter another b 24 dropped three more mines into the harbour in november and a second freighter was sunk by a mine the threat of the remaining mines prevented a convoy of ten ships from entering haiphong and six of those ships were sunk by attacks before they reached a safe harbour the japanese closed haiphong to all steel hulled ships for the remainder of the war after another small ship was sunk by one of the remaining mines although they may not have realized no more than three mines remained 4 using grumman tbf avenger torpedo bombers the us navy mounted a direct aerial mining attack on enemy shipping in palau on 30 march 1944 in concert with simultaneous conventional bombing and strafing attacks the dropping of 78 mines deterred 32 japanese ships from escaping koror harbour and 23 of those immobilized ships were sunk in a subsequent bombing raid 4 the combined operation sank or damaged 36 ships 75 two avengers were lost and their crews were recovered 76 the mines brought port usage to a halt for 20 days japanese mine sweeping was unsuccessful and the japanese abandoned palau as a base 74 when their first ship attempting to traverse the swept channel was damaged by a mine detonation 4 in march 1945 operation starvation began in earnest using 160 of lemay s b 29 superfortress bombers to attack japan s inner zone almost half of the mines were the us built mark 25 model carrying 570 kg 1 250 lb of explosives and weighing about 900 kg 2 000 lb other mines used included the smaller 500 kg 1 000 lb mark 26 74 fifteen b 29s were lost while 293 japanese merchant ships were sunk or damaged 77 twelve thousand aerial mines were laid a significant barrier to japan s access to outside resources prince fumimaro konoe said after the war that the aerial mining by b 29s had been equally as effective as the b 29 attacks on japanese industry at the closing stages of the war when all food supplies and critical material were prevented from reaching the japanese home islands 78 the united states strategic bombing survey pacific war concluded that it would have been more efficient to combine the united states s effective anti shipping submarine effort with land and carrier based air power to strike harder against merchant shipping and begin a more extensive aerial mining campaign earlier in the war survey analysts projected that this would have starved japan forcing an earlier end to the war 79 after the war dr johnson looked at the japan inner zone shipping results comparing the total economic cost of submarine delivered mines versus air dropped mines and found that though 1 in 12 submarine mines connected with the enemy as opposed to 1 in 21 for aircraft mines the aerial mining operation was about ten times less expensive per enemy ton sunk 80 clearing wwii aerial mines edit between 600 000 and 1 000 000 naval mines of all types were laid in wwii advancing military forces worked to clear mines from newly taken areas but extensive minefields remained in place after the war air dropped mines had an additional problem for mine sweeping operations they were not meticulously charted in japan much of the b 29 mine laying work had been performed at high altitude with the drifting on the wind of mines carried by parachute addi...
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