More than 50 nations have some degree of mining capability, and as Desert Storm showed, strategic deployment of inexpensive mines can wreak havoc on Navy surface and subsurface forces, Marine amphibious forces, and commercial ships as well. Our job is to make sure that doesn't happen. For Hills and his shipmates, neutralizing the mine threat is a task that provides an active role for everybody on board. The ships are also capable of conventional minesweeping. Champion's role in this mix is straightforward.
Mines come in two general varieties, contact and influence.
For detonation, contact mines require a physical impact between the target and the mine itself, and are either moored in the mid-water region to an anchor on the bottom, or simply set adrift until they encounter a target. Influence mines are triggered by the close proximity of nearby targets by sensing changes in the ambient acoustic, electromagnetic, or pressure fields caused by a ship's passage. These can be configured as either moored or bottom mines. Once a suspicious object has been detected, the MNV is deployed to locate it precisely and determine whether or not the contact is a mine. For moored mines, the MNV uses manipulator arms to attach small explosive charges to the mooring cable, which when severed, will allow the mine to rise to the surface.