Mine warfare captured the Navy’s attention during Operation Desert Storm when two Navy warships, the helicopter carrier U.S.S. Tripoli and the guided missile cruiser U.S.S. Princeton, were heavily damaged by Iraqi mines in the Persian Gulf in February 1991. The combined damage to these two ships, which totaled about $21.6 million, was caused by two mines—one estimated to cost $10,000 and the other about $1,500. Naval mines are extremely economical weapons and are readily available on the world’s arms market. The Navy has identified naval mine countermeasures—the ability to detect and disable enemy sea mines—as a critical element for establishing maritime superiority to ensure access to ports, keep sea lanes open, and support amphibious assaults. During the Cold War, the major factor in developing mine countermeasures capabilities was the ability to clear Soviet-laid mines from U.S. harbors to enable U.S. ships to break out of U.S. ports. With the fall of the Soviet Union, however, the threat of enemy mining in U.S. coastal waters has greatly diminished. Changing world conditions have caused U.S. defense planning to shift from a concept of global conventional war to a concept of regional conflicts and crises. The 1992 Navy Mine Warfare Plan detailed four critical mine warfare lessons learned from Operation Desert Storm and the actions taken by the Navy in response to those lessons. The first major lesson was that the Navy lacked a unified command structure. The mine countermeasures commander’s staff consisted of 23 individuals assembled from 21 different commands, resulting in a command staff that was ill-prepared for its task. Fortunately, the 4 months in theater before actual clearance operations provided for adequate command staff and mine countermeasures force training. The Navy has since consolidated operational command of all mine warfare forces in the Commander, Mine Warfare Command, who reports administratively and operationally to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. His responsibilities include ensuring the readiness of the mine warfare assets, enhancing the integrated training of all mine warfare forces, conducting training exercises with other fleet units, and commanding mine warfare forces when deployed to military operations. The Mine Warfare Command is located at the Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas. Mine warfare ships are homeported nearby at Naval Station, Ingleside, Texas. Plans to move all mine hunting helicopters from Alameda, California, and Norfolk, Virginia, to Corpus Christi have not been finalized. A second lesson learned from Operation Desert Storm was the need to improve the readiness of mine warfare forces. Since that time, the Navy has conducted or participated in about a dozen exercises with U.S. and foreign naval battle groups. Mine warfare training courses have been expanded for both enlisted and officer personnel, and career paths for enlisted minemen have been revised to enhance opportunities for long-term tours of duty in mine warfare. Third, the Navy acknowledged the need to identify and acquire the necessary resources to carry out its mine countermeasures mission. In 1994, the Navy took delivery of the last of 14 mine countermeasures (MCM) ships and acquired the first 2 of 12 planned mine hunter, coastal (MHC) ships. In addition, the Navy is converting a helicopter landing ship to a mine countermeasures command, control, and support (MCS) ship. Last, the Navy recognized that it has very limited systems to counter mines in various water depths. Consequently, the Navy has established several research and development projects to address these limited capabilities. Sea mines are explosive devices hidden in the sea that can be detonated either by direct contact or indirectly at a distance by the acoustic, seismic, or magnetic signatures of passing ships. The mines can be floating, moored, bottom-laying, or buried. Sophisticated mines are equipped with electronic sensors designed to ignore certain types of ships and target others or count a specific number of ships before arming and detonating. The various methods for countering mine threats include detection and avoidance, mine hunting, influence minesweeping, and mechanical minesweeping. Mine hunting is the process of detecting, locating, and identifying mines through the use of sonar. Influence minesweeping activates electronic sensors within the mines using towed magnetic or acoustic sweep gear to detonate mines at a safe distance. Mechanical minesweeping involves the physical removal of mines using sweep wire to drag mines or cutting gear to release and float tethered mines for later detonation. The Navy’s primary mine countermeasures forces consist of ships, helicopters, and explosive ordnance disposal units. The Avenger class MCM ship, the larger and more capable of the two classes of mine countermeasures ships, is a 224-foot ocean-going mine warfare ship designed to clear mines in both coastal and offshore areas. (See fig. 1.1.) The hull is constructed of wood and glass-reinforced plastic to maintain a nonmagnetic character, which is essential to mine clearing operations. The MCM is capable of both mine hunting and minesweeping—both mechanical and influence—and is designed for conducting mine countermeasures operations worldwide. Major on-board systems include the mine hunting sonar, unmanned submersible mine neutralization vehicle, precise integrated navigation system, and standard magnetic/acoustic influence minesweeping system. The MCM ships are designed to travel at a speed of 13.5 knots. However, depending on the distance, the Navy might use heavy-lift ships to transport MCM ships to a battle site in a timely manner, which would benefit the MCM ships by reducing engine wear and tear en route to the battle site. The MCM ship program, which is managed by the Mine Warfare Ship Program Office, Naval Sea Systems Command, cost $1.8 billion over a period of 10 years. The first of 14 MCM ships was commissioned in September 1987, and the last was commissioned in November 1994. The MCM ships have a crew of 8 officers and 75 enlisted personnel. The Osprey class MHC ship, the smaller of the two classes of mine countermeasures ships, is 188 feet long and designed specifically to clear harbors and coastal waters. (See fig. 1.2.) The MHC hull is constructed of glass-reinforced plastic to provide the necessary low-magnetic character. The Mine Warfare Ship Program Office also manages the MHC ship program. The role of the MHC has always been more limited than that of the larger MCM. The MHC class of ships was designed primarily to conduct mine hunting and mechanical minesweeping within U.S. harbors and coastal waters. These ships were originally designed to be nondeployable coastal mine hunters that would have a maximum mission capability length of 5 days. However, the MHCs can be deployed and operated for longer periods of time, as long as they are provided with fuel and supplies from a close support ship. In addition, the Navy has made some ship alterations to expand the storage capacity of the MHC. The MHC ship program, which is in the production phase, will cost about $1.5 billion. The first of 12 MHC ships was commissioned in November 1993 and the second in August 1994. The Navy took delivery of the third MHC in April 1995. Construction of the 12th MHC ship began in September 1994, and delivery is scheduled in fiscal year 1999. The MHC ships have a crew of 6 officers and 46 enlisted personnel. To provide command and control functions, serve as a platform for helicopters, and support supply and logistics operations, the Navy Mine Warfare Command began converting the helicopter landing ship U.S.S. Inchon to an MCS ship in March 1995. When this conversion is completed in about March 1996, at a cost of more than $118 million, the U.S.S. Inchon will be capable of carrying an MCM Group Commander and staff and supporting long-endurance airborne, surface, and underwater MCM operations. (See fig. 1.3.) The U.S.S. Inchon, which is 25 years old, has an expected lifespan of about 10 more years. The Navy has tentative plans to design and build a new MCS ship early in the next century. The Navy’s airborne mine countermeasures assets consist of 24 MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters and their related sweep gear. (See fig. 1.4.) The Sea Dragon, the largest heavy-lift helicopter in the West, is capable of towing a variety of minesweeping and mine hunting countermeasures gear. The airborne forces enhance surface forces by providing rapid response and deployment capability as well as the ability to sweep wider areas of the sea in a shorter time. These forces are consolidated in Squadron HM-14 based in Norfolk, Virginia, and Squadron HM-15 based in Alameda, California. Each of these squadrons is made up of 12 MH-53E helicopters. The Mine Warfare Command plans to consolidate its airborne mine warfare helicopter squadrons at Naval Air Station, Corpus Christi, Texas. Squadrons report operationally to the Commander, Mine Warfare Command. Fifteen explosive ordnance disposal units of eight personnel (one officer and seven enlisted) each report operationally to the Commander, Mine Warfare Command. These units are made up of underwater divers and demolitions experts who are trained and equipped to locate, identify, explode, disable, recover, and dispose of mines. Once mines have been located by surface or airborne forces, the units move in and detonate the mines safely or disable and retrieve them for future study. In addition, these units are capable of supporting surface and airborne mine countermeasures operations. The Navy is pursuing a number of different projects to develop new mine countermeasures capabilities or improve existing capabilities. These programs are largely developed at the Naval Coastal Systems Station in Panama City, Florida, and administered out of the Program Executive Office for Mine Warfare in Arlington, Virginia.