Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | National Defense

Sea-mine threat can no longer be ignored: Navy must ensure that organic mine warfare systems are deployed fleet-wide. (Viewpoint).

Article Excerpt
To borrow an old saying, mine warfare is like the weather: everybody talks about it but nobody does anything. Like all old sayings it is not entirely accurate, but there is more than a grain of truth in it. Mine warfare has been and continues to be an issue much discussed in the U.S. Navy and in Congress. Attention to this subject has waxed and waned depending on circumstances, budgets and threats.

Now, attention is again being focused on mine warfare. One of the most serious threats to U.S. naval power projection is sea mines. Mines, which are cheap to make and easy to deploy, are perhaps the most effective weapons available to a littoral adversary seeking to prevent U.S. naval forces accessing littoral territories and projecting power ashore.

Of the 18 Navy ships seriously damaged in operations since the Korean War, mines were responsible for 14 of these incidents. Between 1988 and 1991, three warships to hit mines were the USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), the cruiser USS Princeton (CG-59) and a countermine task force flagship, the...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!