Mine sweepers: past and present

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:42

A minesweeper is a warship specially designed to search for, detect and eliminate sea mines, to navigate ships through enemy minefields. We will talk about it in the article.

A bit of terminology

According to their principle of operation, minesweepers are divided into sea, basic, raid and river. Trawls are also divided into acoustic, contact and electromagnetic. Acoustic mines are designed to detonate acoustic mines, simulating the sound of a ship's passage. Contact trawls are the simplest in their design and consist of a chain with knives that cut the cables holding mines, after which the emerging charge is destroyed from the side of the minesweeper from machine guns or small-caliber artillery. Electromagnetic create an electric field that simulates a passing ship, and are used against magnetic mines. In the photo of minesweepers, you can also see the installation of depth charges, with which the minesweeper is able to perform the functions of a submarine hunter.

Birth of minesweepers

With the appearance in the arsenals of the fleets of the largest maritime powers of a new type of weapon - sea mines, the question arose of their search and neutralization. Mines have become the main means of defensenaval bases and disruption of enemy sea communications. The age-old question "shield-sword" was successfully resolved for the first time in the Russian Navy. Mine minesweepers received a baptism of fire in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. The combat experience of Russian minesweepers was thoroughly studied in other countries, resulting in a sharp increase in the number of minesweepers in the active fleets in the interwar period.

World War II

The Second World War gave a sharp impetus to all types of weapons, including warships. Minesweepers have become better protected and armed, could perform other tasks:

• landing troops;
• shell the coast;
• escort transport convoys;
• evacuate troops.

The most advanced were the German minesweepers, whose crews received the "Mine Minesweeper" badge for their courage. After the end of World War II, the old minesweepers were engaged in mine clearance for a long time, giving up their combat post to new ships that used the best shipbuilding experience.

Modernity

The basic concept of the modern minesweeper was formulated in the UK in the 1960s. The ship, equipped with a powerful acoustic radar, searched for mines, and if they were found, released an uninhabited underwater vehicle, which was engaged in additional search and examination of the detected object. He destroys mines with an anti-mine apparatus: bottom - by imposing a subversive charge, contact - by bitinganchor cable. This type of ship received the name minesweeper-searcher (SHCHIM) in world fleets.

Since the 1970s and 1980s, almost all minesweepers in the world have been GOOD, either newly built or converted from old minesweepers. Trawls now perform a secondary function. With the proliferation of bottom-mounted broadband mines with an impressive target detection range, torpedo or missile warhead, a modern minesweeper needs to have a deep-sea trawl to work close to the ground.

With the growth of the characteristics of commercial sonar stations, especially side-scan locators, it became possible to use them to search for and destroy mines, which dramatically increased the productivity of mine action forces. In ports and areas, near naval bases, advance inspection began to be carried out, as a result of which all objects resembling mines are entered into the catalog. This allows in wartime to immediately identify new objects, which, in the vast majority, will be mines. All this increases the effectiveness of mine action forces and allows you to guarantee a safe exit from ports and bases.

The development of anti-mine weapons, which began in the West in the 60s of the last century, led to an increase in the effectiveness of these forces. It is also noteworthy that the fight against mines is increasingly moving away from "highly specialized" actions, becoming a whole range of activities involving various forces and means.

During Operation Shock and Awe(US and allied military invasion of Iraq in 2003), Iraqi minelayers disguised as merchant ships were captured by the Allied Special Operations Forces, more than 100 Iraqi mines were discovered and destroyed by divers and uninhabited underwater vehicles. As a result of these actions, the allies did not suffer losses from Iraqi mines, which allowed the US ground forces to achieve complete success.

Modular anti-mine systems

Recently, the rapid development of mine action forces has resulted in the use of modular mine action systems (MPS). Warships and submarines equipped with these systems can now independently deal with mines without the need for minesweepers. The most interesting MPS is the US Navy RMS AN/WLD-1 uninhabited underwater vehicle. A semi-submerged, remotely controlled vehicle with a towed side-scan locator is capable of independently searching for mines at a great distance from the carrier ship for quite a long time. Now the US Navy has 47 such devices.