The “final solution” to mine countermeasures (MCM) warfare essentially is the same as it was during World War II, and that is to detonate the mine(s) (usually) in place. There exist no other alternatives once mines are located and marked. No rightful nation would want to deactivate the enemy’s mines and then haul these enemy antiship explosives aboard a friendly vessel, risking the lives of the crew (although this may have happened for weapon intelligence value).
Therefore, once detected, located, and marked, how best to neutralize enemy mines? The idea of a diver swimming towards an enemy mine and attaching plastic explosives comes across as extremely dangerous and risky in a combat environment. Another method of hoisting over drones and unmanned submerged vehicles (USV) from a ship, or launching them from an inflatable boat might work if the tedious, laborious, and time-consuming launch and retrieval methods are enacted. The World War II method of using wooden or fiberglass ships towing aft chains, floats, cutters, plows, and trawls might still work today, but those MCM ships often are underarmed, unarmored, very slow, and not very survivable in today’s modern naval combat environment.
Enter Littoral Combat Ships
If properly outfitted, LCSs could be effective MCM ships. US Navy
After some technical and mission module teething issues, the Navy’s littoral combat ships (LCS) might prove to be very useful MCM ships. Fast, armed well for the MCM mission (with a 57 mm Bofors cannon, 24 Hellfire missiles, eight 100-plus mile Naval Strike Missiles (NSM), and Rolling Airframe Missiles (RAM) compared to the Avenger-class MCM ships with just two .50-cal heavy machine guns), and able to be configured, the LCSs have armament, helicopter, and small boat assets that the Avenger class and afloat forward staging base (AFSB) expeditionary sea base (ESB) MCM ships do not possess. Future MCM warfare will not happen in friendly training waters and calm seas; therefore, LCSs should be used as spearheads on the frontlines to combat mines now that LCSs will be enhanced with NSM antiship cruise missiles (ASCMs), electronic warfare (EW) protection, towed sonar array, and vital bulkhead armor.
Despite all the early criticisms, LCSs have inherent benefits—they are fast and they are plentiful! The Navy intends to build 35 LCSs. Topping at 40+ knots dash speed, LCSs could arrive at the theater of operations quickly and deploy the MCM packages while having some self-defensive and offensive firepower capabilities compared to the much slower and relatively unarmed ESBs and MCM Avenger ships.
Enhance the U.S. Navy’s LCS Even More: The U.S. Army Multi-Mission Launcher
The U.S. Army’s 15-cell Multi-Mission Launcher could be the cheap VLS for the LCS. U.S. Army
The U.S. Army’s multi-mission launcher (MML) would prove vital for enhancing LCSs’ MCM capabilities because it does not require installation within the hull of the ship to operate. Mounting corrosion-proof MMLs on the deck of the LCS behind the 57-mm gun, on the superstructure, in the mission module packages, or even on the helicopter deck can create a 15-cell vertical launched system (VLS) for antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) missiles, drones, USVs, and lightweight torpedoes. An LCS outfitted with several MMLs could fire anywhere from 30 (pair) to 180 (six MMLs) small missiles as each MML can fire AIM-9X surface-to-air missiles out to over 20 miles, Hellfires out to about six miles, and Tamir missiles out to 40 miles.* Each MML can provide the LCS with air-to-air and surface-to-surface missile defense against aircraft and small boats while the LCS performs MCM missions.
The Tamir and ASROC missiles could prove extremely valuable for launching cheap drone swarms to detect, locate, mark, and detonate enemy mines instead of the laborious method of launching a few precious and expensive USVs overboard. These cheap drones can even be retrieved by the LCS stern launch ramp (if they do not self-destruct next to enemy mines) and be repackaged and reused within the MML. A command mission module cargo shipping container or HH-60 helicopter can act as a command, control, communications, computers, (sic: coordination), intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C5ISR) node for the drone swarm.
MMLs would extend the Navy’s MCM combat radius from “danger close” with poorly-armed Avenger class and ESB MCM ships to beyond 20 and more than 40 miles for the LCS MCM ships in addition to providing heat-seeking AIM-9X air defense beyond the range of RAM and 57-mm Bofors. A few MMLs would be force multipliers and game changers in the MCM game for the Navy and every Navy ship has the deck space to use them. MMLs would negate the costly approach of mounting eight expensive MK41 VLS inside each mission modules (16 total VLS for both mission modules).
Enhance the Navy’s LCS Even More: The Common Very Lightweight Torpedo
The new CVLWT could be the smart and fast AI drone the U.S. Navy needs for MCM Warfare. Northrup Grumman
The common very lightweight torpedo (CVLWT) might be the answer that the Navy has dreamed for in littoral combat and MCM warfare for several reasons:
- CVLWT can carry working USV drones instead of a warhead.
- CVLWT can tow DET-Cord for mine detonations.
- CVLWT can use cameras, FLIR, sonar, and AESA arrays for mine detection.
- CVLWT can be made into varying lengths, weights, and cost classes for MCM uses.
- CVLWT can be wire-guided or self-automated for various purposes.
- CVLWT can give the LCS, future frigate, Coast Guard cutters and icebreakers, helicopters, USVs, USuVs, and ESBs a defense against mines, submarines, torpedoes, and surface ships.
- CVLWT can be the future MML ASROC with varying payloads for distance shots.
- LCSs can carry and mount several CVLWT in cargo container launch tubes due to their light weight.
The CVLWT would negate the use of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) combat swimmers required to attach explosives to located enemy mines. CVLWTs outfitted for multiple uses and purposes could act as the remote-controlled sensors, detectors, locators, markers, and even detonators for MCM, all from a single family of CVLWT design chassis. Any Navy ship that can mount the launchers and controlling consoles could have CVLWTs installed for a truly game changing force multiplier in littoral combat.
The Saab Lightweight Torpedo could be modified as an MCM Warfare Drone. SAAB
Another option might be the procurement and fielding of the Saab Lightweight Torpedo (SLWT) as a remotely operated drone and as a lightweight antiship, antisubmarine, and antitorpedo torpedo. The SLWT is larger, heavier, and wider than the CVLWT and thus, more capable. Modified, the SLWT can be programmed to follow a waypoint search path and has intelligent sensors and programming to hunt for and to discriminately target manmade objects. With a range of 20-plus kilometers, an endurance of more than one hour, a speed of 10–40 plus knots, and a depth of 300-plus meters, MCM SLWTs could be the ideal remote underwater drones with the range, speed, “operator in the loop” and lightweight quantities needed that shift the MCM Warfare tide in favor of the Allied navies.
Enhance the Navy’s LCS Even More: Use Drones with MICLIC and DET-Cord
MICLICS and their plastic explosives could help in U.S. Navy MCM Warfare. U.S. Army
To detonate mines miles away, modified CVLWT and SLTW drones could use a modified form of the mine clearing line charge (MICLIC), thus preventing the need for EOD divers to attach explosives. ASROCs with drone payloads attached could be fired to deploy small MICLICs into mined waters miles away. The ASROC would need to be redesigned to accommodate a better glider and underwater drone to carry the charges precisely towards mines. Drones could even detach each charge and swim towards the located mines, or splay out the MICLIC in a net pattern and detonate wide swaths of water.
Another method would be to use a form of thin DET(notation)-cord as a line charge, similar to a deployed towed sonar array from the LCS’s stern ramp, helicopter deck, or off the sides of ESBs. Spools of DET-cord attached to USVs or CVLWTs could be unstrung into the mined waters to detonate mines. DET-Cord is very safe, cheap, and stable, requiring blasting caps to detonate, and detonates at a super-fast explosive rate. All the drone has to do is lay the DET-cord near or on the mine. This method definitely replaces the requirement for attaching plastic explosives by human divers.
Enhance the U.S. Navy’s LCS Even More: The Zapata Flyboard Air EOD Diver
The Zapata Flyboard Air EOD MCM Diver could prove vital in MCM warfare. Youtube screenschot
When an EOD diver definitely has to be at the scene of the mine, what is the best way to approach it? Instead of diving into the frigid waters, the USN divers could use Zapata Flyboard Air to approach mines from above for visual inspection and placement of explosives from a safe distance. With a claimed speed of 93 MPH and a maximum altitude of 10,000 feet, Franky Zapata successfully demonstrated his Flyboard as capable of crossing the 21-mile English Channel on 17 July 2018 at an astonishing 103.4 MPH! Flyboards would have the range, speed, endurance, maneuverability, and loiter time for MCM operations.
The naval militarized Flyboard may be unsuitable for special force soldiers needing to use two free hands to hold a weapon, but Flyboard would be excellent for EOD MCM divers who have one hand on the Flyboard control stick and the other hand free to drop timed plastic explosive charges or DET-cord from their life-vest pockets or strapped cargo bags. Being combat swimmers, any EOD Flyboard ditching at sea would not be instant drowning if the life-vest diver has quick-releases on the boots, harness, and jetpack. The Zapata Flyboard Air may be the force multiplying, game changing answer to EOD divers needing to get up close and personal to enemy mines from above and afar without detonating them through acoustic, wake, magnetic, and vibratory means from the sea and underwater. Flyboard EOD divers deployed from LCSs and ESBs would make fast small targets in a combat environment and would be armed with a handgun (one free hand usage) in case of emergencies. In fact, any NATO navy ship could host and use Flyboard EOD divers, and some divers could have fancy heads-up display (HUD) helmets such as on the F-35 pilots for better situational awareness and for nighttime MCM operations.
LCSs Enhanced, Now Let’s Hunt Down Some Mines!
Scenario: South China Sea. Smart mines planted to deny ocean mining mineral rights usage.
Several Freedom-class and Independence-class LCSs outfitted for MCM slowed from their 38-knot sprint before the boundary of the mine-infested waters. Days before, special forces dolphins already confirmed the presence of enemy mines, but the Navy did not know how many or how wide the minefield was.
The offending nation that planted the mines denied any wrongdoing, and through United Nations negotiations, reluctantly ceded the area as international waters and dropped its protest resource claim with its neighbors. But that nation did not remove its mines. Deciding not to escalate the matter, and to save face for all nations involved, the U.N. tasked NATO with the requirement to remove the mines. These were not the ordinary, knobby World War II mines anchored to chains; these were smart, some with torpedoes that homed in on sonar and acoustic, magnetic, vibrations, wake, and water disturbance. The dolphins managed to identify some, but not all of the enemy mines. NATO initially wanted to mass-carpet bomb the area to ensure total mine elimination—the environmentalists protested.
The LCSs fired SLWTs and CVLTs into the water from MCM cargo containers while MMLs launched ASROCs for MCM drone swarming. Only the SLWT had the range to weave through the water—the CVLTs followed towing DET-cord. Apparently, the smart mines were not smart enough to care for small torpedoes and drone swarms; the mines wanted metal targets the size of ships. Therefore, the SLWTs and drone swarms identified and marked more than 80 mines in an hour; the CVLTs weaved around these mines with DET-cord and then sank as their batteries ran out. A press of the button and 80 mines detonated skyward as the SLWTs and drone swarms propelled onwards, searching silently.
The underwater explosions dislodged more enemy mines from the seabed, breaking anchoring chains and firing mine-housed torpedoes. The LCSs responded by firing ASROCs from their MMLs with the rockets’ CVLTs in antitorpedo mode that homed in on the enemy torpedoes using active sonar. More underwater detonations dislodged even more mines and by now there were too many for the LCSs’ MCM HH-60s to count. The HH-60s fired their door machine guns and rocket pods to detonate some of the floating antiship mines, but with so many floating, the few HH-60s needed help.
Zapata Flyboard Air EOD MCM divers then took off from the deck of the LCSs, carrying bags of explosives. They hovered over the bobbing mines, dropping timed charges. Meticulously, the Flyboard™ EOD divers flew around the minefield along with the HH-60s. On cue, the timed charges detonated, eliminating even more mines. The MCM crews smiled at the huge successes and also shook their heads at the quantity of smart mines detonated. The sea turned a white bubbly froth. Fortunately, these modified MCM torpedo drones and ASROC MCM drone swarms didn’t set off any acoustic, magnetic, sonar, wake, and vibratory mines like the speeding unmanned boats could have done.
USV such as the MCM common unmanned surface vehicle (CUSV) and underwater Remus drones were then launched off stern ramps to hunt for leftover mines. The waters were much safer now so the speeding CUSVs and drones towed sonar arrays and used active sonar for a very methodical approach to hunting leftover mines. With the speed, endurance, range, and sensors, the USVs and underwater drones spent the following days hunting for any leftover mines. A few remaining mines were found, but the enhanced MCM LCS methods incorporated in this essay found most of the mines before the MCM USV and Remus MCM drones were launched. No mine-housed torpedoes remained. Best of all, no EOD divers ever had to get wet and swim dangerously close to a mine to attach explosives. The closest divers got to the smart mine was from a HH-60 helicopter or a Flyboard.
The U.S. Navy sent the expensive MCM removal bill to the U.N. the next week. The U.N. forwarded it to the offending nation who reluctantly agreed to pay after protesting first. MCM Mission Accomplished with several dozen drones expended and zero lives and USVs lost for a few hundred mines located and detonated.
* Tamir doesn’t need to be “Iron Dome” to counter incoming missiles as Israel is very reluctant to release the source code for “Iron Dome.” Instead, Tamir missiles are needed for their 40-mile range, giving LCSs a missile that goes way beyond anything it currently possesses.
