Minesweeping
Minesweeping is the practice of removing explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that purpose. Minesweeping has been practiced since the advent of naval mining in 1855 during the Crimean War. The first minesweepers date to that war and consisted of British rowboats trailing grapnels to snag the mines.[1]
By ship
A sweep is either a contact sweep, a wire dragged through the water by one or two ships to cut the mooring wire of floating mines, or a distance sweep that mimics a ship to detonate the mines. The sweeps are dragged by
If a contact sweep hits a mine, the wire of the sweep rubs against the mooring wire until it is cut. Sometimes "cutters", explosive devices to cut the mine's wire, are used to lessen the strain on the sweeping wire. Mines cut free are recorded and collected for research or shot with a deck gun.
Minesweepers protect themselves with an
The distance sweep mimics the sound and magnetism of a ship and is pulled behind the sweeper. It has floating coils and large underwater drums. It is the only sweep effective against bottom mines.
During the
Modern influence mines are designed to discriminate against false inputs and are much more difficult to sweep. They often contain inherent anti-sweeping mechanisms. For example, they may be programmed to respond to the unique noise of a particular ship-type, its associated magnetic signature and the typical pressure displacement of such a vessel. As a result, a mine-sweeper must accurately guess and mimic the required target signature to trigger detonation. The task is complicated by the fact that an influence mine may have one or more of a hundred different potential target signatures programmed into it.[6]
Another anti-sweeping mechanism is a ship-counter in the mine fuze. When enabled, this allows detonation only after the mine fuze has been triggered a pre-set number of times. To further complicate matters, influence mines may be programmed to arm themselves (or disarm automatically—known as self-sterilization) after a pre-set time. During the pre-set arming delay (which could be days or weeks) the mine would remain dormant and ignore any target stimulus, whether genuine or faked.[6]
When influence mines are laid in an ocean minefield, they may have various combinations of fuze settings configured. For example, some mines (with the acoustic sensor enabled) may become active within three hours of being laid, others (with the acoustic and magnetic sensors enabled) may become active after two weeks but have the ship-counter mechanism set to ignore the first two trigger events, and still others in the same minefield (with the magnetic and pressure sensors enabled) may not become armed until three weeks have passed. Groups of mines within this mine-field may have different target signatures which may or may not overlap. The fuzes on influence mines allow many different permutations, which complicates the clearance process.[6]
Mines with ship-counters, arming delays, and highly specific target signatures in mine fuses can falsely convince a belligerent that a particular area is clear of mines or has been swept effectively because a succession of vessels have already passed through safely.
By aircraft
Aircraft can also be used for minesweeping. During the Second World War, fifteen British
The
See also
References
- ^ Howard S. Levie, Mine Warfare at Sea (1992), p. 119.
- ^ "Mine Sweeping Operations". Minesweeping. Charles Lees. Archived from the original on 2 April 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ "Минный защитник". encyclopedia.mil.ru. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
- ^ "Paravane - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ "Britain's Vickers Wellington bomber, 'Wimpey'". World War II Vehicles, Tanks, and Airplanes. Wwiivehicles.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ a b c Garrold, Tim (December 1998). "Mine Counter-Counter Measures (MCCM)". Mine Warfare Introduction: The Threat. Surface Warfare Officers School Command, U.S. Navy. Retrieved 31 December 2011. Slide 34 of 81. Hosted by Federation of American Scientists.
External links
- Dewar, Alfred (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 31 (12th ed.). pp. 949–995. .