Maritime mines offer low cost anti access and area denial. We need to be ready to use and disarm the small, the smart and the many at sea ⬇️
Mine warfare has been employed at scale in World Wars, Regional Wars and littoral conflicts for hundreds of years but our holiday from history has seen mine hunting deprioritised. Freedom of the seas has been taken for granted, not understood as a privilege earned and maintained by naval power.
The Strait of Hormuz is providing a reminder of the potency of mine warfare and the willingness of nations to contravene international rules of the sea. Iran is effectively controlling the flow of shipping due to the risk of Iranian mines and land based strike. US Congress assessed that Iran had ~6,000 mines before the current conflict commenced, so it is no surprise that commercial shipping and insurers are unwilling to risk becoming the cautionary tale.
But yet in this context mine clearing capability measures for the Royal Australian Navy are currently in limbo, delayed and downsized we pivot to becoming a ‘Focused Force’:
“Project Sea 1905 was suspended in April 2024. The aim of the project had been to give the RAN a containerised toolbox of scalable and versatile autonomous systems to achieve a world-class MCM [mine countermeasures] capability. Simultaneously, replacement of Huon-class coastal minehunters and Leeuwin-class hydrographic survey ships based on Arafura-class hulls was cancelled.”
No doubt recent events may have Defence planners reconsidering capability options. Uncrewed minesweeping solutions are a great example of removing the human from the dirty, dangerous but essential jobs in combat. AUKUS may have a part to play as the Royal Navy has several autonomous mine systems now in service:
“The Royal Navy is now able to deploy crewless minesweeping equipment to hunt and destroy mines for the first time. New systems – known collectively as SWEEP– have been accepted into service to combat the threat of naval mines and keep personnel away from danger. An uncrewed surface vessel and sophisticated payloads make up the SWEEP system, which is controlled remotely on the surface to hunt and detonate mines quickly.”
Australia is showing great potential sovereign capability in uncrewed systems that could play a part in maritime mine warfare by air and by sea. Chokepoint conflicts like we are seeing in the Strait of Hormuz, the Red Sea and the Black Sea all show anti access and area denial is on the increase. A large scale war in the Indo Pacific would certainly see heightened risk of mines in our littoral waters and ports just as we saw in WWII.
Reopening the Strait of Hormuz and restoring security for the sea lanes of communication will offer plenty of lessons for nations willing to learn and adapt – food for thought as always and articles mentioned are in the comments.
📷 via Royal Navy – SWEEP minesweeping system in action.