The Future of Mine Countermeasures

Mines are small, cheap, easy to hide, easy to store, and can be clandestinely laid from virtually any type of platform. They have quickly become the favorite weapon of terrorists, and have been used by formal forces to protect and disrupt the coastline. The development of new concepts by the Marine Corps, such as Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare EMW, Operational Maneuver from the Sea OMFTS, and Ship-to-Objective Maneuver STOM have brought mine countermeasures MCM to the forefront. Considering the current mine threat, does the Marine Corps still have a forcible entry capability The Navy is responsible for MCM missions in Deep Water 200, Shallow Water 40-200, Very Shallow Water 10-40, and the Surf Zone 10, which includes the High Water Mark. The Marine Corps is responsible for the MCM mission from the High Water Mark to the Beach Zone and the Beach Exit Zone. The problem areas for the Navy are Very Shallow Water and the Surf Zone because breaking and plunging waves make these areas noisy and nearly opaque to both acoustics and optics. The push is on to develop a system of MCM capabilities that will fill the gaps. In the near-term, an assault breaching system may be fielded will allow military forces to conduct surf zone and beach zone mine and obstacle standoff breaching. The Office of Naval Research has exploited existing precision guided bombs to be delivered by either Naval or Air Force bombers. This system uses innovative delivery and detonation control to breach assault lane threats of surface laid mines and light obstacles in the surf and beach zones. Far-Term solutions include the Standoff Delivery System STODS. The warhead contains approximately 6,400 darts that are dispersed at a certain height and penetrate the surf and beach zone to neutralize mines. Other far-term efforts are surveillance and detection systems, like the Rapid Overt Airborne Reconnaissance ROAR system.