Company insight
Sea mines are back T
he nature of armed conflict around the world is constantly in a state of flux. The threat landscape always evolves, the theatre of operations changes, and the tactics of enemy forces adapt to the nature of the conflict. After years of gearing up to face guerrilla warfare and terrorist attacks, armed forces are once again having to prepare for the possibility of a more conventional conflict. One of the reasons for this is the Russian war in Ukraine, which involves large forces moving by land and sea to occupy terrain and quell resistance from the local population. This is changing perspectives not only on tactics, but also on the choice of weapons systems utilised. “In terms of geopolitical issues, the megatrend is a change in how militaries and politicians have been thinking,” says Kristian Tornivaara, chief business officer for defence and aerospace at DA-Group. “War was thought of as something far away, but this changed in 2014 with Russia’s invasion of Crimea. Now, homeland security and the defence of their territory is back on the agenda of politicians.”
Long neglected by many nations as a key weapon, sea mines are proving their worth in the Black Sea, and armed forces are once again looking at them as a key armament for defending sea lanes and coastlines. Jim Banks talks to DA-Group in Finland, where the technology never went out of fashion, to find out how sea mines have evolved.
Modular minelaying concept SUMICO provides plug-in minelaying capability to any ship capable of mission module handling.
“When we had the Gulf War in 1990–91, no one was talking about sea mines before that. But the Iraqis laid mines off the Kuwaiti coast and hit US warships, so sea mine awareness arose again having been neglected,” explains Vice Admiral (ret.) Kari Takanen, former chief of the
“When we had the Gulf War in 1990–91, no one was talking about sea mines before that. But the Iraqis laid mines off the Kuwaiti coast and hit US warships, so sea mine awareness arose again.”
“Now there is a need to wage high-end warfare rather than fighting terrorists,” he adds. “Defence forces adapted to that threat but now they need tanks, bombers, sea mines and different kinds of ships for naval conflict.”
DA-Group is a Finnish company that provides advanced electronics and high- technology solutions for customers in the industrial, defence and aerospace sectors. It is a leading specialist in the development of sea mines, which are once again becoming a frontline weapons system.
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Finnish navy and DA-Group senior advisor. “The mine threat is real and has never really gone away, but for the last 20 years we have been talking about terrorism rather than big naval actions.” “Now, Ukraine and Russia are using mines to protect their coastlines, and they are extensively used in the Black Sea,” he adds. “But the Finnish navy has never let mines go from our inventory.”
Engineering effectiveness Although there is only limited information
available about the weapons systems deployed in the Black Sea, it can be strongly inferred that sea mines are playing a major part in defending Ukraine’s coastline.
“What we know is that older contact mines and some floating mines have been seen, but also both Ukraine and Russia have mined the coastal shorelines to protect them. Ukraine minefields outside Odessa, for example, make a Russian landing impossible,” says Takanen. “Together with missiles, sea mines are protecting the whole seafront, which is why it is not the primary front line.” “Russia’s activities are killing civilians and targeting infrastructure, and although we can’t really make any big assumptions, we still see that mines are being used in the Black Sea as a weapon of choice to protect borders and shorelines. There may also have been some offensive minelaying,” Takanen explains. The sea mine systems deployed in the area may be old – probably dating from the 1940s to, at the latest, the 1980s – and do not represent the cutting-edge in modern sea mine technology. Nevertheless, they
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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