LCS Will Transform Mine Warfare

The littoral combat ship, already tapped as a worthy platform for numerous missions close to shore, also will make an ideal springboard for mine countermeasures operations.

Littoral combat ships (LCSs) with mine warfare mission packages have the potential to replace the U.S. Navy's legacy dedicated mine warfare force and fundamentally transform mine warfare. The Navy needs to refine concepts of operations, not only for the LCS in the mine countermeasures (MCM) role, but also for the future mine warfare organization that will train, equip, and command groups of these ships in combat operations.

More than 350,000 sea mines are estimated to be stockpiled around the world. Surf-zone mines, shallow-water mines, deep-water mines, moored mines, bottom mines, floating mines, rising mines, and mines deployed from unsophisticated or cleverly configured ships and barges (as evidenced during Operation Iraqi Freedom) are part of an array of threats. As the Navy and Marine Corps refine the concept of sea basing in support of joint forcible entry, littoral MCM capability will become increasingly important.

Employing Organic Mine Warfare Systems

The LCS will act as a sea frame and have three mission packages: MCM, antisubmarine warfare, and antisurface warfare. The ship's mine warfare mission package will inelude mine-hunting, minesweeping, and mine-neutralization systems. Mine hunting locates and identifies mines for neutralization. Minesweeping does not identify individual mines, but puts acoustic and magnetic energy into the water to satisfy the target detection parameters and detonate any mines in the swept area.

If warning time were available, the submarine-launched long-term mine reconnaissance system (or follow-on mission reconfigurable unmanned underwater vehicles) could conduct covert surveys of transit routes and potential joint operating areas to determine the presence and location of minefields. Depending on the size of the suspected minefield or area to be cleared, one or more LCSs with mine warfare mission packages would be vectored to the area. Standing a safe distance from the suspected minefield, the MH-60S helicopter would be launched with the airborne laser mine detection system (ALMDS) to provide a rapid, broad-area search for surface- or near-surface-moored mines. As areas closest to the ship are searched, remote mine-hunting vehicles (RMVs) would be launched towing the AQS-20A mine-hunting sonar. RMVs will perform better than helicopters in this role because of their persistence (longer than 14-hour mission time) and ability to work around the clock. (The MH-60S mission time is less than two hours when towing the AQS-20A, and few helicopter pilots relish the opportunity to fly at 100 feet, at night, with a nose-down attitude and the out-of-balance flight required for towing.) Future unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) also might fill a mine-hunting role.

If surface or near-surface mines were located, the MH-60S could be reconfigured to carry the rapid airborne mine clearance system, a rapid-firing gun system that shoots supercavitating projectiles to destroy mines. If deepmoored or bottom mines were located, the MH-60S could be reconfigured to carry the airborne mine neutralization system, a fiber-optic guided expendable neutralizer. Additional helicopters could conduct ALMDS surveys while others conduct neutralization operations. A future RMV might carry an expendable mine-neutralization system, giving it both hunt and neutralization capabilities without having to return to the LCS to change payloads.

In areas unsuitable for mine hunting, or if rapid mine clearance is required, unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and the MH-60S could tow the organic airborne surface influence and acoustic minesweeping system. As with RMVs towing the AQS-20A, USVs are more suitable for sweeping because their mission duration is significantly longer than an MH-60S helicopter in the tow mode, and because a USV can tow around the clock.

Explosive ordnance disposal divers play a vital role in mine warfare. Trained and equipped to locate or reacquire, exploit, and neutralize sea mines, their most important role is exploitation. Once mines are discovered, it is imperative to determine their type and their target detection logic. The entire MCM effort is dependent on communications links that enable data to be passed from the RMV, USV, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and shared among the ships and platforms conducting and supporting the MCM operation.

Sizing up the Legacy Force

In addition to meeting a long-term goal of the mine warfare community to get our people out of wooden and fiberglass ships that must operate near and in minefields to hunt and sweep mines, the use of UUVs, USVs, RMVs, UAVs, and MH-60Ss provides a significantly higher area clearance rate than our legacy force.

Our current mine warfare force consists of 14 Avenger (MCM- 1)-class minesweepers, 12 Osprey (MHC-51)-class coastal mine hunters, and two squadrons of MH-53E helicopters. As the organic mine warfare systems discussed earlier reach their initial operating capability and enter the fleet in adequate numbers, legacy mine warfare forces can begin to be retired. O.vprey-class mine hunters are the least capable of our mine warfare ships and could be retired first. They may be of use to our allies in the Persian Gulf and western Pacific, where there will be significant mine threats.

The MH-53Es are outstanding assets, but will reach the end of their useful lives between 2010 and 2012. Some should have their service lives extended to bridge the gap until there are sufficient LCS mine warfare mission packages available. Although the MH-60S has neither the range nor payload capacity of the MH-53E, the area clearance rates provided by the MH-60S, USVs, and RMVs eventually will provide a more cost-effective minehunting and minesweeping capability. Finally, when there are adequate LCSs and mine warfare mission packages, the Navy will have sufficient MCM capability that the Avenger-class minesweepers can be retired at the end of their service lives, precluding the need for a follow-on class of single-purpose MCM ships.

Shore Support

With the transition of the mine force to mine warfare mission packages and the multipurpose LCS sea frame, the Navy should give serious thought to how LCSs with mine warfare mission packages will be organized, trained, equipped, manned, and commanded while training for and conducting their MCM missions.

Mine warfare requires significant expertise. The Mine Warfare Center of Excellence at Naval Station Ingleside (Texas) has improved the Navy's mine warfare capability since Operation Desert Storm. Collocating operating forces, unique maintenance facilities, mine warfare schools, and headquarters offers many benefits.

Mine Warfare Command must continue to exist as the Navy's repository of mine warfare expertise and as a déployable mine warfare headquarters. However, in the future, it will not "own" a fleet of dedicated mine warfare ships. Operational control of LCS sea frames with mine warfare mission packages could be assigned to Mine Warfare Command for the duration of dedicated MCM operations. The Navy must consider carefully Mine Warfare Command's role in training crews and maintaining LCS mine warfare mission packages. The details of operational control, administrative control, and immediate superior in command need to be addressed for the LCS in each of its three primary mission roles.

Because LCSs are not dedicated mine hunters, the three MCM squadrons will play an important role in organizing and supervising LCS mine warfare in fleet operations. Mine Warfare Training Center, collocated with the Mine Warfare Center of Excellence, must evolve by adding courses in the seven organic MCM systems and by dropping courses related to the equipment on our legacy ships as they are removed from service. In addition, because the LCS sea frame may not be available for MCM mission package crew training, Mine Warfare Training Center will have an expanded role in training and maintaining proficiency of MCM mission package crews with the use of trainers and simulators.

The Navy's decade-long investment in developing organic MCM systems is about to pay dividends. As opposed to deploying these organic systems in the legacy ships of our carrier battle groups, as was the original vision, the proposed LCS sea frame provides more flexible deployment options, including deploying LCSs with our carrier strike groups and expeditionary strike groups and deploying squadrons of LCSs forward. The seven organic systems, purchased in sufficient quantity, will provide more capability than we have in our legacy force, at less risk to our people and ships. Now that the Navy has awarded the contracts for the first LCSs, it should conduct detailed planning on how these systems will be used by the mine warfare commander and what shore support will be required for these revolutionary sea frame and mission packages.