The Navy’s offensive mine-warfare capability gap widens every year, as doctrinal foundations erode. Without significant and purposeful research, development, testing, and evaluation efforts, the Navy is likely to find itself entirely on the defensive end of mine warfare for the next several decades. To inform such research efforts, a cohort within the Systems Engineering Department at the Naval Postgraduate School looked to history for guidance. The first known use of mobile mines—in a minor naval footnote to the American Revolutionary War known as “The Battle of the Kegs”—led the team to pose the question: What would a 21st-century equivalent to that battle look like?
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1. Jose E. Balderrama, Alan Crocker, Mia Moore, Stephen T. Pease, and Vincent J. Ragona, Developing the Mine of the Future—The MADMAN (Maritime Area Denial Mine with Autonomous Navigation), master’s thesis (Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School, 2018).
2. General Atomics, “GA-ASI Successfully Tests Air-to-Space Laser Communication System,” www.ga.com/ga-asi-successfully-tests-air-to-space-laser-communication-system.
3. General Atomics, “General Atomics Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Tesat Spacecom,” www.ga.com/general-atomics-signs-memorandum-of-understanding-with-tesat-spacecom.
4. Kimberly Underwood, “Laser Communications Offer Promise,” SIGNAL Magazine, 31 October 2018, www.afcea.org/content/laser-communications-offer-promise.
5. “MK 67 Submarine-Laid Mobile Mine (SLMM),” Federation of American Scientists, fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/weaps/mk-67.htm.
6. “New CRADA between NPS, General Atomics Focused on Advanced Space Technologies—Stories—Naval Postgraduate School,” my.nps.edu/-/new-crada-between-nps-general-atomics-focused-on-advanced-space-technologies.
7. Ryan Pickrell, “A Mysterious Naval Mine Inexplicably Appeared off Washington State—This Is the Moment It Blew Up,” Business Insider, 29 August 2018.
8. ADM James Winnefeld Jr., USN (Ret.), and CAPT Syed Ahmad, USN (Ret.), “The Other Mine Warfare Will Work,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 144, no. 7 (July 2018): 28–32.
9. Scott C. Truver, “Taking Mines Seriously: Mine Warfare in China’s Near Seas,” Naval War College Review 65, no. 2 (2012): 30–66.
