Todor Tagarev, Bulgaria’s minister of defence, directly tied the establishment of the new MCM task force to Russian actions in the Black Sea, amid Moscow’s continued blockade of maritime traffic in the area.
By Tim MartinThales Middle East Vice President Emmanuel de Roquefeuil told Breaking Defense the French firm plans to double its staff in the region in five years.
By Agnes HelouThe mine countermeasures USV is one piece of tech designed keep Navy ships safe from undersea mines.
By Justin KatzUISS will be a key mine countermeasures asset for the Navy moving forward, but it experienced significant issues during testing last fall, according to new details initially hidden from public view.
By Justin KatzRaytheon executives say they will team up with Atlas Electronics to demonstrate their sonar off the coast of Scotland at an industry exhibition dubbed WISE-X.
By Justin KatzANNAPOLIS: The Navy’s new plan to put mine-hunting gear on a wider range of warships could finally break mine warfare out of its ghetto — or it could keep mine-hunting the same redheaded stepchild but spread it across more decks. The Navy has experimented with integrating Mine Counter-Measures (MCM) onto ships that weren’t minesweepers before,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ANNAPOLIS: There are maybe half a million sea mines in arsenals around the world. To find and clear them, rather than rely solely on a small fleet of small Littoral Combat Ships, the Navy now wants at least some mine-hunting gear on a vessels ranging from modified oil tankers to catamarans to aircraft carriers. The…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: Minesweeping and “fast” are two words you’d normally be nervous about hearing in the same sentence. But as the Navy looks to new technologies to remedy its decades-long neglect of mine warfare — a favorite weapon of both Iran and China — it sees real potential to speed up a painfully slow…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CORRECTED: Fixes Number of Minesweepers in US Ports 9:35 am 10/1/2012 Officially, despite rising tensions with Tehran, the enemy in in the international naval wargames that kicked off in the Gulf this week is not, repeat not, Iran: It’s radical environmentalists. Very, very well-armed environmentalists. Against this fictional Greenpeace gone rogue are set the ships,…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.[updated 12:45 Tuesday with VCNO Burke comment] PANAMA CITY, FLORIDA: Improving the Navy’s long-neglected capability to hunt mines is a top priority for the fleet — but it still gets less than 1 percent of the Navy budget. “We do have a sense of urgency and I think we’re applying as much resources as we…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Iran’s threat to strangle oil tanker traffic through the Straits of Hormuz has the Navy scrambling to redress its decades-old neglect of mine warfare. Admirals from the Chief of Naval Operations on down have publicly admitted the service is not where it needs to be. “What I find amazing is the amount of interest…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.