Jack of Harts

Minefield clearance has recently become an issue of some interest to the world.

And I’ve seen people say that we recently withdrew our minesweepers from a certain area that needs it at the moment. Those statements are generally said with great interest and suggestions that maybe they should be sent back, given current foreign events. As many untruths go, this is a true statement that suggests an untruth that people should think.

In this case, there are two truths that change what things look like in reality.

The first truth is that, while yes, multiple minesweepers have been withdrawn from the area in question, they are very old minesweepers. Older than most people reading this right now. They were built in the 1980s, an age before modern cruise missiles and drones changed the face of warfare. They were built back when we were still learning the lessons of World War II and trying to grasp the lessons of the Cold War. Wooden-hulled minesweepers that must sail through a minefield to destroy it are literally a weapon of a different age. That is the first truth. Sending those vessels into that threat environment would be asking for them to be sunk by the new threats that dominate warfare.

The second truth is that other vessels designed to do minesweeping duties are deployed in the area. We have a number of brown water naval vessels designed for speed and to operate in the modern threat environment. Key amongst their abilities is the capability to sail outside a minefield and send in remote devices to disable the minefield. They don’t even have to enter it. And they are logged in to the modern warfare systems that keep them in modern air defense mode and have a full tactical link up with aircraft and other naval ships in the area. In a full scale war situation, these are the vessels you want to perform mine clearance.

The full truth is that the vulnerable old technology minesweepers were removed from a high-threat environment while more modern vessels designed to perform minesweeper duties in a high-threat environment have been deployed. The other full truth is that the high-threat environment has still proven to be rather dangerous for shipping in the area and it will take a great deal of work by the civilized navies to end that threat. And that work will require risk. As long as the enemies of civilization wish to shut down major trade routes, the civilized nations must stand up to them, or civilization itself will be in peril.