An Assessment of the Navy's Mine Warfare Mission

Mine warfare consists of the control or denial of sea or harbor areas through the laying of minefields and countering enemy mine warfare by destroying or neutralizing their minefields.

GAO found that the Navy would find it hard to conduct even the most limited type of mining or mine countermeasures operation. Several new mine programs which are in development or limited production should alleviate a number of these weaknesses and provide an effective mining capability. However, it will take time before the effects of these improvements can be seen. Airborne systems to perform mine countermeasures suffer from lack of aircraft, spare parts, and personnel. Helicopters are restricted to certain areas of water in which they can operate and in their ability to locate and counter certain types of mines. Airborne mine countermeasures should see considerable improvement by the mid-1980's. These improvements should provide the helicopter with a much broader capability than it currently has. However, no funds have been programmed for the planned purchase of new helicopters. Surface mine countermeasures forces are plagued with maintenance and spare parts problems. The force is further degraded by inadequate numbers of ships, their aged and deteriorating condition, and a lack of experienced personnel. New mine countermeasure ships and equipment should improve surface mine countermeasures capabilities, but certain limitations will still exist. Large amounts of money will be needed to fund this new equipment. GAO believes that the Navy should determine whether they are going to give mine warfare a high budget priority. Actions should be taken by the Department of Defense which will better define the severity of the mining threat to the United States.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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