The sea mine is a self-contained explosive device that denies a vessel passage. Mines are deposited and left to wait until triggered by approaching ships. The most highlighted methods to handle the mine threat are minesweeping and mine hunting. These are indeed complementary to each other. Circumstances decide which is superior to the other. One drawback with traditionally conducted mine counter measure (MCM) operations is that the mine-hunter or minesweeper must be positioned inside the mine danger area, thereby exposing both ship and crew to significant danger. The demands for new technologies to keep the ship and crew out of the mine danger area have become more and more urgent. Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USVs) will inevitably play an important role in MCM as they are well suited for the dirty/dull/dangerous tasks that MCM entails. With MCM USVs, the mine clearance operation can be conducted with ship and crew outside the mine danger area and with a minimum of resources involved.
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