Clearing the choke points: NATO seeks to improve countermine surveillance

摘要

NATO members, especially France, are updating their undersea surveillance technologies to be ready if the alliance is called on to clear mines from strategic choke points. At the top of list would be the Strait of Hormuz, through which 33 percent of all seaborne traded oil must pass. Adding to the threat, today's mines are easy to build and cost as little as dollar1,500 each. NATO is also concerned with clearing mines from waters within its immediate area of responsibility, including the English Channel, North Sea and Baltic Sea, where mines left over from World War II and even World War I could pose threats. The alliance maintains two Standing NATO Response Force mine countermeasures force groups -- one to clear mines in northern NATO waters, the other in the south. The nations contributing forces to these groups must have modern equipment to respond rapidly in support of a NATO Response Force.