I read that the US Navy downplayed results of studies concerning the effectiveness of mines in order to get their budgets approved. This was after WWII. Mines, or even the threat of mines, can severely restrict what a navy or merchants can do and where they can go. Although mines get deployed now and then, nobody relies on them to project power. They are area denial technology. Having been the Navy project manager on a major mine sweeping project, I can tell you that mines are a serious threat. One reason they are not used more often is that, until recently, they were indiscriminate. But the technology exists now to make your ships immune while only targeting specific targets or even classes of targets is possible.
I sincerely hope that the Taiwanese have been busy laying mines that can be remotely activated as when they actually need them, it will be too late to lay them. The Taiwanese could mine virtually the entire coast of China and every harbor. Wait for war, turn on the mines, and then wait for China to sue for peace. That’s because China imports a lot of food and most of its energy. Cut off, or restrict these imports and in six weeks, the Chinese people won’t give a damn about conquering a renegade province.
A mine can be made for anywhere from a thousand dollars to, say, ten thousand dollars. The electronics in the average cell phone and a few simple sensors could give it amazing discriminatory powers. The simplest navy ship, on the other hand, can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. For the price of one ship, you could probably mine every port in China. It doesn’t take a lot of mines as it’s practically impossible to sweep for them the way we did in the past. The electronics is that good. A fairly simple mine can tell the difference between a sweep and a real target.
Thanks for the post. The USNI articles I have read on the subject did not include the obvious applications of technology you mention to current generation mines which makes the process of removing the threat so difficult.