What's the difference between a minesweeper and a minesweeper?

At present, the combat modes of mine anti-attack ships are divided into "mine sweeping" and "mine hunting". The following mainly introduces the nature and differences between the two.

"Minesweeping" is the earliest anti-mine method. In the operation, it is not necessary to really detect whether there are mines or the exact location of mines in the waters. Minesweeper only needs to sail in the waters that need to be cleaned and protected, and drag all kinds of minesweeping devices behind the hull, including minesweeping ropes or audio/magnetic minesweepers, to destroy the mines it encounters.

Among them, a minesweeping knife is installed on the minesweeping rope at regular intervals. If you encounter a mine rope or chain, you can cut it off, so that the mine floats to the surface and is destroyed by artillery. Acoustic/magnetic minesweepers are used to deal with magnetic or acoustic noise-induced mines. Minesweepers simulate magnetic signals or acoustic noise generated when ships pass by to trick mines into being fooled.

Theoretically, a minesweeper can open a safe channel after minesweeping in a fixed sea area/channel, but there may be no mine at all, or the fuse of the mine has no effect on the minesweeping device, or the scheduled or scheduled mine (counting the number of times the ship passes) cannot meet the operational conditions.

Therefore, although the more times the waterway is cleaned, the higher the safety will be, but there is still no 100% guarantee that the mines here have been cleared.

The world's first batch of minesweepers were built by Russia in 1909, with a displacement of 150 tons and a speed of 12 knots. They were equipped with a small cutting minesweeper, a 75mm gun and two machine guns to deal with tethered mines (there were no induction mines at that time).

"Mine hunting" is a relatively new way of mine clearance. The biggest difference from mine clearance is that it has the ability to detect mines, find mines by various means, calibrate their precise positions and complete identification, and then divers or remote-controlled vehicles place explosives near the mines and detonate them one by one.

Therefore, the success of mine hunting operation has nothing to do with the detonation mode or timing/timing conditions of mines, as long as the mines detected by mine hunting ships can be hunted; However, depending on mine-sweeping operations to clean the waterway may be affected by the types of mines. Even if it is cleaned repeatedly, there is no guarantee that there will be mines that have escaped the net.

In order to find small mines and complete accurate positioning, mine hunting ships have sophisticated navigation and positioning systems, high-resolution mine detectors and other equipment.

In addition, another major technical feature of the mine-hunting boat is the well-equipped remote-controlled mine-hunting car, which is equipped with high-precision sonar, underwater searchlights and television cameras to find mines and complete identification operations. In addition, it can also carry anti-personnel mine explosives, put them near mines, and then detonate them remotely to destroy mines.

The new generation of mines often adopt technologies such as intelligence, timing, timing and sensitivity adjustment, which will hinder mine-clearing operations, but will not affect the success or failure of mine-clearing operations. As long as it is discovered, it will be destroyed.

In addition, mine hunting ships usually use remote control vehicles for long-distance mine clearance, and the ship itself can detonate mines hundreds of meters away, with high safety; The traditional minesweeper needs to drag the minesweeper in person to sail in the minefield. Whether accidentally touching or detonating a mine at close range, the probability of affecting itself is much greater.

Because the mine hunting ship has all kinds of accurate submarine landform detection and positioning equipment, it can also support the work of searching for sediments, submarine exploration and laying submarine cables. However, the biggest disadvantage of mine hunting is that each mine can only handle blasting separately, so its mine-sweeping operation speed is slower than mine-sweeping.

In addition, the mine-hunting ship can only move at a very slow speed (usually around 7 knots) to make sonar and other detection and search equipment play the best role.

Moreover, with the current mine hunting and searching technology, it is difficult to effectively deal with mines buried under seabed sediments or disguised, and mine clearance operations may at least meet their detonation conditions and destroy them.

The world's first anti-mine ship with mine detection capability was the enterprise minesweeper built by the United States in the 1950 s, but there were still only traditional minesweepers on board, which could not detonate specific mines. Since then, real mine-hunting ships have become popular in European countries.

Because of the advantages and disadvantages of mine clearance and mine hunting, modern anti-mine ships often combine the characteristics of mine hunting and mine clearance. For example, modern "minesweepers" are equipped with mine detectors (but there is no remote control vehicle for mine hunting), and many so-called "minesweepers" carry minesweeping ropes or magnetic/acoustic minesweeping devices. For example, the Avenger-class mine counter ship in the United States is not deliberately classified as a minesweeper or a minesweeper, because this class ship has both minesweeper and minesweeper capabilities.