Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, hundreds of sea mines have threatened traffic in the Black Sea. Waters of NATO members such as Bulgaria, Romania and Türkiye are not safe and must be permanently monitored by NATO.
The risk of a lost mine represents a substantial economic loss in the country bordering the West and East Coasts of the Black Sea, which can lead to higher insurance, more complicated routes and damage to tourism.
Therefore, DEMINING is an important activity for the security and economy of the east side of the NATO and the EU.
The use of the mines is part of Russian attempts to get closer to Odessa and Ukrainian attempts to protect the city from any landing vessel. Therefore, both sides use such mines for offensive and defensive reasons.
Remotely controlled vehicle game changer at the sea?
The war in Ukraine marked a turning point in the militarization of unmanned and unmanned vehicles in the air, land and sea.
For example, in the Black Sea, the so-called semi-written Sea, drones have played a fatal role by forcing Russian naval ships to leave Sebastopol and to be far from the port of Novorossk, the Black Sea port to the east, and the range of Ukrainian sea drones and naval missiles.
Drones have also proven to be extremely useful for the navy of countries that are not directly involved in combat.
For example, the Romanian Navy began regular mine clearance work with submarine drones imported from the UK for some time.
The Euronows Romania TV crew boarded a mine vacuum equipped with Sea Fox, a submarine drone, to cover the submarine tactics.
The Sea Fox underwater drone from MineHunter’s “Ion Ghiculescu” has already been successfully tested in deep conditions.
Unmanned, remotely controlled submarine vehicles can remotely destroy sea swaying without putting their crew at risk.
Minehunter Commander Denis Giubernea explains how the Sea Fox drone works.
“It’s remote controlled. It has cables, 1,500 meters of optical fiber, optical, and is induced through water. So it’s permanently connected to the ship. After this action, after that action, we use another neutralizing drone that is identified to the object that is already being monitored. Self-destructing,” he said.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, 150 sea mines have been discovered floating in the Black Sea. And they represent constant danger.
“Ukraine has implemented defense mines, while the Russian Federation has implemented aggressive mines. We don’t know the exact number of them, but the risks are increasingly high as there may be mines that can drift away,” says Dennis Juvenair.
According to military experts, the role of drones in maritime warfare is highly tactically relevant. Unmanned marine vehicles have proven essential for mining hunting.
A new generation of fully autonomous seedrons
Sea Fox types still need to be controlled using optical tethers. This requires the MineHunter container to be relatively close to the operational theatre.
Cedarskaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Euroneus: “If the system is completely autonomous, the vessels that control it could operate more.
According to Kaushal, identifying the classification of a mine is a time-consuming task that involves a combination of different levels of detection and human analysis.
Furthermore, the use of artificial intelligence in dropouts has less ethical implications than other areas of military operations that require final human judgment.
“Mine hunting is an uncontroversial area for deploying a fully automated system, unlike circumstances that involve killing. The disposal of the mine is not a politically controversial area,” he added.
