DoD requires mine and countermine systems to directly support U.S. Armed Forces' full-spectrum dominance. This requires technology solutions that support the capability for assured, rapid surveillance, reconnaissance, detection, and neutralization of mines to enable forced entry by expeditionary forces. The capability includes control of the sea and the ability to conduct amphibious and ground force operational maneuvers against hostile defensive forces employing sea, littoral, and land mines. Evolving technologies for offensive mining address the requirements to detect and track a broad spectrum of threats, inter- and intra-minefield communications, and sensor fusion to enhance mining effectiveness. A significant countermine capability ensures that the requisite tempo, survivability, and control of maneuvering forces is achieved. Application of new technology will provide high-confidence countermine surveillance, reconnaissance, and detection; breaching and neutralization; and battlespace management of joint countermine operations.
The focus of technology efforts to achieve warfighting needs includes sensors, signal processing techniques, data fusion, and autonomous robotics systems.
3.1.2.1 Goals and Timeframes. The goals of the countermine/mines subarea are listed in Table X-2.
3.1.2.2 Major Technical Challenges.
Mining. Major technical challenges for offensive land and sea mines include the development of signal processing, sensor fusion, and explosives techniques to support the detection and tracking of quiet, stealthy targets in high clutter environments as well as the C3 netting of mines/minefields in real time and without endangering U.S./allied forces.
Countermine. Significant technological challenges exist in countermine surveillance, reconnaissance, and detection. Mines come in a wide variety of designs. This variety, as well as the differences in mine operating environments (sea, surf, beach, land), precludes a single design solution to the detection problem. The challenge is to detect and identify mines and minefields in high background clutter with an acceptable false alarm rate. Differentiation of land, beach zone, and bottom sea mines from clutter in various soil, foliage, and terrain types is difficult. In both maritime and land environments, buried nonmetallic mines are virtually undetectable. Optical, magnetic, and acoustic sensors have limited effectiveness in the high ambient noise of the surf zone. Advanced signal processing, multisensor fusion, and automatic target recognition are some of the technology areas that are addressing detection challenges.
Countermine breaching and neutralization are currently slow, tedious, and often dangerous. The reliable neutralization of mines presents several unique challenges. Improved targeting systems and thorough ballistics/hydro ballistics analysis and testing are needed to make directed fire an effective neutralization tool against subsurface naval mines. A technology breakthrough is required to solve the problem of sweeping pressure influence mines. The problems of surf and beach zone breaching are compounded by the fact that mines and obstacles are often deployed together, and the countermine effectiveness of explosive line charges and arrays is significantly degraded when obstacles increase the standoff between the neutralization charge and the mine. Near-term solutions emphasize brute force approaches for the rapid breaching/neutralization of mines and obstacles. For in-stride breaching operations, improved fire control systems must be developed to permit the firing of breaching charges from inbound amphibious land craft through the breaking surf. Improved breaching charges must be developed to provide a high kill probability against mines buried by surf, wind, and tidal action on the beach and on land. New standoff mines present a technological challenge to land warfare. Systems must be developed for in-stride clearance of these mines from the perimeter of the intended route. Development of standoff neutralization technologies using kinetic energy, focused shockwaves, or other directed-energy applications offer approaches to solving neutralization challenges.
| Applications/Mission | Short Term (1-2 Years) |
Mid Term (3-5 Years) | Long Term (6+ Years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Countermine surveillance, reconnaissance, and detection | Baseline and exploitation of current mapping, survey and intel capabilities/products. | Intermittent surveillance of mining activities. | Continuous, fused all-source I&W of enemy mining activity including mine stockpiles and capabilities. |
| 7x improvement in VSW clandestine recon (incl buried mines). 6 nmi2/hr search rate for DW/SW mines. | Rapid recon (80 nmi2/hr) of surf zone through craft land zone. | Autonomous multiplatform clandestine reconnais-sance/kill capability (land & sea). | |
| Continued development of multiple technologies including data fusion and ATR to enhance detection capability. | Demonstrate forward-looking radar; evaluate potential enhancements for standoff distance and enhance weather capability. | Demonstrate hyperspectral/ multispectral technologies. | |
| Explore passive IR with active laser, downlooking ground-penetrating radar, and SAR technologies for improved capability to detect/kill mines. | Evaluate hyperspectral and multispectral technologies to enhance airborne and ground detection performance. | Demonstrate acoustic and seismic performance enhancements to ground-based detection systems. | |
| Investigate acoustic and seismic technologies for ground-based detection. | |||
| Investigate passive IR/microwave technologies to identify scatter mines. | |||
| Countermine breaching and neutralization | Demonstrate off-route smart mine clearance of neutralized top- and side-attack mines. | Demonstrate an explosive/ kinetic neutralization system in a ground vehicle. | Demonstrate laser DE for mine neutralization. (Will be evaluated for inclusion in an electron beam neutrali-zation system in FY08.) |
| Integrate ground-based detection with standoff neutralization technology. | Demonstrate RF technology to detect electronically fuzed mines from standoff distances. | ||
| Develop a chemical non-explosive means to neutralize mines. | |||
| Demonstrate enhanced explosives capability. | |||
| Demonstration in-stride mine clearance of assault lanes (surf zone through beach zone) using explosive line charges and nets fired from sea. | Demonstrate in-stride clearance of near-surface sea mines (to 20-ft depth), using helo-fired high-velocity munitions. | Demonstrate in-stride clearance of mines and obstacles from the surf zone through the craft landing zone using enhanced explosive arrays. | |
| Demonstrate rapid sweeping of shallow and VSW influence mines using advanced lightweight sweep systems. Investigate novel techniques for the rapid neutralization of mines and obstacles in breach lanes from the surf zone through the craft landing zone. | Demonstrate directed shock-wave technology appli-cations for neutralizing sea mines. |
Table X-2. Countermine/Mines Subarea Goals and Timeframes (continued)
| Applications/Mission | Short Term (1-2 Years) |
Mid Term (3-5 Years) | Long Term (6+ Years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Countermine battlespace management | Demonstrate end-to-end simulation of all mine warfare operations including the integration of models/simulations into tactical decision aids. | Demonstrate distributed interactive simulation capability for tactics development, training, and acquisition tradeoff analyses. | |
| Demonstrate enhanced protection of soft-skinned vehicles from blast and fragment effects of AT and AP mines. | Demonstrate blast deflection/energy absorption enhancements for personnel and vehicles. | Continue vehicle design analysis to enhance mine blast protection for soft-skinned vehicles. | |
| Improve individual protection materials. | |||
| Develop means to digitally characterize mined areas. | |||
| Demonstrate the reduction of large ship magnetic signatures using open-loop degaussing. | Demonstrate secondary magnetic field reduction on MCM ships. | ||
| Humanitarian demining Build on congressional Special Interest Program to demonstrate COTS equipment for mine detection and clearance. | Develop training initiatives that address multiple languages, detection of mines from aerial and ground platforms, low-cost neutralization, protective systems for personnel and clearance verification technologies. | Long-term thrusts will be derived from the Countermine Program, the UXO Clearance Program, the EOD/LIC Program, and Special Operations Technology developments. | |
| Explosive ordnance disposal | Demonstrate high-frequency acoustic array for high-resolution images in turbid water. | Investigate broadband transmissions to neutralize electronics of electronic safe and armed fuzes. | Develop vehicle-mounted laser neutralization system to increase standoff to 250 meters. |
| Demonstrate high-velocity linear shaped charge for the disablement of the explosive firing train of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). | Demonstrate autonomous subsumption robotics for small UXO clearance. | ||
| Mining | Demonstrate detection/ classification and localiza-tion of quiet submarines and surface ships at medium water depths (150 to 600 ft). | Demonstrate a remote command/control capability. | Demonstrate feasibility of an intelligent, intercommunica-tion sea minefield network. |
Countermine battlespace management offers unique technical challenges. The countermine commander, to be effective, requires fuzed mine warfare intelligence in a timely manner. Currently, for both land and amphibious operations, the electronic dissemination of information regarding suspected minefields, actual mine locations, and cleared routes or areas is often inaccurate and unreliable. Mine warfare environmental sampling, databases, and modeling efforts must contribute to decisions in S&T development of sensors and systems as well as to commander's real-time tactical decision aids (TDAs) in the field. Reduction in the vulnerability of land vehicles, watercraft, and personnel to threat mines is a critical technical challenge involving magnetic signature reduction, blast deflection/absorption, and other mitigation technologies.
Humanitarian Demining. There are a number of promising technologies that can enhance demining capabilities. For individual mine detection, the major technical challenge is discriminating land mines from metal debris. Future efforts to improve detection will focus on providing a discrimination capability that includes the fusion of multisensor information and the incorporation of advanced signal processing techniques. In the area of mine clearance, cost-effective and efficient clearance techniques will be needed to clear land mines in all types of terrain. For neutralization, the challenge is to develop safe, reliable, and effective methods to eliminate the threat of individual mines without moving them—new technologies will be needed to economically and safely neutralize the latest mine threats. For mine awareness and demining training systems, the challenge is integration of the latest computer and training technologies, database links, and automated multilingual capabilities into a system that can be shared in an international environment.
Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technical challenges include developing low-cost robotic devices and extended standoff ordnance detection to ensure personnel and equipment safety and extending the capability of magnetic and inductance sensors to detect buried unexploded ordnance.
3.1.2.3 Related Federal and Private Sector Efforts. The Army Environmental Center recently completed a range cleanup at the Jefferson Proving Ground. DOE and EPA requirements for test range and dump site remediation have led to the joint DoD/DOE Multisensor Underwater Debris Detection System (MUDDS) project. Sandia National Laboratory is exploring new breaching concepts using foam bridges as well as chemical sensing devices for explosives detection and location. DARPA has been conducting an autonomous mine-hunting and -mapping UUV demonstration and is developing a synthetic aperture sonar for long-range underwater object detection. DARPA has also invested in low-cost robotics technology for use in very shallow water, surf zone, and beach zone mine and obstacle clearance.
3.1.3.1 Technology Demonstrations. The technology demonstrations in the countermines/mines (conventional weapons) subarea are in land mines (WE.02.07), sea mines (WE.45.07), humanitarian demining, and joint countermine technologies.
Land Mines. The land mine warfare area is being re-evaluated by the Integrated Concept Team of Unmanned Terrain Domination (UTD). The UTD concept is defined as the ability to achieve total situational awareness in an area of operations, to evaluate data received inside that area, to develop courses of action that are consistent with the commander's intent, and then to employ systems and tactics to accomplish the objective. The technologies required to meet the objective are initially being accomplished by the Intelligence Minefield (IMF) Concept. The follow-on technologies will evolve from the IMF and encompass the Area Denial Concept. The overall objectives will be to provide sensors, communication links, and shooter platforms capable of meeting the UTD objectives at extended ranges and against a variety of mounted and dismounted threat targets. Technology will also be used to develop alternatives to antipersonnel land mines (APL) as directed by the Defense Science Board Task Force in response to the Presidential directives on APL. An Advanced Technology Demonstration of an Area Denial Concept is planned.
Joint Countermine. The overall objective is to demonstrate countermine surveillance, reconnaissance, and detection technologies and in-stride neutralization clearance technologies to improve a joint task force's ability to conduct seamless countermine operations from the sea, through the surf/beach zone, to the land objective. Joint countermine includes the following demonstrations that are described in the JWSTP DTOs:
ATD (proposed)—G.12
Humanitarian Demining. Technology demonstrations are planned in four areas:
3.1.3.2 Technology Development. Technology developments support the countermine/mines subareas and address near-, mid-, and long-term military requirements. Major task areas are:
