Hong Kong's "South China Morning Post" recently disclosed the first prize winner of the U.S. Navy's mine warfare essay competition - the United States can "strangle China's economy and then force China to develop offensive mines in China's Yellow Sea and Pearl River Delta Concession on the Taiwan Strait issue."
The author found this strange article from the website of the US Naval Institute. Although the relevant views are full of loopholes, some of the perspectives put forward by the author of the article, U.S. Navy Commander Victor Duno from within the U.S. Navy, are worth savoring.
The first part of this article emphasized that the United States is increasingly losing its military advantage against China in the Western Pacific. " Rand Corporation research shows that China has significantly narrowed the capability gap with the U.S. Navy and has even gained advantages in many fields."
This paper stated that China almost completely dominates the offshore area. The Rocket Force’s equipment and expertise can incapacitate the United States’ forward operating bases and threaten the main U.S. warships through anti-ship ballistic missiles ; China’s large number of deadly Subsonic and supersonic missiles could inflict devastating damage on the U.S. Navy. These threats make it possible that "U.S. Navy surface ships operating within the effective range of Chinese missiles may suffer catastrophic losses." In addition, China's mine warfare campaign against the U.S. nuclear submarine puts these unchallenged platforms at risk.
In order to change this passive situation, Duno claimed that because the United States lacks sufficient stealth and long-range standoff strike equipment for sustained operations, Indo-Pacific Command should use offensive mine warfare to "seriously disrupt China's military operations, compete for control of China’s seas and disrupt China’s economy.”
A B-52 bomber equipped with the "Quick Strike" series of intelligent mines for attack
According to him, the People's Liberation Army is actually very familiar with mine warfare capabilities and believes that the impact of mines must be considered during maritime conflicts. "CCTV's coverage of the People's Liberation Army's mine countermeasures exercises shows that China considers mines to be a serious threat."
But Duno claimed that although the Chinese navy has a variety of mine countermeasures platforms, "except for a few newer ships and unproven experimental unmanned underwater vehicles , its equipment is basically outdated." This limited mine countermeasure capability allows the PLA Navy to mainly conduct mine countermeasures operations near shores and ports.
According to his logic, offensive minelaying would expose Chinese naval ships and submarines to a blockade. Although the PLA Navy's minesweeping force can clear minefields, this will consume valuable time, ships and personnel. "By conducting offensive mine-laying in the Pearl River Delta and Yellow Sea , the United States can reduce the areas where China may threaten the United States and provide more safe maneuvering space."
"Quick Strike" series of smart mines
At the same time, Dunuo also claimed that the People's Liberation Army's logistics support system will be under pressure due to the reduction of available port facilities caused by mine blockade. "The resulting concentration of supplies and other logistics in a few open ports will make China's military supply chains more vulnerable to attack, allowing the United States to further undermine China's operations."
He also made a vicious plan, saying that mining mines in the Pearl River Delta and the Yellow Sea would also disrupt China's maritime logistics and oil imports, thereby disrupting the Chinese economy. "The incident of container ships blocking the Suez Canal in March 2021 proved that blocking maritime hubs has a huge impact on the economy." And "ports in the Pearl River Delta and Yellow Sea regions account for 92% of China's maritime trade volume and more than 55% of all trade volume. If this part of the economy is disrupted, the blow to China will be devastating and will force it to return to the negotiating table solve the problem”.
This paper advocating that "the United States uses mine warfare to block China" won the first prize in the U.S. Navy's mine warfare essay competition, which fully illustrates the U.S. Navy's tendency on this issue.However, as we all know, mine warfare is a double-edged sword. Using mines to try to block China, the "main engine" of the global supply chain, whether it can succeed will be discussed later. This will have a negative impact on the global economy, especially the United States, which mainly relies on overseas countries. For countries that supply goods, the consequences are devastating, and the United States is likely to shoot itself in the foot.
In fact, Duno himself admitted that "China has not vigorously developed mine countermeasures capabilities, partly because the United States does not have a large inventory of mines." He mentioned that the "Quick Strike" series of air-dropped mines are the only type of mines currently in the inventory of the U.S. surface fleet. In fiscal year 2020, the United States spent US$5.183 million on mines, while the US Navy’s equipment procurement budget was US$4.134 billion. In other words, mine procurement only accounted for 0.125% of the US Navy’s annual equipment budget.
In other words, he himself admitted that the current US Navy simply does not have the ability to implement a large-scale mine blockade against China.
On the other hand, as Dunuo mentioned, the People's Liberation Army does not have modern mine countermeasures capabilities. From traditional minehunters to various underwater mine-clearing unmanned submarines, it has been successfully developed. It is just that it is in the technical stage because there is no clear demand. In the reserve stage, there is no large-scale equipment. In fact, these relatively small pieces of equipment are not very difficult to build and can be produced quickly if necessary.
In fact, just when the U.S. Navy proposed the crazy idea of "blocking China with water mines," the People's Liberation Army's minesweeper went to the South China Sea to conduct targeted minesweeping exercises.
According to reports, in mid-June, under the scorching sun, the ship formation , composed of the Luxi ship and the Kaiping ship of a certain minesweeper brigade of the Southern Theater Command Navy, unmoored and weighed anchor, and rushed to a certain sea area to carry out long-range mobile mine countermeasures and specialize in refining the troops. Mine countermeasures capabilities.
"The formation entered the minefield." After receiving the notification from the command post, the ship formation quickly launched the formation mine countermeasures plan and changed the mine countermeasures formation.
"azimuth xx, distance xx, suspected target found." After entering the minefield, the sonar soldiers of the Luxi ship closely watched the echo images, carefully screened and searched, and quickly successfully locked the target position.
The mine-extinguishing device is hoisted
The mine-extinguishing device enters the water
After the Kaiping ship received the target position, it quickly released the mine-extinguishing device and further determined the target attributes through video. After the target was confirmed, the ship formation carried out mine countermeasures operations according to the predetermined plan. The ships cooperated and successfully cleared the mines.
It can be confirmed from news reports that the PLA minesweepers are generally equipped with advanced equipment such as unmanned mine-killing equipment. This is by no means "outdated equipment" as the US Navy believes.
Of course, clearing mines is a time-consuming and challenging task even for advanced mine countermeasures equipment. But the U.S. Navy should think clearly that China not only has advanced mine countermeasures technology, but also has powerful mine warfare capabilities. If the United States dares to play the mine warfare card, don't blame China for "treating others in their own way." The People's Liberation Army can also block U.S. naval ports and important waterways with mines.
