Sea mines are one of the most lethal and effective ways of exercising sea control. Used defensively they can control an opponents freedom of movement, preventing easy access to certain areas by hostile forces, or ensuring that particularly sensitive locations are protected. Offensively they can be used to cause disruption to an opponents plans, bottling up high value assets in ports and anchorages until swept and declared clear of mines. In wartime this may disrupt planning, or impose an unacceptably high cost to push through suspected minefields – a classic example of this was the use of Type 21 Frigates in the Falklands War to conduct recce missions of potential landing areas ahead of the invasion to identify if mines had been laid. The UK has long been a leading player in the field of mine countermeasures, maintaining a large and effective force of ships, and increasingly remote platforms to investigate shipping routes for mines, identify them and eliminate the thre...
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