Project 12700 Minesweeper thread

Podlodka77 wrote:
Morning, bro...
And 2 more launched + 2 more under construction..

How do you do
There is 4 in construction phases and named, and if I am not mistaken even more are ordered - some info flashed in front of my eyes that 16 pcs are firmed at the moment. I will try to remind myself where I saw that.

Trawling
But jokes aside, the Soviet navy always put a lot of attention to mine warfare. Having dozens of trawlers was part of that strategy. Seems that not much changed, it is a part of the area denial strategy I guess.
New trawlers can be used for reconnaissance, bottom mapping, diversion or antidiversion duties, guarding under sea infrastructure etc.

...got q dumb question, but what are the full range of the capabilities of these mine sweepers? I tried reading up about them but they clearly seem very important to the Russian navy. What kind of capabilities do they have that make them so important?

In very simple terms a sea mine is like a land mine... cheap and easy to produce and if you are at a disadvantage to your enemy you can kill their mobility and speed by dropping them all over the place... of course you also limit your own mobility at the same time if you are not properly equipped to deal with mines too.

But then even if neither side uses mines (incredibly rare though), there will be unexploded ordinance to deal with everywhere anyway.

In combat using mines in specific places allows you to limit the directions the enemy can approach your positions... you can channel them into areas you want them to go and punish them for going any other way.

Obviously sea mines are more of a problem because they can move with currents and tides and all mines have the problem that they don't care about friend or foe and they don't stop fighting just because the two or more sides fighting sign some piece of paper.

Needless to say dedicated anti mine ships are not common in most navies, while the locations they will need to be looking for mines will be enormous... when a real war starts you need lots of dedicated vessels to be continuously looking for mines and clearing them, that is around friendly bases and in friendly waters and international waters you want your ships to sail through.

It is critical you have lots of anti mine ships on hand to deal with mines and also enemy divers and perhaps even sea surface drones moving forward... the Russians take this all very very seriously and have large numbers of mine clearing vessels... they have an enormous range of sea mines of various types that can be delivered by ships, by subs, and by aircraft.

They even have a special pressure magnetic fuse that can be fitted to aircraft bombs and carried by bombers and dropped into shallow water near enemy positions and ports... they sink to the sea floor and then wait for a ship to sail past with a suitable magnetic pattern... and boom.

A bomber or transport plane flying low and slow over any waterway could be laying mines, which might be FAB-1,500 or FAB-3000 bombs sitting in 100m of water waiting to blow up under an unsuspecting ship or sub sailing through that area...

Russia has a lot of mine sweepers and so do the Chinese, but the rest of the world not so many...

https://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-mine-warfare-craft.php

Rather extensive coverings on the mast of that vessel... I wonder if they have added radar arrays to it... perhaps for new self defence missile systems like an improved TOR system that uses AESA radar arrays for search and tracking?

Mounted on a ships mast would actually make them rather more effective and able to spot low flying targets at greater distances...

It would also give the ships it is installed on much better situational awareness of the airspace around the ship.

Or maybe they have added EO mounts for spotting mines and threats including air and sea surface threats... or hopefully both...