500 lb. Moored Mine

 

"The moored mine is the backbone of modern mine systems. They are deployed where water is too deep for bottom mines. They can use several kinds of instruments to detect an enemy, usually a combination of acoustic, magnetic and pressure sensors, or more sophisticated optical shadows or electro potential sensors. These cost many times more than contact mines. Moored mines are effective against most kinds of ships. As they are cheaper than other anti-ship weapons they can be deployed in large numbers, making them useful area denial or "channelizing" weapons. Moored mines usually have lifetimes of more than 10 years, and some almost unlimited. These mines usually weigh 200 kg (440 lb), including 80 kg (175 lb) of explosives (hexatonal). In excess of 150 kg (330 lb) of explosives the mine becomes inefficient, as it becomes too large to handle and the extra explosives add little to the mine's effectiveness." --Wikipedia

 

This is simply a generic mine, cheaper and less sophisticated than a Mk 60 Captor, but still effective against ships.

 

ANW

HUD 4 v1.1 b10

Won't be added until mines are effectively handled in Harpoon. Captor was added since it is easy to overcome "mine issue" due to the "torpedo" being used as a "mine".

 

FG

Hi Francois, I've been away from H3:ANW for a while now... can you please share what is wrong with mines? Is there any hope for a fix in the 3.11 update?

 

thank you

-E

Mines are not operational at the moment, no improvement seen in 3.11, maybe in the future. As for now, only mine present in HUD4 is the Mk60 Captor, since it's not a real mine.

 

FG

Thank you for the clarification Francois, let's hope they implement mine warfare correctly in the near future.

While it would not be quite as satisfying, one could simulate mine warfare with the Station victory condition...if a mine-laying ship reaches and is on station for a certain amount of time, it has placed its mines and "wins." If a minesweeper reaches and is on station for a certain amount of time, it has swept the area and "wins." Protecting mine warfare ships from air attack, patrol boats, etc. while they are on station could form the basis of some good scenarios.

Another option, which I have already requested, is to add other rocket/torpedo-type mines...the Russians and the Chinese have both built them, and I believe the Chinese have sold some to Iran. It would be conceivable that Russia or China might sell some other allies, too. They could certainly ruin someone's day! With any luck, they will end up in the HUD-4 eventually.

Mines obey a particular rule in Harpoon, they're considered as "weapons", not a "platform type" as aircrafts/ships or land structures are. Therefore, as long as there's no coding behaviour in Harpoon, mine warfare will be a matter of tweeks such as Mark brightly explained it.

 

FG

These are both really neat ideas... there is an inlet to the west of Venezuela, the Maracaibo lake (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/363734/Lake-Maracaibo), where tanker ships transit on a daily basis both to and from the Caribbean, carrying crude oil which is the main export product (95% of exports and the 20% of the GDP as of 2011 I think). Problem is these ships must sail waters that are under a silent but always present threat by our neighbor, Colombia, which claims ownership of the "Gulf of Venezuela" (both countries where close to a skirmish back in 1987, if you can read spanish (maybe using google translate) you can get more info here: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_de_la_Corbeta_Caldas).

 

As a former consultant for the venezuelan navy, I have participated in some interesting situations that can result in interesting scenarios, and mine warfare is an attractive topic considering the geography of that particular zone. So your ideas just helped me develop some of my own... I'll have to sit down and try to implement them (thank God holidays are coming soon!). In addition, these waters are very shallow, meaning that acoustic conditions there are a nightmare for ASW and minehunting operations.

 

Thanks again for the interesting tips.

Cheers

-E