This was genuinely enlightening. I had no idea mines were such a destabilising naval armament. I kind of imagined that anything short of a canal or a single beachhead would be prohibitively expensive to mine. Turns out, the thing that's expensive is getting RID of the mines.
Landmines have done the same thing for land warfare, which is one of the reasons they're outlawed. Mines - whether sea or land - are cheap to produce in mass quantities, and you can never be sure all of them are cleared up after a conflict. This is the insidiousness of indiscriminate dumb weapons. (By dumb I mean as the antithesis of smart weapons - no one has to pull any kind of 'trigger' on them to set them off.)
WW1, the Allies attempt to knock Turkey out of the war with the Gallipoli campaign didn't go so well when British and French battleships tried to blast the forts protecting the Dardanelles Straight. Mines sank 4 battleships, the might of big guns humbled by simple mines.
It's might be the Achilles heel of all large navies since the beginning of mines it had a high casualty on naval ships and was proposed to be banned due to it being a dishonorable way of fighting.
@@NotWhatYouThink Hey! I love your videos but can I ask you if you have air force / army videos? I couldn't find any and could you think about these topics or not? Anyway, I love your maritime videos and I have been watching your videos since 47k, mostly shorts!! :D
@@sterlz6565 You really should be! You almost definitely offended my poor dead grandfather. Everyone knows how sensitive sailors are. They have delicate ears and can't handle cursing, edgy humor and/or dirty jokes. That's just an undisputed fact that is commonly known at the global level.
The US Navy has consistently asked European navies for minehunters to help in operations just cuz they don't have enough/are not well equiped enough, funilly enough belgium and the netherlands has an easier time getting funding for minehunters because the governments are more "peacefully" minded. Also the belgium minehunters and especially the crew are some of the best in the world cuz they hunt mines at our shores that are left from the world wars and the water is very hard to see through so they have loads of experience.
I wouldn't say that the reason was because their governments are more "peaceably minded" but probably more because of necessity since the waters around Belgium and the Netherlands were some of the most heavily mined waterways by both sides in the war. This video hits on a very subtle point and that is that most governments/militaries allocate money to projects out of necessity the US even with the relatively few mine incidents never found it overly necessary to invest in massive anti-mining capability. As for Desert Storm while Iraq's mines were a concern the US operated 4 CVBG's and 2 Naval Bombardment groups in the Persian Gulf with virtual impunity. To say that the US was overwhelmed by Iraqi mine operations in the Persian Gulf is a bit exaggerated. The reality is the most that Iraqi mining operations did was deny direct amphibious landings directly into Kuwait the end result was still the same, the Marines were landed, and Kuwait was still taken from Iraqi control within days. In all only 2 ships out of the 150+ US naval ships operating in the Persian Gulf were taken out of action (neither were lost), both were eventually repaired and returned to service.
Thanks for the episode. You were spot on on ALL accounts. I know, I served in Mine Countermeasures Squadron Two for over two years and it's indicative of the Navy's mercurial attitude toward MCM that MCMRON2 doesn't exist anymore, nor do most of the ships that were part of it.
One of the nastiest mines were laid by the japanese. Go slow over it, nothing. Go fast over it, the pressure spike of the boat triggers the diaphragm and releases/ detonates the mine. If you have gun's bracketing the harbor, no enemy will be moving slowly. Beautifully discriptive and informative video.
Sea Mines are kinda cool, you can drop a sea mine outside an enemy port from an aircraft, it'll sit on the bottom and wait for a specific sonar signature and then detonate under the ship breaking it's back
@@danielaryo5120 Yes, thats true. Russia for example has all kinds of air defenses in Kaliningrad. You would need to deploy the mines by divers, because aircrafts are endangered.
@@abraham2172 if you wanna make sure the safety part,there is an idea i thought of, which is putting a missile with mines on it so you can deploy it safely on range, as long as hostile fighters jet are not present in the area
This will get buried in the comments and that’s fine. My grandpa was an officer in the US Navy during the Korean War on a minesweeper. I always thought it was a boring, unimportant assignment until watching this. He passed 4 years ago tomorrow. Thank you for giving me a new perspective on his life and contribution!
You'll be glad to know this was shown as the top comment for me when I watched the video. o7 (salute emoji) for your grandfather. MCM is a critical part of the Navy, for sure, and this video definitely highlights its importance.
@@wbhokie13 thank you. I am grateful for your reply as a second witness. Strange how perspectives change with time and knowledge. I hope today is good to you.
Mines always has been Achilles heel for modern navy force. For example, in WW2 total number lose of u-boat to mine is equivalent to all other costs combined.
During Desert Shield 1990 while aboard the USS Tripoli doing mine sweeping operations, we found one the hard way. KABOOM. It blew a hole 25 feet in diameter in the starboard bow. We managed to limp back to the Philippines for repairs. But it was really scary as a crack formed and grew down and across the hull as we steamed slowly. Fortunately the hit did not kill any aboard, but did cause some minor injuries due to the rapid upward movement bouncing some of the crew into objects.
*Same story for Indian navy. After the retirement Karwar class minesweeper, the navy havent got a single minesweeper left.* They are trying the aquisition game for 2 decade almost, but various hurdles come up!
@@Streetpfosten yeah he is right. Recently navy released a RFI to lease atleast 3-5 Minesweepers but the problem is other countries are also not havinf them in enough numbers. Talks were going good with Russia in 2016 to get the ToT to locally build the ship's but in somewhere the work got cancelled. Now again talks are going with Russia to lease some Minesweepers directly. But Russia also does not have in adequate numbers. South Korea themselves are making it but they also don't have in good numbers to lease us some. And meanwhile US Navy as we all know are themselves struggling.
You brought back some good memories when I saw my old French Mine Hunter at 6:37 on your video, the Circe M715, now a Turkish Mine Hunter Edremit M261. I found a bunch of WWII mines and bombs during my time with it, it was fun, as the boat was able to run circles on the water due to its sides jet engines, being able to use a sonar that deployed when the boat's hull opens up and lower the sonar down. For 1981, it was like being in a James Bond's movie :) Thank you fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classe_Circ%C3%A9_(chasseur_de_mines)
@@bluemystic5980 What a small world. You can tell your dad, if he remembers, that the best part of being on that boat, was during bad weather, due to the way the sonar works, we had to get back to port. So we never hanged out at sea during bad weather, as bad weather is the worst time of a sailor's life.
@@bluemystic5980 Yes, I think so too. During mine hunting, I had the privilege to look for all suspicious objects at the bottom of the ocean. The sonar, but also the screens we were looking at and the controls were far in advance for its time.
The US built 101 wood hull minesweepers for various navies. We had 65; none of which still exist today. Made of non magnetic materials, wood, plywood, alum, stainless steel, copper, brass, etc. Aluminium block diesel engines of various manufacturers. Expensive to build with skilled woodworkers. I have heard that the original cost to build was $9 M in 1954 dollars. They are also exoensive to maintain. Now are all mine countermeasure instead of sweepers.
I think your channel is one of, if not the best channel on TH-cam. Interesting, well researched topics with great narration and a perfect amount of humor. Goes for pretty much all your videos, shorts or longs. Definition of quality. Love it❤
I really appreciate these longer, more detailed videos. As with the marine training video you did a little while back, I think you've done a great job covering some less examined, but no less significant, subject matter.
I’ve been through the strait of Hormuz a few times, it’s kind of nerve wracking knowing there are islands of a hostile country with anti-ship missile batteries everywhere. I didn’t even think about the possibility of mines. One time through a group of speedboats crossed less than 100m in front of us going from Iran to the UAE. I was told they were smugglers using our ships size to mask them from radar.
I love the simplicity of rigging up old cargo ships with gps guidance and just driving in behind them, given how many old junker ships are waiting to be scrapped it might even be cheaper than a billion dollar navy robot warfare program.
Except for that if the ship does not 'find' any mines, it would be a costly affair, as the ship would travel the whole route with no valuable cargo in it. But if, on the other hand, it does find a mine at the beginning of the trip, it pollutes the local environment with all the fuel in it, and.....how many more of these dummy ships would be traveling along to replace the first? Nah.....the idea might be an option if nothing else viable is available, but I'd rather bet on somewhat less crude, more sophistic approaches.
The picture you used as a thumbnail was the ship I served on in the Navy, the USNS Kilauea. That picture was from when it was sunk by a torpedo from an Australian sub during an exercise several years ago, after it had been decommissioned.
One thing to note is that some mines be it through design or age and/or neglect may not reliably detonate, meaning that even if a dummy ship gets sent through a field and makes it, it is not guaranteed to be safe. More advanced mines may be able to distinguish targets and avoid an old cargo ship.
"Any ship can be a mine sweeper ... once." During Desert Shield / Desert Storm we found that Iraq had laid hundreds of mines of various types. Most numerous were of the "tethered" type, set to float at a depth where fairly large ships could hit them. USS Tripoli, an LPH was supporting a squadron of heavy mine sweeping helicopters when she hit a tethered mine which punched a 20 x 40 foot hole in her hull. Even with this damage she was able to stay on station for a time. USS Princeton, an Aegis cruiser detonated an "influence" mine below and to one side of her. The detonation of this mine triggered a second near the ship's stern. The damage caused by both detonations mission killed the ship, dismounting heavy equipment in her engine rooms and auxiliary machinery spaces. Both ships required extensive repairs. A number of the tethered mines broke free of their tethers and floated free on the surface where they could be spotted and dealt with, often by swimmers attaching small explosive charges to ensure the mines were detonated safely though a good number were sunk or detonated by either rifle or machinegun fire from nearby ships. My ship, a very large assault ship utilized both swimmers or machinegun / rifle fire.
you also have to keep in mind the US Navy is never alone in war they are along side their allies. some of which have more of a defensive approach that counter the “ achilles heal “ of the us navy
True... So M862 is a Dutch mine hunter. The Dutch are good at mine hunting and providing brown-water subs. In an Alliance, you don't need to be great at all roles. Not every team member is the quaterback.
I absolutely love your content. I realized that somehow I haven't subscribed to your channel, despite having had watched all of your videos. I made sure to change that
My first ever deployment was to the Baltic in consort with other NATO vessels for mine clearance and historical ordnance disposal. They're eerie weapons at the best of times. More sophisticated mines use several sensors - like the Italian made Manta which is acoustic/magnetic. It lies in sleep mode until one sensor it tripped, then it wakes up and arms. When the second sensor is tripped, and both are within set parameters, it goes boom. What's more, some mines are designed to be tamper proof, and will detonate if clearance divers attempt to destroy them. What makes mines so effective is the fact that water doesn't really compress, so when a mine goes off it creates a massive air pocket. The initial force of the explosion flexes the hull inwards, which then buckles into the air cavity created by the explosion. Depending on your proximity and position relative to the mine, this can cause massive amounts of structural damage to the hull. The effect is amplified in shallow water, which makes mines perfect for blocking the entrance to harbours and channels. Anyways, this just scratches the surface but great video nonetheless.
My great grandfather served on the minesweeper USS YMS 472 during WWII. He survived the war but the ship went down in a typhoon off the coast of Okinawa around midnight on September 16th-17th, 1945. There were 5 survivors. He was not one of them.
I'm going to be working for the navy and just want to say thanks for making the video. It was very informative. I personally also have had a bias against anti-mine technology because it is not as "exciting" as offensive combat, but you just changed my mind on this subject!
Love the information in your videos. This one is very interesting for me as I am a geophysicist and the technology that I use for peaceful missions was only developed through warfare. It's a sad endictment of the human race as well as a testament to our ingenuity.
i think you should do a video on how not what you think isnt what you think not what you think is. also cool video lol love the videos you make, and so many facts :O
@@NotWhatYouThink makes sense, no way i could have made that simpler also how on earth do you have a video with 23 million views and you have less than a million subscribers' people better subscribe because this doesnt make sense its not scientiffically possible because this is such a good youtube channel
They've been writing about this in "Proceedings" for decades. Also, some of the "newer" mines have no effective countermeasures. The days of the spiked ball on a chain are long gone. The littorals and choke points have always been a concern, the US Navy is slowly, very slowly, getting out of the total "deepwater" mindset.
My great grandfather was on the USS Chandler, which was a destroyer reclassed into a minesweeper ship around 1940. While I'm sure he had many interesting mine stories, his most interesting was when the ship had a delayed departure and missed an ambush on his fleet. They picked some 100 people out of the water.
The navy tries so desperately to find a use for their littoral combat ships.. they should've just built more burkes. Interested to see the constellation class in the future
About time they found a use for those billion dollar Littoral Combat ships. Looks like a perfect fit! The assumption was that we would be fighting a brown water war and would need cheap ships that had interchangeable mission machinery, but things didn't work out that way.
Nice to see Katanpää class ships in your video. They are composite hull, with two engine rooms. And ofc. with Woit schneider... Best ships against mines.
I recognise this vid is over a year old but that ship in the opening spiel bending like a piece of string makes me extremely uncomfortable. Also great vid very interesting.
The USN is well aware of the weakness too, in the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars the US asked the Royal Navy for help in mine clearance because they had Gucci ‘Hunt Class’ mine countermeasure ships which were new at the time
I remember a story my father told me about the trip form Hawaii to the US main land when he was reassigned form Wheeler AFB to Minot AFB Montana and how the family was sent on a ship to San Francisco to take a train to the new station. On the third day of the ship's voyage the ship's captain requested any Army on the ship to come to the bridge for duty. Well Dad Was a gunner in the Air Force and went to see the Captain and find out what was up, and was told the Ship had enter a floating mine field form WW2 and the Captain wanted Army/Airforce men to take the ship rifles, and go to the bow and shot the mines, because Army spent time on the Ranges and the navy did not. So Dad and a few other army was issued M1s and spent time shooting at mines, and hitting the horns of the mines setting them off at a safe distance for the ship. This was 1952 and i was on the ship, don't remember a thing , but mom confirmed the story later on.
I had a vet co-worker who told a great story how he had to get a non-metal cabinet for his minesweeper and all the BS he had to go through. It was like Abbot and Cosello's "Who's on first?"
I grew up on the eastern part of Gotland in the baltic. In my home village there are WW1 mines on display on about four private owned plot's. So I have played and claimed on 3 models of them as a child. Those trigger pins are perfect as handels when you want to sit on top of the biggest one. And the ratio of mines and people in my hometown is about 1:75.
3:07 "three positions of mines" (*comforty music starts) "some like to be on top, some like to be on bottom, some like to be bound to chains and cables, whats their favorite position? Any position they can explode is good position." Don't you think it's not what i think :) Those are some dirty bomb jokes
Gotta say, it's pretty bad ass they have mine hunting drones right on littoral combat ships, so instead of needing a fleet of mine hunting ships, they just have it available on a number of their fleet ships.
I was on the USS Patriot (MCM-7) from 2010 to 2013. The MCMRON and the sweeps are definitely underfunded. I wouldn't say that mines are the Achilles heel of the Navy though. When we did mine sweeping or hunting training operations we excelled. It takes a LONG time to do these ops, and frankly, the Avenger class ships are way overdue for decommission. The LCS were supposed to replace them, but since that project got scrapped, who knows what the future holds for the MN community.
This was genuinely enlightening. I had no idea mines were such a destabilising naval armament. I kind of imagined that anything short of a canal or a single beachhead would be prohibitively expensive to mine. Turns out, the thing that's expensive is getting RID of the mines.
Yeah, they're overpowered defensive weapons
Landmines have done the same thing for land warfare, which is one of the reasons they're outlawed. Mines - whether sea or land - are cheap to produce in mass quantities, and you can never be sure all of them are cleared up after a conflict. This is the insidiousness of indiscriminate dumb weapons. (By dumb I mean as the antithesis of smart weapons - no one has to pull any kind of 'trigger' on them to set them off.)
@@Maria_Erias yeah true, especially the same mines are the bane of the Balkans
@@skyhappy especially the plastic ones, dude. You really need to have good detection equipment to clear out those snarky suckers
WW1, the Allies attempt to knock Turkey out of the war with the Gallipoli campaign didn't go so well when British and French battleships tried to blast the forts protecting the Dardanelles Straight. Mines sank 4 battleships, the might of big guns humbled by simple mines.
"If this video does really well, maybe I could buy one"
It was not what I thought
Smart ass lol
I wonder what he will need it for
He meant coal mine ;)
He's gonna cause ww3
You could say it's not what you think
I actually never thought mines would be the Achilles Heel of the navy, so yeah it really was “Not what you think” from my view
It's might be the Achilles heel of all large navies since the beginning of mines it had a high casualty on naval ships and was proposed to be banned due to it being a dishonorable way of fighting.
@@carlrodalegrado4104 Meanwhile USA spams predators and bombers to kill a single pirate ship.
@@mafia_boss_neto just to be sure.....
@@carlrodalegrado4104 Ok you got a point.
@@mafia_boss_neto whenever I watch a pirate encounter video they just use that one big 30mm gun…
this mans had like 100k subs a month ago, now we almost hitting a million
My guess is the Shorts have been a powerful form of getting the channel out there
lets go were almost there
They know very well the YT algorithm
correct
@@NotWhatYouThink cant wait for 1 mil special
That mine position section was hilarious
Any position where it can explode IS a good position.
Classic.
Kinky mines are the best mines
Plus the music to "set the mood"
@@Osama-Bon-Jovi-01 mines that like it all tied up and stuff ; )
lol was looking for this part of the comment section xD
Gem of a TH-cam channel. Such quality and passion
Thanks Alex! Your words mean a lot to us 😊
@@NotWhatYouThink Hey! I love your videos but can I ask you if you have air force / army videos? I couldn't find any and could you think about these topics or not? Anyway, I love your maritime videos and I have been watching your videos since 47k, mostly shorts!! :D
‘The USN’s weakness is mine counter measures’
The Chinese, Iranian and Russian navy personnel watching: *interesting*
Problem with mine fields is a double edge sword. In case of china it will keep their own ships from passing the same routes especially choke points.
I am sure those governments have better intelligence sources than a You Tube channel.
It's why the us relies on the royal navy as it has the best mine hunting fleet
What if this video is made by Chinese, Iranians, or Russians?! :) Not What You Think!
Darth gonk, what are you doing here?
My grandfather was a proud seaman on a Royal Canadian Navy mine sweeper. He had some awesome stories.
I was a proud semen once
@@sterlz6565 lmaoo
@@sterlz6565 lol
@@mikedrop4421 Sorry xD
@@sterlz6565 You really should be! You almost definitely offended my poor dead grandfather. Everyone knows how sensitive sailors are. They have delicate ears and can't handle cursing, edgy humor and/or dirty jokes. That's just an undisputed fact that is commonly known at the global level.
The US Navy has consistently asked European navies for minehunters to help in operations just cuz they don't have enough/are not well equiped enough, funilly enough belgium and the netherlands has an easier time getting funding for minehunters because the governments are more "peacefully" minded. Also the belgium minehunters and especially the crew are some of the best in the world cuz they hunt mines at our shores that are left from the world wars and the water is very hard to see through so they have loads of experience.
@@mikegrey3835 The US army and marines have like a thousand different ranks of Sargent. Can you beat that?
@@iamyourmom2 it's not a competition, is it
@@iamyourmom2 No one cares #respectfully
I wouldn't say that the reason was because their governments are more "peaceably minded" but probably more because of necessity since the waters around Belgium and the Netherlands were some of the most heavily mined waterways by both sides in the war.
This video hits on a very subtle point and that is that most governments/militaries allocate money to projects out of necessity the US even with the relatively few mine incidents never found it overly necessary to invest in massive anti-mining capability. As for Desert Storm while Iraq's mines were a concern the US operated 4 CVBG's and 2 Naval Bombardment groups in the Persian Gulf with virtual impunity. To say that the US was overwhelmed by Iraqi mine operations in the Persian Gulf is a bit exaggerated. The reality is the most that Iraqi mining operations did was deny direct amphibious landings directly into Kuwait the end result was still the same, the Marines were landed, and Kuwait was still taken from Iraqi control within days. In all only 2 ships out of the 150+ US naval ships operating in the Persian Gulf were taken out of action (neither were lost), both were eventually repaired and returned to service.
You're welcome mate. I'm the chief engineer of the Belgian Mine hunter M923 Narcis and I wouldn't mind going to the states more often.
its a better day when nwyt uploads a video instead of a short
We are hoping to make Fridays even better, but uploading a long video weekly 😉
I thought this was a short until it kept going lol
@@_Bennett Same lol
Thanks for the episode. You were spot on on ALL accounts. I know, I served in Mine Countermeasures Squadron Two for over two years and it's indicative of the Navy's mercurial attitude toward MCM that MCMRON2 doesn't exist anymore, nor do most of the ships that were part of it.
One of the nastiest mines were laid by the japanese. Go slow over it, nothing. Go fast over it, the pressure spike of the boat triggers the diaphragm and releases/ detonates the mine. If you have gun's bracketing the harbor, no enemy will be moving slowly. Beautifully discriptive and informative video.
To try to make sure they hit active warships rather than minesweepers which are likely moving slowly anyway?
Sea Mines are kinda cool, you can drop a sea mine outside an enemy port from an aircraft, it'll sit on the bottom and wait for a specific sonar signature and then detonate under the ship breaking it's back
Or youcould just bomb the enemy port
@@abraham2172 doing this is dangerous because you might lost the bomber in the process
@@danielaryo5120 Yes, thats true. Russia for example has all kinds of air defenses in Kaliningrad. You would need to deploy the mines by divers, because aircrafts are endangered.
@@abraham2172 if you wanna make sure the safety part,there is an idea i thought of, which is putting a missile with mines on it so you can deploy it safely on range, as long as hostile fighters jet are not present in the area
@@danielaryo5120 it would be too expensive to put mine in missile. At that point, just use missile as missile.
3:08 Perfect, if unsubtle, choice of music!
This will get buried in the comments and that’s fine. My grandpa was an officer in the US Navy during the Korean War on a minesweeper. I always thought it was a boring, unimportant assignment until watching this. He passed 4 years ago tomorrow. Thank you for giving me a new perspective on his life and contribution!
You'll be glad to know this was shown as the top comment for me when I watched the video. o7 (salute emoji) for your grandfather. MCM is a critical part of the Navy, for sure, and this video definitely highlights its importance.
@@wbhokie13 thank you. I am grateful for your reply as a second witness. Strange how perspectives change with time and knowledge. I hope today is good to you.
Mines always has been Achilles heel for modern navy force.
For example, in WW2 total number lose of u-boat to mine is equivalent to all other costs combined.
In WW1 too.
Germany lost in WW2 only 35 u-boats to mines
@@wolf310ii Makes sense since they where laying most of them. I love the stories of German U boats hunting freighters really interesting.
@@wolf310ii that's what I thought. Germany had more submarines than everybody else combined.
So that guy must just talking about the US
“Hey timmy what’s that weird looking ball with spikes?”
“Idk but it looks good.”
Top 10 moments before disaster.
no clue
Lol
During Desert Shield 1990 while aboard the USS Tripoli doing mine sweeping operations, we found one the hard way. KABOOM. It blew a hole 25 feet in diameter in the starboard bow. We managed to limp back to the Philippines for repairs. But it was really scary as a crack formed and grew down and across the hull as we steamed slowly. Fortunately the hit did not kill any aboard, but did cause some minor injuries due to the rapid upward movement bouncing some of the crew into objects.
*Same story for Indian navy. After the retirement Karwar class minesweeper, the navy havent got a single minesweeper left.*
They are trying the aquisition game for 2 decade almost, but various hurdles come up!
Are you sure?
@@Streetpfosten yeah he is right. Recently navy released a RFI to lease atleast 3-5 Minesweepers but the problem is other countries are also not havinf them in enough numbers. Talks were going good with Russia in 2016 to get the ToT to locally build the ship's but in somewhere the work got cancelled. Now again talks are going with Russia to lease some Minesweepers directly. But Russia also does not have in adequate numbers. South Korea themselves are making it but they also don't have in good numbers to lease us some. And meanwhile US Navy as we all know are themselves struggling.
@@Streetpfosten what else did you expect from a poor military which still operates Mig 21 .
*has third largest military budget
You know when the good music comes on the video gets good. Oh and the good music is all the music
You brought back some good memories when I saw my old French Mine Hunter at 6:37 on your video, the Circe M715, now a Turkish Mine Hunter Edremit M261. I found a bunch of WWII mines and bombs during my time with it, it was fun, as the boat was able to run circles on the water due to its sides jet engines, being able to use a sonar that deployed when the boat's hull opens up and lower the sonar down. For 1981, it was like being in a James Bond's movie :) Thank you fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classe_Circ%C3%A9_(chasseur_de_mines)
yooooo my dad served on that ship too
@@bluemystic5980 What a small world. You can tell your dad, if he remembers, that the best part of being on that boat, was during bad weather, due to the way the sonar works, we had to get back to port. So we never hanged out at sea during bad weather, as bad weather is the worst time of a sailor's life.
@@practicalshooter6517 yea he remembers that,especially since he used to always say that the ship was too futuristic for its time
@@bluemystic5980 Yes, I think so too. During mine hunting, I had the privilege to look for all suspicious objects at the bottom of the ocean. The sonar, but also the screens we were looking at and the controls were far in advance for its time.
Another reason to love dolphin 🐬
The Faröer strongly disagree
dolphins are gonna detonate naval mines?
"If this video does really well, maybe i could buy one" 😂🤣 comedy gold
You thinks he’s joking? He’ll fucking do it
Hey Ferb, I know what we’re gonna do today
@@Homedespacito i believe it ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°
As a mineman it's awesome to see someone focus on this type of warfare.
very interesting. My dad was on a minesweeper during the Korean conflict. He showed me tools that were brass they used to avoid magnetic mines.
The US built 101 wood hull minesweepers for various navies.
We had 65; none of which still exist today.
Made of non magnetic materials, wood, plywood, alum, stainless steel, copper, brass, etc.
Aluminium block diesel engines of various manufacturers.
Expensive to build with skilled woodworkers.
I have heard that the original cost to build was $9 M in 1954 dollars.
They are also exoensive to maintain.
Now are all mine countermeasure instead of sweepers.
A full length NWYT video including a chart? Sign me up.
I think your channel is one of, if not the best channel on TH-cam. Interesting, well researched topics with great narration and a perfect amount of humor. Goes for pretty much all your videos, shorts or longs. Definition of quality. Love it❤
I really appreciate these longer, more detailed videos. As with the marine training video you did a little while back, I think you've done a great job covering some less examined, but no less significant, subject matter.
I’ve been through the strait of Hormuz a few times, it’s kind of nerve wracking knowing there are islands of a hostile country with anti-ship missile batteries everywhere. I didn’t even think about the possibility of mines. One time through a group of speedboats crossed less than 100m in front of us going from Iran to the UAE. I was told they were smugglers using our ships size to mask them from radar.
I love the simplicity of rigging up old cargo ships with gps guidance and just driving in behind them, given how many old junker ships are waiting to be scrapped it might even be cheaper than a billion dollar navy robot warfare program.
Except for that if the ship does not 'find' any mines, it would be a costly affair, as the ship would travel the whole route with no valuable cargo in it. But if, on the other hand, it does find a mine at the beginning of the trip, it pollutes the local environment with all the fuel in it, and.....how many more of these dummy ships would be traveling along to replace the first?
Nah.....the idea might be an option if nothing else viable is available, but I'd rather bet on somewhat less crude, more sophistic approaches.
The picture you used as a thumbnail was the ship I served on in the Navy, the USNS Kilauea. That picture was from when it was sunk by a torpedo from an Australian sub during an exercise several years ago, after it had been decommissioned.
One thing to note is that some mines be it through design or age and/or neglect may not reliably detonate, meaning that even if a dummy ship gets sent through a field and makes it, it is not guaranteed to be safe. More advanced mines may be able to distinguish targets and avoid an old cargo ship.
"Any ship can be a mine sweeper ... once." During Desert Shield / Desert Storm we found that Iraq had laid hundreds of mines of various types. Most numerous were of the "tethered" type, set to float at a depth where fairly large ships could hit them. USS Tripoli, an LPH was supporting a squadron of heavy mine sweeping helicopters when she hit a tethered mine which punched a 20 x 40 foot hole in her hull. Even with this damage she was able to stay on station for a time.
USS Princeton, an Aegis cruiser detonated an "influence" mine below and to one side of her. The detonation of this mine triggered a second near the ship's stern. The damage caused by both detonations mission killed the ship, dismounting heavy equipment in her engine rooms and auxiliary machinery spaces.
Both ships required extensive repairs. A number of the tethered mines broke free of their tethers and floated free on the surface where they could be spotted and dealt with, often by swimmers attaching small explosive charges to ensure the mines were detonated safely though a good number were sunk or detonated by either rifle or machinegun fire from nearby ships. My ship, a very large assault ship utilized both swimmers or machinegun / rifle fire.
Imagine if they have a free floating mine in the minesweeper game
The game will end within 5 second's
@@aashishmanuelnoronhaforran8947 I thought it already did end that quick
you also have to keep in mind the US Navy is never alone in war they are along side their allies. some of which have more of a defensive approach that counter the “ achilles heal “ of the us navy
True... So M862 is a Dutch mine hunter. The Dutch are good at mine hunting and providing brown-water subs. In an Alliance, you don't need to be great at all roles. Not every team member is the quaterback.
The 2.5-3.5 minute span was pretty nice. Makes me want to watch this channel more often.
3:06 if i could like this video twice i would
"Mine positions: cue the music"
Scriptwriting that out scripts the entire sequel trilogy lol
*Influence mines…?*
As if _influencers_ weren't already bad enough.
I absolutely love your content. I realized that somehow I haven't subscribed to your channel, despite having had watched all of your videos. I made sure to change that
Your sense of humor is golden 😂
Your description of the positions of mines was like a Barry White song gone haywire!!😂 Love the detailed commentary, and the humor.
My first ever deployment was to the Baltic in consort with other NATO vessels for mine clearance and historical ordnance disposal. They're eerie weapons at the best of times. More sophisticated mines use several sensors - like the Italian made Manta which is acoustic/magnetic. It lies in sleep mode until one sensor it tripped, then it wakes up and arms. When the second sensor is tripped, and both are within set parameters, it goes boom. What's more, some mines are designed to be tamper proof, and will detonate if clearance divers attempt to destroy them.
What makes mines so effective is the fact that water doesn't really compress, so when a mine goes off it creates a massive air pocket. The initial force of the explosion flexes the hull inwards, which then buckles into the air cavity created by the explosion. Depending on your proximity and position relative to the mine, this can cause massive amounts of structural damage to the hull. The effect is amplified in shallow water, which makes mines perfect for blocking the entrance to harbours and channels.
Anyways, this just scratches the surface but great video nonetheless.
This is a speciality of the Royal Navy... they have 11 minehunters and are developing autonomous minehunting systems.
USA takes hit from blunt: "What if we made a mine that shoots torpedoes?"
"some like to be on top', 'some like to be on the bottom' and 'some like to be bound in chains'
I realised now
Deploying Mimes is much more save and having invisible walls everywhere has to be an amazing strathegic advantage
My great grandfather served on the minesweeper USS YMS 472 during WWII. He survived the war but the ship went down in a typhoon off the coast of Okinawa around midnight on September 16th-17th, 1945. There were 5 survivors. He was not one of them.
damn, I've been watching this channel since they're still 100k subs, and now they almost at 1 million subs, woah.
Yes, thanks to you and people like you who have been supporting our channel by watching our videos 😊
@@NotWhatYouThink keep it up, mate!
I'm so happy for not going EOD when I attempted to join the Navy.
Hurt Locker Underwater would be my life..
I hope Not What You Think gets 1,000,000 this year. Love your vids!
Hehe thanks. We should be getting there this month 😊
I'm going to be working for the navy and just want to say thanks for making the video. It was very informative. I personally also have had a bias against anti-mine technology because it is not as "exciting" as offensive combat, but you just changed my mind on this subject!
I like that text "Not you what think"
Love the information in your videos. This one is very interesting for me as I am a geophysicist and the technology that I use for peaceful missions was only developed through warfare. It's a sad endictment of the human race as well as a testament to our ingenuity.
i think you should do a video on how not what you think isnt what you think not what you think is. also cool video lol
love the videos you make, and so many facts :O
I had to read it twice, but now I follow!
@@NotWhatYouThink makes sense, no way i could have made that simpler
also how on earth do you have a video with 23 million views and you have less than a million subscribers'
people better subscribe because this doesnt make sense
its not scientiffically possible
because this is such a good youtube channel
for real pick read more to see the reason
God I love this channel, military crack it is. Your voiceover work is so good with some comedy added and its some of the best on TH-cam.
That's why the Benelux has the biggest and most effective minesweeper/minehunter fleet in Europe!
Not what you think wants to buy a sea mine
FBI: i dont think so
3:08 oh that's some fifty shades of grey vibes there
We got those mines to sign NDAs beforehand 🤓
Damn he finally made longer videos thank you thank you thank you
They've been writing about this in "Proceedings" for decades. Also, some of the "newer" mines have no effective countermeasures. The days of the spiked ball on a chain are long gone. The littorals and choke points have always been a concern, the US Navy is slowly, very slowly, getting out of the total "deepwater" mindset.
My great grandfather was on the USS Chandler, which was a destroyer reclassed into a minesweeper ship around 1940. While I'm sure he had many interesting mine stories, his most interesting was when the ship had a delayed departure and missed an ambush on his fleet. They picked some 100 people out of the water.
*Damn the torpedoes full speed ahead.*
I really like the 10 minute ish videos please do more
Oh man, dolphin team up for mine sweeping is just epic
interesting video! well done! and big thanks for including metric units! you are the best! 😎
"some like to be on the bottom and some like to be bound by chains and cables" never did i think i would relate to a naval mine
very impressive how fast this channel is growing
The navy tries so desperately to find a use for their littoral combat ships.. they should've just built more burkes. Interested to see the constellation class in the future
LCS was always supposed to be a MCM ship.
The navy should sell those LCS. They are useless for defense but there are some wealthy civilians who would love to get their hands on em
Sea Mine: Exists
Hydrophone operator: Imma pretend I didn’t see that
A friend was assigned to a mine sweeper in the 70’s. The Barny. Made of wood.
**Some mines like to be bound by chains**
Oooohhhh kinky I see.
About time they found a use for those billion dollar Littoral Combat ships. Looks like a perfect fit! The assumption was that we would be fighting a brown water war and would need cheap ships that had interchangeable mission machinery, but things didn't work out that way.
Nice to see Katanpää class ships in your video. They are composite hull, with two engine rooms. And ofc. with Woit schneider...
Best ships against mines.
I recognise this vid is over a year old but that ship in the opening spiel bending like a piece of string makes me extremely uncomfortable. Also great vid very interesting.
Let's share around this video so that NWYT can buy himself a mine
😁🙏🏼😅
The USN is well aware of the weakness too, in the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars the US asked the Royal Navy for help in mine clearance because they had Gucci ‘Hunt Class’ mine countermeasure ships which were new at the time
"Littoral combat ships are the future of minesweepers." Well that aged like milk.
I remember a story my father told me about the trip form Hawaii to the US main land when he was reassigned form Wheeler AFB to Minot AFB Montana and how the family was sent on a ship to San Francisco to take a train to the new station. On the third day of the ship's voyage the ship's captain requested any Army on the ship to come to the bridge for duty. Well Dad Was a gunner in the Air Force and went to see the Captain and find out what was up, and was told the Ship had enter a floating mine field form WW2 and the Captain wanted Army/Airforce men to take the ship rifles, and go to the bow and shot the mines, because Army spent time on the Ranges and the navy did not.
So Dad and a few other army was issued M1s and spent time shooting at mines, and hitting the horns of the mines setting them off at a safe distance for the ship. This was 1952 and i was on the ship, don't remember a thing , but mom confirmed the story later on.
Minot AFB North Dakota
Been appreciating your videos. Looks like the Algorithm has smiled upon you
Wow the new Minesweeper update looks epic
An excellent piece. You got right to the point, didn't waste words, and provided interesting information.
this took "minesweeper" to a new level
Nothing better than old school mines
I had a vet co-worker who told a great story how he had to get a non-metal cabinet for his minesweeper and all the BS he had to go through. It was like Abbot and Cosello's "Who's on first?"
Leave it to the Navy to be able to reliably find concealed sea mines, but completely miss a Reef that was most likely on their maps.
I grew up on the eastern part of Gotland in the baltic. In my home village there are WW1 mines on display on about four private owned plot's. So I have played and claimed on 3 models of them as a child.
Those trigger pins are perfect as handels when you want to sit on top of the biggest one.
And the ratio of mines and people in my hometown is about 1:75.
Ay that one at 4:05 looks like a home made mine, that's definitely a propane tank
Minesweeper misses a mine
US navy looses a boat
The general: whose fault was that
Minesweeper: mine
Your content is top tier! My friend is joining the navy after I sent her videos from your channel
Wow! That’s really cool to hear!
3:07 "three positions of mines" (*comforty music starts)
"some like to be on top, some like to be on bottom, some like to be bound to chains and cables, whats their favorite position? Any position they can explode is good position." Don't you think it's not what i think :)
Those are some dirty bomb jokes
Gotta say, it's pretty bad ass they have mine hunting drones right on littoral combat ships, so instead of needing a fleet of mine hunting ships, they just have it available on a number of their fleet ships.
Just a bit of trivia, and I understand this video keeping them separate, but a torpedo is a self-propelled mine.
I was on the USS Patriot (MCM-7) from 2010 to 2013. The MCMRON and the sweeps are definitely underfunded. I wouldn't say that mines are the Achilles heel of the Navy though. When we did mine sweeping or hunting training operations we excelled. It takes a LONG time to do these ops, and frankly, the Avenger class ships are way overdue for decommission. The LCS were supposed to replace them, but since that project got scrapped, who knows what the future holds for the MN community.
Ah my many years of minesweeper has finally come to use
3:10 i love that he had to give context😂😂
US : how do we clear the sea mines more effectively?
some guy : nature submarine
US : what?
some guy : nature submarine
You should look into the new hammerhead Seamine, it shoots a homing torpedo. Wild stuff
John (Duke) Wayne bought a surplus WW2 minesweeper and used it for deep sea fishing and as a party boat.
When my ship patrolled the coast of SouthVietnam in 1965 we had a minesweeper assigned to our operations group.