Military - Articles

War in Iraq: Sea Mines and Mammals

Sir Galahad, the first British supply ship, carrying aid to Iraq (650 tonnes of food, medicine and fresh water) finally docked at the southern port of Umm Qasr. A minesweeper, few patrol boats, helicopters and hovercraft escorted the vessel indicating that the shipping channel was still not safe for business. The ship had been delayed by the discovery of mines in the channel raising fears that humanitarian aid of vital food and water supplies will not be able to reach the Iraqi people in time and increase the chances of a crisis.

Earlier, a Kuwaiti gunboat had challenged a flotilla of about two-dozen Iraqi dhows, suspected of laying mines off the mouth of the river Khawr al-Zubayr, south of the port of Umm Qasr. The US Fifth Fleet’s Maritime Liaison Office (MARLO) based in Bahrain had alerted merchant shipping that Iraqi naval units/ sympathizers might lay mines or engage in suicide attacks in Gulf waters during the war. This followed the attempted suicide mission by a cargo vessel that came within 800 yards of RFA Sir Bedivere, a coalition fleet auxiliary. The standoff ended after USS Ardent chased the suspected vessel.

Although, a large proportion of the Iraqi navy was destroyed during the 1991 Gulf War, a handful of patrol craft (these have now been destroyed by the coalition forces) were in service along with some 150 small boats. The MARLO advisory also urged mariners to alert the coalition navies of any suspicious activity by smaller vessels or any vessel being forced to lay mines by the Iraqi military. These fears were proved right with the discovery of three tugboats carrying “contactâ€Â� and “influenceâ€Â� sea mines;  68 mines were found on one tugboat, 50 on a second and 19 on a third boat. The former float on or near the water's surface and explode when struck and the latter detonate by acoustic signatures produced by ships passing nearby.

The mere threat of mine is sufficient to deter any vessel from entering a shipping channel.  Mines laid in the Red Sea in 1984 and the Persian Gulf in 1987 clearly demonstrates the lethality of mines. Several ships were damaged and it needed an international effort to clean the area. 18 merchant ships were damaged in the Red Sea in July 1984 due to mines laid “as an expression of Libyan indignation with Egypt.â€Â� During the 1991 Gulf War, USS Princeton and USS Tripoli struck sea mines that cost the US $21.6 million while the cost of the mines was only US $ 11,500.  The sea mines therefore offer the cheapest form of asymmetric warfare.

Meanwhile, the US has deployed specially trained mammals in the Persian Gulf to protect coalition warships against attacks from underwater saboteurs and mines. Dolphins have been trained to swim close to mines and place a marker, minimizing any danger to them. Similarly, Sea Lions are tasked with patrolling the harbours. These are intelligent animals, have sophisticated sonar systems that can detect movement and possess fine directional underwater hearing that works well even in low light visibility. The mammals have been trained at the US Navy's Marine Mammal Programme in San Diego, California.

Mammals are no strangers to combat, having been used by several countries in war. Since the days of Hannibal crossing the Alps, an exotic array of animals like bats, chicken, pigeons, camels have been pressed into military action. Among the mammals, dolphins, Beluga whales, walruses, and sea lions have been trained in locating mines or placing mines on enemy shipping and finding lost torpedoes. During the Vietnam War, the US Navy used dolphins to patrol the water off Vietnam. Coalition troops were on alert for attacks by kamikaze camels strapped with explosives during the recent war in Afghanistan; the mujahideens had employed this tactic against Soviet troops. Reportedly, the US army plans to use chickens atop Humvees to provide early warning against gas attacks.

Similarly, the Soviets had trained dolphins to carry out kamikaze missions. Explosives were strapped to their backs and were trained to blow up enemy submarines. They could distinguish between Soviet and foreign submarines by the sounds of their propellers and were taught to carry mines to the hulls of enemy vessels to blow themselves up. One estimate notes that a total of about 2,000 animals had died in operations. After the end of the Cold War these animals were housed in an aquarium in Sevastopol, Black Sea. Lack of funds for feed and medicine forced agencies to sell 27 animals to Iran (sea lions, seals, walruses and three cormorants). Their fate is not known.