Mine Development

Mine Development under the Navy's Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) Budget Activity 1319, aims to develop naval mine systems to establish and maintain control of essential sea areas. The program focuses on developing and deploying improvements to the portfolio of naval mines, with specific lines of effort targeting offensive, defensive, and protective maritime mining across all water depths and phases of conflict. Major objectives include the development of maritime mines to enable safe standoff distances, integration with aircraft and undersea unmanned systems, adding command and control of deployed minefields, and improving target detection against modern threat vessels.

The program also supports the development of the Long Range Aerial Delivered Maritime Mine (LRADMM) and sensor upgrades for the Hammerhead system to prosecute additional targets. Additionally, it addresses capabilities required by a Joint Emergent Operational Needs Statement (JEONS), such as Quickstrike ER testing and Clandestine Delivered Mine MK68 (CDM MOD 0) development. The program's goals align with the Navy's mission to deny sea areas or inflict damage on adversary shipping to hinder, disrupt, and deny adversary operations while reducing the adversary's threat to friendly forces and preserving access. The budget allocation supports various hardware and software development efforts through contracts with different performing activities across multiple locations.