#Mine swept code#
#Mine swept plus#

* At 8:53 we enter the mission editor and deactivate the mission’s '1/3rd rule'. This is related to our under-development aircraft damage model. One factor we would like to improve here is to make the damage more graceful so that the helo is not destroyed by the smallest fragment damage but has a chance to limp back. This is not a bug helicopters occasionaly do get damaged or lost while detonating nearby mines (the USN lost two helicopters this way while clearing the Haiphong harbor in 1973). * Midway through the operation one of the helicopters is destroyed by fragments from a surface mine detonation. Command does not currently support this feature but probably will at some point in the future. Normally the ships would withdraw after a certain damage threshold and return to a tender or naval base for repairs, rotating with others. Even the best MCM ships are vulnerable to this during the mine-clearing operations off Inchon in 1950, multiple MCM ships and destroyers were lost. (MCM vessels are designed with the assumption that they will suffer multiple proximity blasts during their lifetime, much more intense than for frontline warships). * Despite these measures however, all 3 ships progressively suffer blast damage. This enables them to manouver much closer to mines than other ship types in order to sweep or hunt them. Smaller ships have a smaller keep-out distance and MCM ships have a big advantage thanks to their special signature-suppression techniques (non-metallic hulls & structure, enhanced degaussing, low-noise motors, reduced pressure etc.). The 'minimum safe distance' is estimated based on the ship’s own signature characteristics (magnetic, noise etc.) and whatever information is available about the mine contact.

#Mine swept code#

* All ships (including MCMs) try as much as possible to avoid passing too close to detected mines (the pathfinding code takes known mines into account when plotting a course).

As is obvious in this example, ships and helicopters are most effective in this mission when cooperating to maximize their strengths. Ships on the other hand have the sensors suitable for detecting mines en-masse but are less effective at clearing them, and more vulnerable. * Helicopters are much more efficient than ships at sweeps against detected mines thanks to their speed (and reduced vulnerability) but are less effective at detecting the mines in the first place. If no mines are detected the units will still patrol inside the designated area, aiming to set-off undetected mines (hopefully without being damaged by them). (The odds of this happening depend on the tech levels of the sweep gear and the mine being prodded an old mine is much easier to sweep with modern equipment and vice-versa). Once one or more mines are detected, the vessels manouver in such a way as to place the target mine inside this coverage area in order to trigger it. * Zooming on the MCM ships and helicopters shows their mine-sweep coverage (the blue triangles). This is going to take a while, so time acceleration is widely used. Then we sit back and watch them get to work: The ships activate their HF sonars and plot a course towards the area, and some of the helicopters begin their air ops procedures for taking off. Using the created reference points, we create a new mine-clearing mission and assign all available assets to it, enabling the 1/3rd rule (more on this later). Switching back to normal view, we define an area for the safe transit corridor we want to open. Normally Blue does not have access to this information. The minefield looks pretty thick (around 3000-4000 mines).

#Mine swept plus#

Blue has access to two Avenger-class and one Osprey-class mine-warfare ships (MCM), plus a dozen MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters at nearby airfield 'Base 1', fitted with the Mk105 mine-countermeasures equipment.įirst, we take a peek 'behind the scenes' by briefly enabling 'God’s Eye' view, to see what Blue is up against. So once more side 'Red' has created a mine barrier on the entrance to the straits of Hormuz, and side 'Blue' has to neutralize it by clearing at least part of it to create a safe transit lane.