22 October 2015

News Story: The sea mine, China's most effective weapon for A2/AD strategy

To prevent the United States from interfering its operation to take over Taiwan, China's People's Liberation Army is likely to launch a successful anti-access and area denial strategy with sea mines as Associate Professor Lyle J. Goldstein of US Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute said in his article written for the National Interest magazine on Oct. 14.

The parachute-retarded influence sea mine with magnetic or acoustic exploders was one of two systems other than the B-29 strategic bomber used by the US military to successfully destroy the Japanese economy and morale during in Second World War. Later on, North Korea prevented the US from making an efficient invasion at Wonsan in the Korean War using sea mines. During the Persian Gulf War, two US warships were seriously damaged by Iraqi sea mines as well.

One thing American defense analyses have always ignore is that sea mines remain a core tenet of the Chinese naval war-fighting doctrine, according to Goldstein. Sea mines have been deployed since ancient times and may not been as mesmerizing as Beijing's more advanced anti-ship ballistic missiles, supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles and hypersonic weapons.

Read the full story at Want China Times