Anglo-US Crusader/Hammerhead Sea Mine

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

Briefly mentioned here, I remember stumbling across this system on another, now defunct, website covering US sea mines. If I remember, the project dated from the 1970s, and included two variants of rising mine, one based upon a small torpedo, the other rocket-propelled.

 

[TomS]

Briefly mentioned here, I remember stumbling across this system on another, now defunct, website covering US sea mines. If I remember, the project dated from the 1970s, and included two variants of rising mine, one based upon a small torpedo, the other rocket-propelled.

Hammerhead must recycle. Here's a reference to a recent (2020) USN sea mine proposal called Hammerhead for a bottom tethered rising torpedo.

With Hammerhead Mine, U.S. Navy Plots New Style Of Warfare To Tip Balance In South China Sea

A new clandestinely placed autonomous underwater mine that fires a torpedo could be a key weapon in countering the threat of Chinese submarines in their home waters.

www.forbes.com

 

[TomS]

What you describe might be the Propelled Rapid Ascent Mine (PRAM), which was being developed in the mid to late 1970s but seems to have disappeared. It was a rocket mine to be fielded alongside CAPTOR, which had a torpedo payload.

Hearings on Military Posture and H.R. 5068 [H.R. 5970], Department of Defense Authorization for Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1978, Before the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session

books.google.com

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

What you describe might be the Propelled Rapid Ascent Mine (PRAM), which was being developed in the mid to late 1970s but seems to have disappeared. It was a rocket mine to be fielded alongside CAPTOR, which had a torpedo payload.

Hearings on Military Posture and H.R. 5068 [H.R. 5970], Department of Defense Authorization for Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1978, Before the Committee on Armed Services, House of Representatives, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session

books.google.com

If I remember the contents of the defunct website correctly, Crusader/Hammerhead was supposed to post-date the EX-68 PRAM. Given PRAM was cancelled in 1978, that might make Crusader/Hammerhead an 80s project, that is if my recollection is correct (it may not be).

 

[TomS]

Interesting. I might have some sources for that timeframe. Let me go look this week.

 

[Hood]

This entry from Janes Weapon Systems 1982-83 might help.

 

[TomS]

PRAM was cancelled in September 1978.

This Naval Aviation News from 1986 mentions that there was a US requirement for an Advanced Sea Mine that lined up with a similar UK requirement. It also mentions that the UK had actually funded two competing concept designs, which sure sounds like Crusader and Hammerhead.

The Voice of Naval Aviation https://www.history.navy.mil/conten...l Aviation News/1980/pdf/so86.pdf?shem=ssusxt

 

[TomS]

And here we go, details from Friedman's World Naval Weapon Systems (1989).

Crusader and Hammerhead were the two UK proposed weapons for the joint UK-US Continental Shelf Mine program, designed to operate in shallower water than the deep-water CAPTOR and to engage submarines and surface ships. There was a 1984 competition with candidates from:

• Marconi -- a CAPTOR-style mine based on Stingray
• BAe -- rocket-propelled mine like PRAM
• Ferranti -- a cluster of 10-12 rockets fired from a box launcher in a pre-determined pattern

The two surviving candidates were:

• Crusader (BAe/Plessey/Honeywell): apparently a buoyancy-propelled mine capable of operating beyond the continental shelf
• Hammerhead (Marconi/Loral): a torpedo-based mine, payload unclear (possibly still Stingray?)

The program was cancelled by the UK MoD in January 1989, after the USN cut it from its provisional US FY90 budget.

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

Thanks for the information, looks like a number of interesting concepts were considered.

 

[TomS]

Thanks for the information, looks like a number of interesting concepts were considered.

The complete failure of USN mine procurement from the 1970s to the 2010s or so is really sad. So many missed opportunities.

 

[TinWing]

The complete failure of USN mine procurement from the 1970s to the 2010s or so is really sad. So many missed opportunities.

There really hasn’t been an operational instance for the USN since Haiphong harbor in 1972. Mine warfare was best left to the NATO countries on the Baltic and North Sea.

 

[Scott Kenny]

There really hasn’t been an operational instance for the USN since Haiphong harbor in 1972. Mine warfare was best left to the NATO countries on the Baltic and North Sea.

Central America, 1980s.

 

[TomS]

There really hasn’t been an operational instance for the USN since Haiphong harbor in 1972. Mine warfare was best left to the NATO countries on the Baltic and North Sea.

The USN mined the Umm Qasr waterway during Operation Desert Storm (and lost an A-6 in the process).

And we should have been better prepared to do it in the interim.

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

Mines are so cheap relative to the effect they can have, it's such a pity that they're always a poor relation amongst the other competing priorities within naval procurement, and that it seems all the institutional memory on how to use them disappears in peacetime.

 

[NMaude]

IIRC naval mines proved very effective in interdicting Japanese coastal shipping (Japan was heavily dependent on coastal shipping during the War) during WWII.

 

[jsport]

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2023/december/mine-warfare-could-be-key?mc_cid=afd2d08646&mc_eid=8febad09e3

 

[Josh_TN]

My understanding is that "Hammerhead" is the name of the current effort to create a new Mk 60 CAPTOR type anti submarine mine. I do not think the name "Hammerhead" was associated with any previous US mining efforts, but if so let me know which historical project that name was associated with. The new mine should have already completed its initial design phase by now; it looks like it might be prototyped by 2026:

General Dynamics Mission Systems to Design, Test and Deliver Hammerhead Prototype - General Dynamics Mission Systems

General Dynamics announced that it was awarded a contract by the U.S. Navy to design, test and deliver the Hammerhead Encapsulated Effector system and produce prototype articles and other related equipment. Hammerhead is a moored anti-submarine mine delivering new capabilities and effects for...

gdmissionsystems.com

 

[A Tentative Fleet Plan]

I do not think the name "Hammerhead" was associated with any previous US mining efforts

See post #8

 

[Josh_TN]

See post #8

Ah, thanks, I read the thread too fast. So a non US system had the name.

 

[TomS]

Ah, thanks, I read the thread too fast. So a non US system had the name.

Non-US but proposed for a joint US-UK program.