As the Navy seeks to renew its operating permit for training at sea around Hawaii and California, it is looking to expand mine warfare training here in the islands.
The Navy’s draft environmental impact statement, which is open for community input and will be the subject of public meetings in California and Hawaii next month, lays out a request to install and maintain new ranges to train troops to avoid, disable, destroy or — in some cases — use ocean mines during operations at sea.
The service has a federal operating permit for what it calls the Hawaii-California Training and Testing Study Area that expires in 2025, and it is required to submit an EIS as part of the renewal process.
Proposed areas for mine warfare training — using dummy mines — include the Kalohi Channel between Molokai and Lanai; Pailolo Channel between Molokai and Maui; Alalakeiki Channel between Maui and Kahoolawe; the waters around Kahoolawe; and Kauai’s Pacific Missile Range Facility Training Area and nearby Waiapuaa Bay.
Proposed training areas off Oahu are Barbers Point, Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Ewa Beach and Kaneohe Bay.
“We have a number of different mine warfare systems; some are aviation, some are surface, some are divers, some are unmanned systems, some are submarines,” said Alex Stone, HCTT EIS program manager. “So we have a whole suite of different mine warfare systems that the Navy uses. But for training, what it kind of looks like is placement of mine training shapes either on the sea floor or in the water column. And then, you know, the training is to, you know, locate the mine shapes.”
The “mine shapes” are essentially dummies that service members have to avoid, destroy or otherwise disable during training missions.
According to the draft EIS, proposed mine warfare training in Hawaii includes training Marines and other amphibious fighting forces to avoid or neutralize enemy mines that could be lying in wait as they attempt beach landings and other operations; port defense training to clear mines out of harbors; and submarine warfare training and surface ship training using sonar to detect mines at sea that threaten their forces.
Sonar use has been controversial due to concerns about its potential effects on marine life, with some studies indicating beaked whales are particularly sensitive to the sounds. The draft EIS includes data on sonar — including geographic and seasonal restrictions on its use around Hawaii — and other environmental considerations.
The military has in recent years faced increased scrutiny of its environmental bootprint on the islands and their surrounding waters. Stone said the EIS is updated with “all the best science” on marine mammals, turtles and other marine life.
“And we also update the EIS to reflect our current testing and training requirements.”
While the Navy has already done some mine-related training in Hawaii in the past, especially training submarines to avoid potential mines, most of the Navy’s Pacific mine training has been near California.
“We’ve traditionally done it more in California since that’s where a lot of the mine warfare forces are, but we’re doing it more in Hawaii,” Stone said. “We’re not physically expanding the boundaries of the study area in Hawaii, but we are going to be doing more mine warfare-type training.”
Navy officials declined to discuss why they see the need to increase mine warfare training in the Hawaiian Islands, though Stone said the decision was driven by “real-world requirements.”
Sea mines have been getting a lot more attention in military circles lately with navies around the world already investing more in mine warfare and watching closely as recent conflicts have showcased the disruptive nature of the weapons.
In the Black Sea, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have laid an unknown number of mines as the two nations remain locked in a bloody war that has killed thousands of fighters and civilians, and mines are expected to be an ongoing danger to seafarers in the Black Sea after the conflict.
In an article published in the U.S. Naval Institute’s magazine Proceedings in May, Estonian navy Cmdr. Ott Laanemets argued that since end of the Cold War, many militaries mostly focused on getting rid of old mines found in the ocean and put little thought into a future where they could be used again.
Laanemets wrote that “as a result, NATO has lost its institutional mine warfare knowledge and, more broadly, coastal defense warfare knowledge.”
The increased interest in mine warfare training around Hawaii is likely tied to increased tension in the Pacific as China clashes with neighboring countries over territorial and navigation rights in the South China Sea, a critical ocean waterway where more than a third of all trade travels through. Beijing claims the entire waterway as its exclusive sovereign territory over the objections of its neighbors.
China also has increased military exercises around Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy that Beijing sees as a rogue province. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to bring the island under Beijing’s rule and has reportedly instructed top military leaders to be capable of an invasion by 2027.
Analysts have warned that a breakout of open conflict or the establishment of blockades in the area could upend the global economy.
The Chinese military sees mine warfare as a critical skill set in a Pacific conflict and has been perfecting its use of the weapons for years. In 2018 the Chinese navy conducted a drill with 60 mine-laying and minesweeper ships in the South China Sea to protect various islands, rock formations and reefs where Beijing has asserted territorial claims.
And since at least 2021, the Chinese military has been conducting exercises where bombers have dropped mines into the South China Sea to set up minefields near Hainan Island, the southernmost internationally recognized region of China. Beijing also reportedly has manufactured as many as 80,000 of the weapons and continues to add to that arsenal.
The U.S. Navy has plans to replace its current fleet of 14 minesweepers over the next 15 years, and in November the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington announced a potential $58.1 million contract to General Dynamics to develop the Mining Expendable Delivery Unmanned Submarine Asset system — or MEDUSA — which would allow U.S. submarines to launch sea mines from their torpedo tubes.
As the U.S. military reinvests in ocean mine warfare, some of these new systems could be coming to Hawaii.
