Navy upgrading sea-mine sweeper helicopters: budget cuts could slow development of airborne mine countermeasures.

• Author: Colucci, Frank

The U.S. Navy intends to deploy the first MH-60S Knighthawk helicopters equipped with organic airborne mine countermeasures with carrier battle groups in 2005.

Although the service has not yet designated which carriers will receive the countermine equipment, planners expect forward-deployed helicopter sea combat squadrons with Sikorsky Knighthawks to replace dedicated helicopter mine countermeasures squadrons flying the MH-53E Sea Dragon. It takes 72 hours to airlift the big Sea Dragons and their minesweeping equipment to a combat theater. Multi-mission Knighthawks routinely operate from ships of many types.

"The beauty of the organic construct is that they're already in theater," observes Capt. James Rennie, the mine warfare branch head in the Expeditionary Warfare Directorate of the chief of naval operations.

The Navy will put new detection and neutralization technology on surface ships, submarines and aircraft. Seven new organic mine countermeasure programs are in development, five of which are helicopter based.

Helicopters have swept mines since the mid-1960s. The Sikorsky M-53Es can be airlifted on Air Force C-5 jet transports or self-deployed with aerial refueling.

In February, HM-15 filled six C-5s to deploy four Sea Dragons, 135 people and 200 tons of equipment to Bahrain in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The helicopters used side-looking sonar, noisemakers and magnetic sleds to sweep the shallow Khor Abd Allah waterway feeding the key Iraqi port of Umm Qasr.

Four more MH-53Es deployed soon afterwards to Sicily to provide countermine capability around the Suez Canal. The heavy-lift helicopters also serve as cargo carriers.

Once in-theater, Sea Dragons operate from shore bases, mine warfare command ships or amphibious ships. The three-engine MH-53E can tow the 8,000-pound Mk 105 magnetic/acoustic minesweeping sled through high seas, and it can deploy AQS-14 or 20 sonar bodies and Mk 103 cutter arrays front its rear cargo ramp. The 70,000-pound helicopter sustains 25,000-pound tow tension and absorbs surges near 40,000 pounds in high sea states.

The Sea Dragon nevertheless is costly to operate and dependent on strategic airlift or sealift, said Capt. Peter Wheeler, section head for maritime surveillance.

The 23,000-pound Knighthawk blends the utility airframe of the Army Black Hawk with the maritime features of the Navy Seahawk and shares a common cockpit with the Navy's multi-sensor MH-60R. Sikorsky Aircraft delivered the first production MH-60S configured for mine countermeasures in August 2003. The mine-sweeping Knighthawk incorporates a tow point in the lower fuselage, hookups for a mine countermeasures operator console, and a 400-gallon auxiliary internal fuel tank.

The plan is to field up to 27l Knighthawks to fly vertical replenishment (underway resupply), strike, rescue, medevac and other...