Abstracts Biological Sciences

Assessment of Shallow Water Influence Minesweeping System (SWIMS) implementation utilizing CH-60

by James Karlyle Edwards

The Sikorsky H-60 airframe is planned to be the only rotary wing aircraft in the Navy's inventory through 2015. The CH-60 variant will support the Airborne Mine Countermeasures (AMCM) mission, replacing the current MH-53E and it's MK-106 towed influence system. The CH-60's towing capacity will be significantly less than the MH-53E, so new equipment, designated the Shallow Water Influence Mine Sweeping (SWIMS) system. Capability of SWIMS is expected to be significantly less than that of the MK-106 system. Smaller size and aircraft commonality will enable SWIMS to deploy on most surface combatants, providing forward presence and reducing employment time of an AMCM suite into a Mine Danger Area (MDA). The purpose of this study is to analyze the feasibility of, and the trade off possibilities for, different types of AMCM operations using the CH-60 and SWIMS system. Given the planned limited capabilities of the CH-60/ SWIMS system relative to the MH-53E/MK-106 system, we explore methods for determining; (1) how to operate CH-60/SWIMS using proposed new employment methods, (2) how many CH-60's will be required to clear a specified MDA, and (3) how to minimize the operational impact to the ships involved.