The Australian defense ministry has issued a request for information (RfI) regarding the acquisition of a new naval mine capability for the Royal Australian Navy.
Australia first announced its intention to reintroduce a mine warfare capability for its navy after years without the ability to conduct offensive mining operations in its 2020 strategic update.
The publicly released Australian Government Force Structure Plan 2020 (FSP 20) commits the ADF to support further advanced operations throughout the ADF’s strategic operating environment, and improve its capability options.
One of these options is the development of mine warfare capabilities to secure Australia’s maritime approaches, focused on modern, smart sea mine systems.
SEA2000 ADF Maritime Mining is scoped to deliver a maritime mining capability to deploy sea mines from sub-surface, surface and air platforms.
According to the RfI, the project is in the early phase of development and the project team is seeking to acquire a thorough understanding of the options available in the approval phase of the project.
The RfI will seek to will seek to identify the available types of mines and methods of deployment from proven maritime mine manufacturers, their cost and the potential for sovereign maintenance and sustainment systems.
The first part of SEA2000 will require an immediate maritime mining capability to be followed by other deliberate approaches to market to build an enduring maritime mining capability.
