Focus Is on ‘The Threat’ at Underwater Warfare Confab

“The Threat,” as some were calling it, was on everybody’s mind.

So the troops from the world of undersea defense were holed up Tuesday at the Holiday Inn Embarcadero, hashing out the high-tech nitty-gritty of such tantalizing topics as anti-submarine warfare, route surveillance and “intruder detection.”

But events in the Persian Gulf had created a new urgency for the first Under Seas Defense Conference and Exposition: Suddenly, the U.S. Navy and defense contractors were searching for new underwater methods of detecting and disposing of explosive mines.

“The real hook now is mine countermeasures,” said Deam Given, editor of Subnotes, a journal of matters submarine. “ . . . It’s got people’s attention. As the French said in their presentation, ‘Every ship is a mine-hunter, once.’ ”

As many as 2,000 developers, manufacturers and users of advanced gizmos for undersea defense were expected to turn out for the four-day confab, which its organizers hoped would improve communication between military buyers and private suppliers.

In attendance Tuesday were firms from throughout the United States, France, Canada, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Organizers said there were also representatives of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps, and the navies of Norway, Canada, Australia and West Germany.

The exotic subject of the conference had also caught the eye of the U.S. Defense Investigative Service. Organizers said officials from the agency had questioned the wisdom of putting new technology on display at an unclassified conference.

“I would bet plenty of money that within 20 miles of this building there is a Soviet submarine,” Bo Janzon of the Swedish National Defense Research Institute confided to the crowd Tuesday. “And I would be very surprised if they had not been in San Diego Bay.”

On show for the first time was Honeywell’s new, unmanned Mine Neutralization System (MNS), dispatched from mine-sweepers to hunt down mines. The system uses sonar and robotics to find mines and cut their cables, allowing them to surface and be destroyed.

Other novelties included a new Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) and a Mobile Undersea System Test Laboratory (MUST). There were discussions and exhibits of ROVs, ARMS, ASW, MCMs, QUILS, SDVs and even a PXL-3-CCP.

Janzon, whose agency is responsible for Sweden’s basic and applied defense research, spoke at length about his country’s problems with “foreign underwater activities” and intrusions in the archipelagos off Sweden’s extensive coastline.

As a result of periscope sightings and longtime suspicions of intrusions by an “adversary” Janzon declined to name, Janzon’s agency has embarked upon a three-year program to develop anti-submarine warfare tactics and deter intruders in the future.

Janzon said the program has involved all the traditional weapons, including depth charges, anti-submarine grenades, rockets, torpedoes and mines. Also included is research into such things as the undersea environment, sensor technology and wave propagation.

Even so, Janzon conceded, “The probability is very low that a submarine operation against Sweden will be detected and hit with weapons.” Though many tons of explosives have been launched, Janzon said there has yet to be a direct hit.

“I think you’re all very interested to hear something about the threat,” Janzon said. “Unfortunately, I will not be able to say very much.”

Participants said a hot draw at the conference was a four-hour seminar Monday on “Mine Countermeasures, Methods and Equipment,” which had been expected to bring in an audience of 40 and ended up with a crowd of 110.

Since July, when the Reagan Administration began providing Navy escorts to U.S.-flagged Kuwaiti oil tankers, the Navy has found itself fighting a frustrating battle against primitive undersea mines planted in the Persian Gulf by Iranians.

The U.S. system of mine-searching, relying heavily on helicopters, has proved cumbersome and sometimes ineffectual, with the helicopters forced to spend long periods in maintenance because of the region’s high heat, humidity and sandstorms.

The United States has had to turn to European countries to provide modern mine-sweeping vessels.

“We’ve always put mine warfare on the back burner,” explained Given, referring to U.S. Navy policy until the Persian Gulf conflict. “It was not thought to be a high-tech problem. But it is.”