The Russian Ministry of Defense decided to equip the minesweepers of the Navy with the Marlin-350 submersibles. They will be used to search for and destroy mines.
As sources in the military department told Izvestia, the decision to equip minesweepers with Marlin-350 remote-controlled underwater demining robots has already been made. The new devices will receive anti-mine ships of all four fleets – the Northern, Pacific, Black Sea and Baltic.
It was decided to re-equip the minesweepers after the successful voyage of the Baltic Fleet ships to the Gulf of Finland last summer, during which large-scale demining work was carried out.
The Ministry of Defense previously reported that the minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet “Alexander Obukhov” of project 12700 code “Alexandrite” and “Leonid Sobolev” of project 1265 code “Yakhont” with the help of “Marlin-350” found and destroyed about 20 anchor and bottom magnetic mines. These munitions were found near the island of Hogland. Rusted mines due to corrosion were in such a state that it was dangerous to raise them to the surface.
During World War II, the Germans planted several super-saturated minefields in the Gulf of Finland to isolate the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt and Leningrad. Soviet sailors broke through and destroyed these barriers, but mines are still being found in the bay.
According to the media, the Russian Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the purchase of 45 remote-controlled uninhabited underwater vehicles – Marlin-350, paying almost 604 million rubles for them. Such devices are needed to search for underwater objects and underwater technical, search and inspection work at a depth of up to 350 m. Using optical systems, they detect a target at a depth, after which they put a special explosive charge on it. It’s a pretty compact car. With a length of just under a meter, the underwater vehicle weighs only 50 kg. It is able to work in the temperature corridor from minus 20 to plus 50 degrees. Its speed is about 5 km/h, or 2.5 knots.
Read more in the Izvestia article:
“Mine Sea: Underwater robots will appear on the minesweepers of the Navy”
Source: IZ
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
