When allies assume someone else can sweep mines

An alliance can lose its ability to sweep mines when members each expect somebody else to provide the ships and equipment. The criticism here is that some refusals to join a mission, presented as objections that it was not their war, concealed a lack of anything to send. Those navies had already discarded the capability on the assumption that allies would retain it. Collective plans therefore depend on members maintaining the specialist forces they expect the alliance to use.