New seabed mines renew an old contest with mine countermeasures

Should navies be newly alarmed by seafloor-based mines and missiles?

They should take them seriously, but neither threat is new, and mine warfare remains a competition between better hidden weapons and better hunting, sweeping, and unmanned countermeasures.

Magnetic and other influence mines are designed to remain unseen until a ship is committed to the danger area. The response is to clear routes ahead of valuable ships, increasingly with uncrewed underwater vehicles, small boats that imitate a larger signature, and active or passive seabed sensors. In peacetime, foreign systems often have to be watched and managed; in wartime, destroying or recovering them becomes an available option.