Maj. Gen. David Coffman, expeditionary warfare director at the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, has said the U.S. Navy seeks to develop individual mine warfare technologies without specific mission objectives, USNI News reported Friday.
Coffman explained that the service aims to divorce mine countermeasure packages from littoral combat ships to provide operational commanders an opportunity to customize their mission sets according to the physical threat environment they’re facing.
The effort would also possibly help the Navy accelerate the deployment of new technologies for demonstrations and experiments.
However, Coffman warned that it will be difficult to financially support the mission package deconstruction effort as the mine warfare area is usually “under-resourcedâ€.
He still noted that separating certain systems from military platforms is expected as the LCS program continues to evolve.
Coffman added that the Navy will still deploy mine warfare packages to LCS vessels and that the Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants will continue to be in in charge of the development of various sensors and offboard vehicles.
