Mine Warfare: Status of the Navy's Mine Countermeasure Capabilities and Plans

GAO discussed the Navy's mine countermeasure capabilities and plans, focusing on the status of systems established to clear U.S. ports. GAO found that: (1) as of January 1989, the Navy planned to spend about $1.7 billion for the development and acquisition of mine countermeasures ships, helicopters, and equipment; (2) the Navy replaced its 30-year-old minesweeping equipment with improved mine-hunting and neutralization ships, but design and production problems caused program delays and cost overruns; (3) the strategy for sequential port clearance depended on completed surveys of channels used to transmit between a port and the ocean; and (4) most of the ships scheduled to do Q-route surveys were employed in Persian Gulf operations.