The record What this system is, where it comes from, who operates it and which of Vigil’s modules it is relevant to — with the evidence each of those rests on.
Record
Conflict relevance
This is the catalogue's single record for this system. It is relevant to the module below; each module's Force Atlas shows how it is used there.
Operators
The United States in the Gulf: The mine-countermeasures ships of Task Force 52 at Bahrain. Central Command said on 9 October 2026 that it had cleared mines from the main shipping lanes, naming no ship or class; the association is institutional, through the task force whose hull type this is.
Battlefield role
Finding and clearing sea mines in confined water, slowly and deliberately, so that a lane can be declared usable.
Strengths
A standing, specialised capability on the spot, with allied mine-countermeasures vessels alongside it at Bahrain for years.
Limitations
Slow, wooden-hulled ships of 1980s design, vulnerable while working, and in planned drawdown on the Navy's own account as unmanned and littoral systems take the mission. The scale of the Gulf's mine threat is reported, not surveyed, and the command's clearance statement of 9 October 2026 names no class. No hull, number, disposition or clearance area is recorded.
Documented conflict use
Gulf deployments since the 1991 war and the international mine-countermeasures exercise series hosted from Bahrain. In 2026 the mine threat in the strait is reported and not independently established, and no clearance operation is attributed to the class by name.
Documented formations
- Task Force 52 — Mine Countermeasures Documented · moderate confidence
Assessed as of — 2026-10-09 Last reviewed — 2026-10-29