By the end of this year, Estonia, as promised earlier, will receive a batch of sea mines.
This is reported by the portal err.ee. Representatives of the Estonian Defense Investment Center signed a corresponding agreement with a Finnish manufacturing company on Wednesday in the city of Hanko. The Commander of the Estonian Naval Forces, Commodore Yuri Saska, assured that these mines do not threaten civilian shipping.
The Defense Investment Center and the Defense Forces did not disclose either the volume of supplies or the cost of the contract. Yuri Saska claims that the mines themselves have not changed much since the First World War.
"In principle, there were already three types of sensors — acoustic, magnetic and pressure sensors. The first reacts to a change in the magnetic field, the second — to acoustic noise, and the third-to a change in water pressure. They can be combined and supplemented, for example, by a system that determines how many times a ship with certain signs can pass over a mine before it triggers. To put it simply, a modern mine is as complex a device as any other computer, " Saska commented.
The mines will be delivered to Estonia this year, but, according to Yuri Saska, no one is going to install them in the sea immediately — even to counteract the warships of the"probable enemy".
"Crossing the sea border does not necessarily mean war — there is such a thing as a"peaceful passage". And such a passage can be made by a ship under any flag through the waters of any state — provided that it does not engage in activities that contradict the concept of "peaceful passage". And if you, as a coastal state, report that you have mined the zones — and this must be reported in accordance with the conventions — then this has a significant impact on the freedom of navigation, which is limited in this case," Saska explained.
According to him, mining of territorial waters is primarily "a means of deterring a potential enemy."
