Operações de Minagem e Contramedidas de Minagem: Similaridades e singularidades das visões estratégicas navais de EUA e China, quando consideradas as atividades relacionadas à Guerra de Minas

Abstract

In most naval battles of the past, the Mine Warfare appeared as a support weapon, despite its efficiency and the damage inflicted by it. However, countries like the People's Republic of China and the United States of America have initiated a change in this stance, in which both seek to strengthen this sector of the Naval War and include a new vision of the Mines Warfare for the 21st century. The objective of this work is to study the strategic visions related to the Mine Warfare of these two countries, with emphasis on their capacities, limitations and visions of the future, in order to identify their similarities and singularities, considering that the two countries lead the dispute for hegemonic leadership in the 21st century and invests a large part of their budgets in their navies. To achieve the objective of this dissertation, the Comparative Study research line was used, in which the doctrinal, material and personal aspects of the American and Chinese Mining War were confronted. The methodology used was the comparison between activities related to Mine Operations and Mine Countermeasures, in order to carry out a Comparison of Combatant Powers between their strength factors, that is, between the capacity of Chinese Mine and the ability of American mine countermeasures to, in the end, carry out a brief analysis of a possible conflict scenario, involving the Mine Warfare, between the two countries in question. To facilitate understanding, the main types of naval mines, their classifications and Launch Agents were also presented, in addition to a simplified history of the development and participation of the People's Republic of China and the United States of America in conflicts involving these types of operations. With that, it was possible to conclude that there are great singularities in their strategies, which can be decisive in a naval conflict, in which these operations are employed. In the end, we found that the Brazilian Navy can take advantage of each of the singularities existing between the two strategies mentioned, in terms of seeking to strengthen these important Naval War operations in its strategy.