MISSION
STATEMENT
The Mine Warfare Association (MINWARA)
was formed in 1995 to create an awareness of mine warfare issues and to
assist government, industry, and academia in optimizing their combined
contributions to solving the challenges associated with military sea and
land mine warfare. The MINWARA believed that
many of the solutions would be found in emerging technologies.
Accordingly, the MINWARA adopted a program
of conducting symposia to expose as many personnel and organizations as
possible to these emerging technologies and their potential application
to the mine problem. MINWARA remains the
only professional association, which deals only with land and sea mine
warfare and its associated problems.
The symposia are an effort to cross - pollinate knowledge about mine
warfare among government, industry, and academia. Symposia address
military doctrine, policies, organization, concepts of operations,
ongoing and needed research and development, acquisition programs, and
logistics and training programs.
It should be noted that mine warfare includes both mining
capabilities and mine countermeasures. The Mine Warfare Association is a
strong supporter of mining capabilities as well as mine countermeasures,
based on the tenet that knowledge of mine design and effects are
critical to maintaining an effective mine countermeasures capability.
The Mine Warfare Association is also a firm supporter of mine designs
that have self-destruction capabilities after an appropriate period, so
as not to pose a threat to civilians after cessation of hostilities. It
should also be noted that the Mine Warfare Association has included the
associated issues of humanitarian demining and unexploded ordnance
challenges in our symposia at times, even though the present thrust of
our association is military sea and land mine warfare. These issues and
challenges have, and will be, included, based on the likelihood of
historical and emerging solutions in these areas having application to
military mine warfare. The subject of humanitarian demining is now a
primary thrust of the Wilson Institute and other NGO. The combat aspects
of EOD will be included in MINWARA military
sea and land mine warfare, as appropriate.
Past symposia have complemented and drawn upon the recurring symposia
at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA held in 1995,
1996, 1998, and March 2000. These symposia on “Technology and the Mine
Problem” have addressed all areas mentioned above, including military
mine warfare. Between Monterey symposia, the Mine Warfare Association
has sponsored a recurring series of regional symposia, which usually
focus on sea or land mine warfare depending on the host organization and
its primary expertise areas.
These regional symposia have been held at the Coastal Systems
Station, Panama City, FL; Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, NM,
and the U. S. Army and U. S. Marine Corps installations in the
Washington, DC area. One international symposium on both land and sea
mine warfare was held in 1999 in Sydney, Australia, in co - sponsorship
with the Australian Defence Science and Technology Office (DSTO).
The Monterey symposia have previously attracted 350 to 500 attendees.
Regional symposia typically attract 150 to 200 attendees, based on the
narrower focus. Speakers have frequently included military flag officers
of all ranks and civilian government employees of similar rank. Other
speakers include senior, experienced industry leaders, and senior,
experienced academic researchers.
The intent of symposia subject matter is to have academia and
industry become more familiar with the technical challenges of the mine
problem, have government and industry become familiar with academic
research efforts, and have government and academia become familiar with
industrial research and engineering efforts.
The Mine Warfare Association understands the increasing importance of
commercial industry in developing technologies which will benefit the
Department of Defense. Accordingly, a major activity of the association
is to expand outreach of the mine problem to the commercial sector. As
always, the most useful exchanges between these attendees occur between
seminar sessions and during evenings. The Mine Warfare Association looks
forward to continuing this educational effort in support of military
mine warfare and the associated challenges and problems. We also look
forward to expanding our international symposia events beyond the next
scheduled symposium in Sydney, Australia in 2001.
John D. Pearson RADM USN (Ret) President
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