Maritime superiority has long been critical to peacekeeping nations maintaining global peace, and despite the problems with some plans, technological advances, at least from a practical perspective, can help reduce the dangers of peacekeeping. While technology has given groups like the U.S. Navy a clear advantage, it still employs some old-school tricks to help maintain a tactical advantage at sea. Yes, this includes warships built with wooden hulls.
In this day and age of technology, it’s hard to believe that there are still military-grade ships patrolling the world’s waters, built from the same materials as the ships the Vikings sailed. But these ships have indeed been in service since the 1980s. Although the number of Avengers-class ships in service is dwindling, the U.S. Navy still operates some of them today. These wooden-hulled ships have long played a vital and extremely specialized role in the naval fleet, functioning almost exclusively as minesweeper-hunting ships.
There’s a very smart reason the U.S. Navy has used wooden-hulled ships in this particular capacity over the past few decades, as they offer tactical advantages over ships using steel and other metals. More specifically, wooden structures allow ships to more effectively avoid mines at sea, as many explosives are less likely to be attracted to their wooden components. That’s why this happens.
Read more: The 10 largest navies in the world, ranked by self-reported total naval assets
This is how the Avengers-class wooden hull came to be
The USS Avenger-class cruiser USS Champion cruises close to the coast – Ryan Fletcher/Shutterstock
In short, navies using mines have long employed magnetized explosive devices. The British military first developed contact magnetic landmines in 1919 that required a collision to detonate. During World War I, however, the German military took over this role and designed a series of particularly lethal magnetic mines that would be detonated by the mere presence of a ship’s magnetic field.
Initially, the process of degaussing ships (much like degaussing hard drives) proved to be one of the most effective ways to keep ships safe, as it essentially eliminated the presence of magnetic fields. This approach continued to be popular for decades. But in the 1980s, some countries got smarter and decided to simply restrict the use of magnetic metals in the construction of ships heavily used in waters where mines exist. Thus, the Avenger-class vessel with a wooden hull and fiberglass coating was born.
In the decades since, sonar-equipped Avenger-class ships have been one of the U.S. Navy’s first lines of defense against naval magnetic mines. They probably saved thousands of lives in the process. But as we noted, the number of minesweepers in the U.S. Navy fleet is dwindling, with four Avengers-class minesweepers reportedly still in service and operating only in Japanese ports. But even these ships’ days are numbered, with the United States planning to retire them in 2026. Yes, as you might have guessed, the Avengers class ships are being replaced by minesweepers equipped with various high-tech mine detection/clearance capabilities.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.