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[1817] Mine detection issues with the AN/AES-1 ALMDS

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2026 4:44 pm
by erick33
I’ve been testing the AN/AES-1 ALMDS against moored mines between 10m and 100m deep, but I couldn't get a single hit. Even the mine at -32ft wasn't detected at all. I made sure the ALMDS pod was active and flew at the lowest possible altitude, but still nothing.

I'm not an expert on mine clearance yet, so I'm not 100% sure what's "normal," but I've never actually seen this system detect a mine in my tests. Is there something wrong with my test environment, or is the ALMDS detection simply not implemented in the system yet?

Re: [1817] Mine detection issues with the AN/AES-1 ALMDS

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2026 10:37 pm
by Raptorx7_slith
Thanks for the report, logged as 0017243

Re: [1817] Mine detection issues with the AN/AES-1 ALMDS

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2026 9:00 am
by Nikel
It seems to be a matter of depth.

Mines at 0 depth are detected by the LIDAR system.

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Re: [1817] Mine detection issues with the AN/AES-1 ALMDS

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2026 4:03 pm
by erick33
Nikel wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 9:00 am It seems to be a matter of depth.

Mines at 0 depth are detected by the LIDAR system.


0D.gif
I’ve verified that the system detects mines at zero depth, but those are floating mines that can be spotted visually anyway. The real issue is that if ALMDS is only capable of detecting mines at the surface, it defeats the purpose of having an advanced detection system.

Re: [1817] Mine detection issues with the AN/AES-1 ALMDS

Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2026 2:14 pm
by Nikel
Testing a demining a scenario. Will this be fixed in the next patch?

If not the alternative is to use Seahawks AN/AQS-20A.