The Utility Minehunter was D. K. Brown's favourite design. In the late 1970s the DG Ships, Jack Daniel mused about a cheaper minesweeper that would work alongside the more expensive
River-class.
A cheap sweeper proved impossible due to the engine power required but a cheap minehunter seemed possible. The idea was a basic GRP hull with diesel generators placed in three ISO containers on the upper deck. The operations room was also containerised and the Type 193M sonar gear was boxed too. The bare hulls could be built and tied up and then made operational as and when necessary by plugging in the containers. The cost was around a third of a
River.
But soon the inevitable bloat began, new sonar, a gun etc. and the design was dropped. The resulting minehunter during the 1980s was the
Sandown-class.