As President Donald Trump warns Iran against using mines to threaten oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy’s purpose-built minesweepers are sitting stateside thousands of miles away with no plans to put them to use while the war rages on. As gas prices in the U.S. continued to skyrocket, Trump on Tuesday took to Truth Social to demand that Tehran “immediately” remove any mines placed in the vital seaway and to do so “forthwith” lest the Iranian military suffer “consequences … at a level never seen before.” That warning came after multiple news outlets reported Iran had begun mining the strait, a narrow waterway that is the only passage from the Persian Gulf into open ocean. He also threatened to use drone strikes to “permanently eliminate any boat or ship attempting to mine the Hormuz Strait” and boasted of having done so against 10 Iranian “inactive mine-laying boats” in a separate post several minutes later.
Some context from the end of the article:
The mine sweepers in question are four decommissioned wood and fiberglass vessels from the Desert Storm era whose capabilities are being replaced by littoral (giggity) combat ships.
It’s hard for me to believe that this operation wouldn’t include priority strikes on sea mine facilities. Just the specter of mines in the strait is enough to make shipping insurance infeasible. If Iran is successfully mining, what happened? Was this war so hastily planned that this was overlooked? If the strait is so vital to shipping, you’d think they would want every minesweeper available.
If the US military (who are acutely aware of Trump’s openly hostile disrespect towards service members by the way) are actually listening to Trump’s logistical advice, he’s going to run them into the ground faster than his Vegas casinos.
You think America, one of the largest oil producers in the world, really cares all that much that Saudi Arabia and Iraq can’t get their oil out? You realize they are making money on this, right? The US has no interest in opening the straight. Why do you think they started a war to close it?
Not all oil and its child products are created equal.
There are serious knock on effects occurring right now that we won’t see the impact of for a month or two as companies burn through their inventory
Machine oils/lubricants, aviation fuels and of course fuel. Not to mention LNG, fertilisers and other petrochemical feedstock.
In fairness, the Trump admin didn’t think about any of those things either.
I did not realize that! Given how sensitive America voters are to gas prices, I guess they’re relying on voter suppression.
Who exactly does benefit from closing the strait other than Iran?
The two largest oil producers outside of the gulf: The United States of America and Russia.
What I read today is that Iran deployed twelve mines. Twelve.
Presumably the US was striking their missile launches, and a couple more than twelve were launched… it’s consistent with all that that their ability to lay mines is heavily degraded.
Yeah, this seems like kind of a nothingburger. I get the desire to hit Trump on everything and anything, but you generally don’t put minesweepers in the middle of active combat zones.
I’m also pretty confident that the rumours about Iran deploying mines aren’t even true, because if they are then their recent offer to allow safe passage doesn’t make any sense.
Also, gotta love the LCS catching strays here. Canada has plenty of issues with ship-building, mostly thanks to our sourcing all the work to a monopoly corp that couldn’t give two shits, and even we look competent compared to the US navy’s steadily growing graveyard of failed projects.
The mining and safe passage make sense together. They’d deploy mines, then escort and/or pilot the ship through the unmined channel.
I feel like that only works in a world where satellite and drone surveillance don’t exist. As soon as you escort one ship through the mines, they stop really being a threat because now everyone knows where the safe route is.
I’m sure I could be wrong here, but either way I think we need to keep in mind that the mining is only rumoured at this point. Nothing is even close to confirmed and the evidence is pretty thin.
Edit: OK, I’ve now seen somewhat more credible sources on the mine laying, so good chance I am wrong here. So it goes.
Sort of. Live, continuous satellite surveillance is a scarce resource, despite what TV might show you. And keeping a drone on station in hostile airspace is risky.
Not to mention, some mines can be activated and deactivated by shore control.