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.
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.