The Pentagon is considering a more robust naval presence in the Middle East to escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz as gas and oil prices continue to rise, but any operation won’t commence for at least a month, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Journal, citing two U.S. officials, has said that the U.S. wants to reduce the threat from Iran before undertaking any escort operation, but that could take up to a month or more to accomplish, even as officials continue to downplay concerns over the strait and the impact its closure has had on global energy markets.
Just 2 things:
You don’t need a big ship to mine. A few fishing boats can drop a couple or three mines, which in such a small strait is enough to cause havoc. You don’t need a biggish minelayer to do that, and apparently Iran has a few thousand mines.
Also, I read an analysis by a naval officer explaining why a single ballistic missile with a dense kinetic warhead would be basically impossible to stop, and would decommission a carrier.