US EditionIs Iran waging war with mines in the Strait of Hormuz?
Iran has deployed mines in the Strait of Hormuz to threaten shipping while U.S. mine-clearing ships operate in Asia, and the UK plans to send minesweeping drones, officials said.
- U.S. officials say Iran has started laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, effectively halting routine maritime traffic at this strategic chokepoint.
- IRGCN doctrine emphasizes mine warfare, and the Defense Intelligence Agency estimates Iran holds more than 5,000 naval mines, with deployments recalling Iran Ajr's 1987 mine-laying near Bahrain and Bridgeton's mine strike.
- Two U.S. Littoral Combat Ships configured for mine countermeasures, USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara, are operating in Asia with the Navy's mine-countermeasures module.
- The U.K. has agreed to dispatch minesweeping drones to the Strait of Hormuz as ministers fear sending ships could escalate the crisis and many NATO allies decline involvement.
- Last year, the Navy decommissioned half of its Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships and began shifting to Littoral Combat Ships, creating a clearance gap as mines appear in the Strait of Hormuz while sweepers operate in Asia.
11 Articles
11 Articles
The Hormuz Humiliation: Iran’s Mine Warfare vs Washington’s ‘NO PLAN’ Disaster
“We have lost control of the seas to a nation without a navy, using pre-World War I weapons, laid by vessels that were utilized at the time of the birth of Christ.” Rear Admiral Allan E. Smith, who wrote these words, learned this the hard way at Wonsan Harbour in 1950, when he realised the US Navy could lose control of the seas not to enemy fleets, but to thousands of cheap mines scattered from wooden fishing boats. Seventy-six years later, the …
In the Strait of Hormus there is no passage for most ships – mine hunting boats could help.But how do these actually work?In the Strait of Hormus there is no passage for most ships – mine hunting boats could help.But how do these actually work?
Is Iran waging war with mines in the Strait of Hormuz?
Andrew Chang explains what we know about Iran's sea mine capabilities and why they can be such a destructive and difficult naval threat to remove — especially in a critical shipping route. Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters, Adobe Stock, CAT-UXO and Getty Images
Iran maintains one of the largest stockpiles of naval mines in the world, which it stores to close the Strait of Ormuz, and the United States knew with intelligence prior to the beginning of the current war in the Persian Gulf. It is asserted by a report to the American parliamentarians by the CRS, or U.S. Congressional Research Service. The dossier was written in 2025, on the occasion of Israel's war against Iran, and has been updated six times…
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