The US Navy’s USS Cincinnati littoral fight ship (LCS) arrives for a port name on the Ream Naval base, positioned in Cambodia’s southern coast in Preah Sihanouk province, on January 24, 2026. Not less than three vessels of the identical class have been geared up for mine-clearing operations.
Suy Se/AFP/Getty Pictures
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Suy Se/AFP/Getty Pictures
Within the ongoing struggle with the US and Israel, Iran has been threatening to mine the important Strait of Hormuz, with experiences suggesting it might have already positioned units within the slim delivery chokepoint. It has set the stage for a doable complicated and dangerous U.S. Navy operation to reopen the waterway utilizing new mine-clearing know-how.
On Tuesday, Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth mentioned the U.S. was taking steps to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, however didn’t say what measures have been being taken. The U.S. Fifth Fleet based mostly in Bahrain has additionally posted video exhibiting strikes towards Iran’s navy, together with what it says are minelaying vessels.
Mines pose a major menace to the tankers and different industrial delivery vessels that cross via the Strait. They’re additionally a critical hazard to warships. Since World Battle II, sea mines have induced a disproportionate share of injury to U.S. Navy vessels — sinking or crippling 15 of them, greater than from all different weapons mixed. These incidents embrace three U.S. warships broken by sea mines within the Persian Gulf since 1988 that injured dozens of sailors.
Regardless of the hazard, nonetheless, mine warfare — which encompasses each the deployment and clearance of naval mines — has acquired minimal consideration and funding from the Navy, overshadowed by higher-profile weapons techniques, based on maritime safety knowledgeable Scott C. Truver.
Funding for mine warfare accounts for “less than 1% of the Navy’s total budget,” he says. Some individuals name it a “stepchild of the U.S. Navy,” he says.
Switching to the LCS
Simply as Iranian sea mines are once more a menace within the Persian Gulf, the Navy is within the midst of retiring its older, wooden-hulled Avenger-class ships which have been used for the reason that Eighties for minesweeping. They’re being changed by the Independence-class of Littoral Fight Ships (LCS), which depend on unmanned techniques and helicopters to search out and destroy them.
The U.S. “is investing in uncrewed systems to do this mission instead,” based on Bryan Clark, a senior fellow on the Hudson Institute, a center-right assume tank that focuses on nationwide safety and protection coverage. All of the LCS ships should do is “stand clear of the minefields and then allow their unmanned systems and helicopters to do the locating and mine neutralization,” he says.
However the LCS have suffered from improvement delays, value overruns and different issues which have earned them the epithet “little crappy ship” from critics. A 2022 report from the Authorities Accountability Workplace (GAO) famous “several significant challenges” with the LCS, “including the ship’s ability to defend itself if attacked and failure rates of mission-essential equipment.”
However whether or not the Navy’s substitute is actually prepared is an open query. Weeks in the past, two Independence-class LCS ships, the united statesSanta Barbara and the united statesTulsa — have been in Singapore.” A 3rd, the USS Canberra, is provided with mine-countermeasures packages — however can also be in Asia.
Emma Salisbury, a senior fellow on the Overseas Coverage Analysis Institute, says she is “actually utterly baffled” as to why the Navy wouldn’t have mine-clearing resources near the Middle East at the start of the conflict. “Having a mine countermeasures functionality that’s not in theater just isn’t notably useful,” she says.
NATO allies may be better prepared than the U.S.
Trump has repeatedly called on NATO allies to provide ships to help secure the Strait. On Tuesday, Hegseth chastised other countries, making a veiled reference to Britain in particular, for not doing more. These international locations have largely declined to assist.
In terms of mine clearance, “The U.S. Navy is in a bit of a bind,” Salisbury says. She notes that many European nations are better-equipped for this activity than the U.S. Poland, for example, has greater than two dozen mine-clearing ships in its fleet, and the U.Ok., France and Turkey even have sizable numbers of such vessels.
And in previous a long time, the U.S. has turned to those nations for assist: Within the Gulf Battle and the Iraq struggle, Salisbury says, “The U.S. has relied on European NATO allies to provide mine-clearing capability.”
In the meantime, the brand new mine looking and clearing system, with the LCS at its core, stays unproven. The MCM package deal, which integrates unmanned floor and underwater automobiles, MH‑60S helicopters, and sonar techniques, is designed to detect, establish, and neutralize sea mines — however it has but to be demonstrated below real-world circumstances.
In a report launched in March, the Pentagon’s director of Operational Check and Analysis — the workplace chargeable for assessing the effectiveness of navy techniques — famous that in fiscal 12 months 2025, the Navy performed no operational testing of the Independence‑variant Littoral Fight Ship geared up with the mine countermeasures (MCM) mission package deal. The director added that operational effectiveness “cannot determine operational effectiveness … due to insufficient performance data.”
Salisbury describes herself as an LCS critic. She says that, at finest, the mine countermeasures know-how on these ships is a query mark. “What worries me is not necessarily can it work once or twice, but can it work over and over at the tempo that would be needed,” if solely LCS ships have been getting used, she says.
A “dirty and dangerous” job
Retired Adm. James Foggo, dean of the Middle for Maritime Technique, says previous expertise has proven that mines must be one of many Navy’s prime priorities. “Mines tend to be an asymmetric weapon,” he says. “They also tend to be a poor man’s tool to exert pressure on larger, more powerful nations.”
Mine clearing is a “dirty and dangerous job” that can also be time-consuming, Truver says. A single gadget can take hours to clear — and within the meantime, “you’re essentially standing still while operations are underway.”
“You are essentially performing controlled explosions… for each individual mine,” Salisbury says. “Your ships are going to be in that dangerous area for a long time.”
Ideally, then, mine-clearance would start after hostilities with Iran finish, Cichon says. However the circumstances would nonetheless be fraught; he notes that, within the Eighties, “minesweepers had to operate while commercial ships and even larger frigates risked striking mines.”
Destroying them is only one hurdle, although. Earlier than minesweepers head in, says Foggo, there’ll must be a fight air patrol in place above the Strait. After minesweepers do their work, destroyers could be despatched in to escort oil tankers. If that effort started at the moment, it could nonetheless take a month to get underway, he says.
Trump has insisted that European nations discover a navy approach to open the waterway, addressing them this week: “You’ll have to learn how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he mentioned. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”
However Europe does not have the navy assets, reminiscent of plane refueling tankers, or the required naval forces. Any giant navy operation to open the Strait would possible require a joint effort, led by the U.S.
If all goes nicely, Foggo says he has “every confidence” that delivery lanes via the Strait may very well be cleared comparatively shortly. “We’re a very professional force. And it’s a big challenge,” he acknowledges. “People just need to have strategic and tactical patience.”
