As U.S. forces move to clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz, they are relying on a blend of modern unmanned platforms, explosive-laden remote devices and legacy tactics to reduce risk to personnel while locating and neutralizing maritime explosives. Military officials stated over the weekend that operations have begun, with two warships transiting the strait and additional assets, including underwater drones, due to join the effort in the days ahead.
The clearance effort is part of a broader U.S. objective to stop Iran from disrupting shipping lanes that have in recent weeks sharply reduced global energy shipments following strikes by the U.S. and Israel at the end of February. Reuters sources last month said Tehran had recently deployed about a dozen mines in the Strait of Hormuz; publicly available information does not identify the specific locations where those devices may have been laid.
U.S. President Donald Trump said over the weekend that all of Iran's minelaying ships had been sunk. Even so, military and industry specialists warn that additional devices could be laid by Tehran and that mines remain a potent asymmetric tool - cheap to acquire but costly and slow to clear. "Even the threat of a minefield is enough to stop ships, especially commercial ships," said Jon Pentreath, a retired British navy rear admiral now working as a consultant.
From manned sweepers to unmanned fleets
Historically, the U.S. Navy practiced mine warfare with manned minesweeping vessels that entered suspected minefields to locate threats with sonar and clear explosives using mechanical gear towed behind the ship, sometimes with the support of divers. Much of that older fleet has been retired and replaced by lighter, more modular platforms.
Today, littoral combat ships carry modern mine-hunting systems that include semi-autonomous surface and underwater drones as well as remote-controlled robots. These systems allow crews to operate from a more distant and safer position relative to a minefield. The navy has three littoral combat ships equipped for mine countermeasures in deployment. At the end of March, a senior U.S. official told Reuters that two of those ships were undergoing maintenance in Singapore, and that U.S. mine-clearing capacity in the Middle East at that time included unmanned undersea vehicles, four Avenger-class vessels, helicopters and divers.
The U.S. military provided only limited public detail about the specific equipment being used in the current operation. U.S. Central Command also declined to provide further specifics.
Types of mines and detection methods
Former naval officers and mines specialists said Iran is believed to possess several categories of maritime mines. Those cited include bottom mines that rest on the seabed and detonate when a vessel passes overhead; tethered mines that are anchored but float closer to the surface; drifting mines that move with currents and can be unpredictable; and limpet mines that are attached directly to a ship's hull.
The expected approach to clearing the strait begins with search and detection. Unmanned surface and undersea vehicles equipped with sensors are likely to be deployed to scan waters for mine-like objects. When a suspicious contact is detected, teams operating from outside the minefield typically analyze transmitted data to identify the object and decide on a method for neutralization.
Search capabilities now include sonar-equipped unmanned surface vehicles and undersea drones, complemented by helicopters that can help spot mines close to the surface. Newer sonars can reduce the number of passes required to form a three-dimensional picture of a suspect object, which specialists say should speed detection compared with older systems that needed multiple sweeps.
Neutralization tools and tactics
To destroy detected mines, the Navy can use expendable remotely operated devices such as the Archerfish - a torpedo-shaped system about 2 metres long that carries an explosive charge and streams video back to operators via cable, according to its manufacturer. These devices are intended to be used once and abandoned, and their unit cost is described as being in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Other options include unmanned boats that tow mine-sweeping sleds designed either to trigger detonations at a safe distance or to collect devices for later disposal. Human divers remain part of the toolbox, used in certain cases including intelligence collection, though their employment carries direct risk.
Bryan Clark, a retired U.S. naval officer and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, noted that unmanned boats towing mine-sweeping sleds can be employed to trigger or recover mines. Mark Bock, a retired U.S. Navy captain now with Thales' U.S. Navy business, described a longer-term ambition in the industry to field coordinated groups of unmanned systems that can search for, identify and destroy mines in a single integrated sequence. "That doesn't exist today," he said, but he emphasized it is an objective many nations are pursuing.
Operational tempo, vulnerabilities and the path ahead
Clearing the strait will be methodical and time consuming, specialists warn. Bryan Clark estimated the effort could take two to three weeks, while also cautioning that Iranian attacks on mine-clearing crews could slow the process and elevate the overall risk. Commanders have signaled that protective measures - including defensive surface vessels and airborne drones - may be deployed to shield crews and platforms engaged in detection and disposal.
"Finding and destroying mines is very time consuming," U.S. Admiral Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations, said in March, remarking that the nature of the work leaves mine-clearing capability "vulnerable." Advances in sensors and onboard data processing are being developed to accelerate detection and reduce the number of discrete steps needed, and artificial intelligence is beginning to be used to analyze sensor data on unmanned vessels.
Even with those improvements, specialists emphasize that the current operation will follow a multi-step approach of search, identification and then neutralization, with crews keeping distance from suspect locations wherever possible. The pace of clearance, the locations of any deployed mines and the potential for further minelaying will determine how quickly normal commercial and energy shipping can resume through this strategic waterway.
Conclusion
The U.S. entry into mine-clearing operations in the Strait of Hormuz highlights both the benefits and limits of modern mine countermeasures. Remote and expendable systems can reduce risk to human operators and bring new detection capabilities, but the task remains painstaking and fraught with vulnerability to attack. Until coordinated groups of unmanned systems that can find, identify and destroy mines in one pass are fielded, mine clearance will continue to be a stepwise and cautious process.