The US Navy has conducted a covert operation in the Strait of Hormuz in recent months, led by elite Navy SEALs, to clear the strategic waterway of mines, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the operation.
The mission lasted four months and was conducted mostly under cover of darkness. Alongside the divers, unmanned vessels and specialized underwater systems were deployed in the hazardous strait. The inherently complex and dangerous work of neutralizing the mines was carried out underwater and in darkness, with the aim of removing one of the main factors that has deterred ships from crossing the Strait of Hormuz since February.
Iran claimed throughout the war that it had mined the strait, while the International Maritime Organization said in June that about 80 mines had been placed in the main shipping lanes. Late last month, US President Donald Trump said all mines in the strait's international waters had already been removed or destroyed, a claim also made by the US military.
The US Navy's three minesweepers based in the Gulf were reportedly outside the area, in the Indian and Pacific oceans, at least since early June. Even in peacetime, clearing naval mines can take months. Such operations are normally carried out by specialized vessels repeatedly sweeping shipping lanes, bringing mines to the surface and destroying them.
According to the report, the US operation involved Navy SEAL divers working in small teams from rubber boats and locating Iranian mines with robotic boats and underwater vehicles towing sonar arrays. The sonar scans the seabed at high resolution, identifies objects lying on it and allows large areas to be covered without putting crews at risk.
The most dangerous stage comes afterward. Retired US Navy Capt. Bill Hamblet, who spent years operating in the Gulf, said a Navy diver would then have to enter the water, approach the mine, attach an explosive charge and destroy it. Hamblet described the operation as a "very small, lightweight kind of force."
He added that some of the missions may have been launched from the USS Miguel Keith, a large expeditionary mobile base that serves as a floating naval base for US forces in the Gulf. Hamblet said mines can also be destroyed using robotic underwater systems carrying explosives. Bryan Clark, a mine-warfare expert at the Hudson Institute, cited Britain's SeaFox and the US AN/ASQ-235 Archerfish among the systems capable of performing such missions.
No US casualties were reported during the mine-clearing operation, but experts stressed that the mission is inherently dangerous. "Mine-clearing forces are vulnerable because the operation is slow and their boats or helicopters lack defences," Clark said.
Shipowners and security advisers told the Financial Times that they were optimistic about the southern part of the strait, near the coast of Oman, through which the US has been directing vessels, and believed it had indeed been cleared. They nevertheless expressed doubt that the entire Strait of Hormuz was free of mines.
