Royal Thai Navy Spokesperson
By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Iran is fighting back in the war by striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important commercial waterways in the world.
In vowing to not let a “single liter of oil” pass through to the U.S or its allies, Iran has attacked at least 20 vessels, effectively shutting down the shipping lane for 12 days and counting. Pictures of tankers on fire have sent oil prices skyrocketing.
President Trump has downplayed the market losses; promising that the U.S. could re-open the strait soon, perhaps by sending a naval escort or destroying Iran’s weapons.
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On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright even claimed, falsely, that a U.S. naval ship had accompanied a tanker through the strait.
But on Thursday he was forced to admit that the U.S. was "simply not ready" to offer protection to ships.
A U.S. escort program could "happen relatively soon but it can’t happen now," he told CNBC.
For a world increasingly feeling the pain of blocked oil and gas supplies however, U.S action is needed soon. That is if the U.S. can take any measures.
What Could the US Navy Do?
General Dan Caine, the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday that the U.S. was looking at "a range of options" for ensuring oil flows but didn’t provide much detail.
He was speaking with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who along with Trump, has suggested that the U.S. Navy could escort ships through the Strait.
Escort Operations
The U.S. Navy has done this before. During the “Tanker War” phase of the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, U.S. ships accompanied Kuwaiti tankers through the Persian Gulf to protect them from Iranian attacks.
That operation, known as Operation Earnest Will, lasted a little over a year between 1987 and 1988.
U.S. vessels could again act as a maritime bodyguard. A "basic" escort operation would need between eight and 10 destroyers to shield between five and ten commercial ships, according to maritime specialists, Lloyd's List.
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The priority would be on getting ships currently stranded in the area out through the strait, before turning to ships making their way there.
An escort could come together in "days, not weeks," retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now a professor of practice of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University. But "it's complicated," he told Newsweek.
So far the U.S Navy has been forced to turn down the requests it has received from shipping companies requesting military protection, saying the risks of the Iranian attacks are just too high at the moment, Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday.
Mine Threats
Further jeopardizing the situation are reports indicating that Iran may have started to lay mines in the Strait.
Trump on Tuesday dismissed these reports, saying there weren't any signs Iran was doing this. But he also told Tehran it would face consequences "at a level never seen before" if it placed explosives in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian mines would be a significant obstacle, the devastating effects of which the U.S. navy has seen before.
In 1988 during the operation protecting Kuwaiti ships, a U.S. guided-missile destroyer hit an Iranian sea mine in the Persian Gulf.
The explosives ripped a hole in the ship’s hull and injured 10 sailors. The ship almost sank. And in response, the U.S took ferocious action - striking Iranian oil platforms and half of Iran’s operational navy at the time.
But the U.S. has just decommissioned its Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships that had spent decades in the Middle East, raising questions about just how the U.S. Navy would ensure tankers don't come into contact with the waterborne explosives.
Its littoral combat ships, which are used for operations close to the shore, also have some anti-mine capabilities, but it's not clear whether they would be enough on their own.
Minesweeping helicopters are also an option, but are typically used alongside ships.
Then there's the rapid advance of drone technology which has put specialized mine-hunting drones on the map.
"In theory, the U.S. Navy can handle this," said former Pentagon official, Jim Townsend. "They can go out there, and do the job," he told Newsweek, but it takes "a lot of capability, and a lot of time."
Maintenance schedules and where assets are deployed for the moment could trip up planning. How to tackle Iran's fast-attack craft is another question — not to mention that escort convoys are usually patchworks of several different militaries.
France's President, Emmanuel Macron, has floated a “purely defensive” escort made of multiple countries in Europe and beyond, but offered little other information.
One course of action could be to go after the mine threat before it’s embedded.
On Tuesday, shortly after President Trump's threats, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees U.S. forces deployed in the Middle East, said it had taken out 16 Iranian minelayers close to the Strait of Hormuz. It published footage purporting to show vessels being blown up.
CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said the U.S. had struck more than 5,500 Iranian targets overall since late February, including more than 60 ships.
"Our mission is to end their ability to project power and harass shipping in the Strait.”
But still the attacks continue. Thursday saw at least more six commercial ships struck by Iran in the Strait, including the U.S. owned Safesea Vishnu which was attacked by an unmanned speed boat. One sailor on board was killed.
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