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Iran Outplaying US Navy in Strait of Hormuz With Sea Mines

© AP Photo / Information Technician Second Class Ruskin NavalThe aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and other warships crosses the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf on Sunday. File photo.
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and other warships crosses the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf on Sunday. File photo. - Sputnik International, 1920, 25.04.2026
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Iran has laid low-cost mines in Hormuz using mini-submarines and small vessels, creating a prolonged, asymmetric threat the US cannot quickly neutralize, retired Russian Navy Captain First Rank Vasily Dandykin tells Sputnik.
These mines can lie dormant for months before activating. Tehran has already marked safe shipping routes along its coastline — while leaving the rest of the Strait dangerous.
Iran’s mine threat has laid bare the US Navy’s vulnerabilities:
Limited mine countermeasures (clearing could take 6+ months)
No diesel-electric submarines
Relies on carrier groups (forced hundreds of kilometers away by missile threats, reducing airpower reach)
Large ships struggle in confined waters while submarines are vulnerable to mines.
In this Sunday, July 21, 2019 photo, a speedboat of Iran's Revolutionary Guard trains a weapon toward the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday by the Guard, in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Global stock markets were subdued Monday while the price of oil climbed as tensions in the Persian Gulf escalated after Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker on Friday.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 23.04.2026
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