The extent to which Iran has seeded naval mines in the Strait already is unclear, but this remains a huge threat to the future security of the waterway and will have to be taken into account in any future effort to reopen this critical waterway. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, one of the briefing slides noted that “LCS was designed as a multi-mission platform” and “all of these other missions reduce time for the ship and Minemen to gain proficiency in MCM [mine countermeasures].” To reiterate, the Avenger class ships were purpose-built for this mission set and had crews trained to match. For the moment, at least, a substantial portion of the Navy’s minesweeping capacity in the region, amid a major conflict with an opponent experienced in mine warfare, is now thousands of miles away in a completely different part of the world.
Author: the War Zone
Published at: 2026-03-17 23:11:31
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