if Iran should ever try to block it with mines, the U.S. Navy announced Sunday.
The four additional mine countermeasures (MCM) ships arrived on Saturday and are scheduled for a seven-month deployment in an area of operations that includes the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.
That area includes two other critical shipping chokepoints of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Bab al Mandab between the southern tip of Yemen and Africa. But the main focus is on the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. Iran dropped mines in the Persian Gulf to interfere with tanker shipments during the 1980-88 war with Iraq.
More than a third of all seaborne traded oil was shipped through Hormuz last year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), and even a brief blockage could cause price spikes that threaten global economic growth. However, many analysts scoff at the suggestion that Iran would mine the strait itself since 100 percent of Iran’s oil exports must pass through the strait. “Mining Hormuz would mean shooting itself in the foot,” said one analyst.
The USS Sentry, Devastator, Pioneer and Warrior are the four new minesweepers that just arrived.