military capability in the region amid rising tensions with Iran, a Navy official has told CNN.
The minesweepers will be loaded onto cargo ships leaving the United States in late April, according to the Navy official.
The deployments were publicly confirmed by Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations, earlier this month in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“We are moving four more mine sweeps to the theater,” he said. “That’ll make eight. We are moving [four] airborne mine countermeasure helicopters. That’ll take us to eight in theater. And … those, working with the British mine sweeps there, which we exercise with frequently, sets us up a little bit there.”
Each of the ships carries a crew of about 60. All are equipped to detect and neutralize mines.
The additional deployments are part of an effort by Gen. James Mattis, head of the US Central Command, to beef up the American military presence in the region in the face of concerns that Iran might mine the Strait of Hormuz.
The Navy has also deployed two aircraft carriers off Iran, the first time the United States done that (except for overlaps when one carrier replaces another each six months) since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The Navy has normally had one carrier deployed in the region since the early 1990s. Several military officials say the effort now is to keep two of the Navy’s 11 carrier groups in the region as much as possible.
The Navy is also finishing up refitting the USS Ponce (LPD-15) as a floating staging base. It is expected to be sent to the region in the next few months, manned by a military and civilian crew. It will provide refueling, resupply and maintenance operations for minesweepers, aircraft and patrol craft at sea in the region. The point is to keep that floating base near the Strait so the Navy can keep a permanent watch on any Iranian activity in the strait.