The Pentagon is zeroing in on mine-laying vessels which can be serving to Iran preserve a stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, navy leaders stated Thursday, as markets proceed to really feel ache from the waterway’s closure.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. had destroyed 44 mine-laying Iranian vessels to fight Tehran’s functionality to mine the strait and pose a menace to business vessels which have largely averted crusing there.
Air Pressure A-10 Warthog assault jets are actually “within the combat,” Caine stated, searching quick boats Iran may deploy to mine the strait.
Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers Normal Dan Caine maintain a briefing on the Pentagon in Washington, March 19, 2026.
Evan Vucci/Reuters
The A-10 has been in service for the reason that Nineteen Seventies and is the Air Pressure’s workhorse for offering shut air help, capable of assault enemy forces inside shut proximity of U.S. troops. Its signature weapon is a 30mm chain gun, an enormous computerized weapon capable of hearth as much as 4,200 rounds per minute, in keeping with Normal Dynamics, the weapon’s producer.
President Donald Trump has stated that if wanted U.S. Navy warships may escort business delivery by means of the strait in convoy operations to facilitate business delivery that, in strange occasions, transits some 20% of the world’s oil commerce. However navy specialists have instructed ABC Information that the Navy can not start escort responsibility till the mine menace is addressed.
Trump stated Thursday, whereas seated with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi within the Oval Workplace, that the U.S. navy may handle the problem with out its European allies. Caine has stated he would evaluate a “vary of choices to set the navy situations” with the president if ordered to escort business vessels.
Two of the Navy’s three warships with counter-mine capabilities which can be primarily based within the Center East, often stationed in Bahrain, have been in a unique theater for scheduled upkeep on Wednesday, a Navy spokesperson instructed ABC Information.
The USS Tulsa and the united statesSanta Barbara, each outfitted with counter-mine capabilities and autonomous methods, are in Singapore for “scheduled upkeep and logistics,” Navy Cmdr. Joe Hontz stated in an announcement to ABC Information.
The Warfare Zone first reported that the vessels had left Central Command. The Pentagon has not disclosed the situation of the third, the united statesCanberra.
U.S. CENTCOM shared video of U.S. forces eliminating a number of Iranian naval vessels, together with what they are saying are 16 minelayers close to the Strait of Hormuz, March 10, 2026.
U.S. Centcom/X
The U.S. has no ships in its fleet that are completely designed to hunt and sweep mines. Its 4 ships with that unique mission have been decommissioned in September.
Central Command has publicized navy motion aimed on the Iranian mine menace — together with strikes this week with bunker-busting bombs alongside the Iranian shoreline, from the place Iran may probably launch anti-ship missiles at vessels transiting the strait.
However mines are low-cost and simply deployed, even by small boats — an “uneven weapon,” stated retired US Adm. James Foggo, who commanded the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet.
“Some may say [mines are] a poor man’s weapon,” Foggo stated. “So if you do not have anything, you lay mine. … [and] any vessel is a minelayer. So you could possibly have a [boat] that appears like a fishing vessel working round and rolling mines off the strict at the hours of darkness.”
Military experts told ABC News that Marines who’re deploying to the area may participate in floor raids — quick fight landings adopted by swift exits — to focus on belongings, like missile and drone depots, alongside Iran’s coasts that might menace U.S. and business vessels.
“Now we have functionality” to demine the Strait, Foggo stated, “nevertheless it must get there, and earlier than you place the potential to work, it’s a must to suppress the Iranian capability to assault you from different means than mines.”
Foggo may speculate solely that the ships have been in Asia “as a result of the sources [are] being husbanded and put into some form of a secure haven in order that they may very well be used, if vital, if the Iranians mined the straits.”
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a gathering with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi within the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, March 19, 2026.
Alex Wong/Getty Pictures
Trump stated Thursday Japan was “actually stepping as much as the plate” with out offering particulars.
“In contrast to NATO,” he then added, taking a jab at European allies. Trump has repeatedly called for other countries to assist with opening the strait.
“We do not want something from Japan or from anybody else, however I believe it is applicable that individuals step up,” the president stated.
Talking to Japanese media after her assembly with Trump, Takaichi condemned the escalating disaster within the strait however stopped wanting committing to supply help.
“Whereas the dialog was of a delicate nature, the consensus was that making certain the protection of the Strait of Hormuz is of the utmost significance,” she stated. “Nevertheless, there are particular actions we will and can’t take throughout the scope of Japanese legislation, so I supplied an in depth and thorough clarification of this matter.”
Foggo, who was the commander of Allied Joint Pressure Command in Italy, stated an operation to demine the strait could be “a giant carry for the US.”
European leaders have stated they don’t wish to contain their militaries within the strait amid lively hostile hearth between the U.S., Iran and Israel, reasoning that they didn’t provoke the struggle.
“I believe we do want their assist,” Foggo stated of European allies. “You all the time need allies and companions and associates with you, and so I am glad that the president [asked] for assist.”
“I perceive there’s some reluctance there,” he added.
ABC Information’ Steven Beynon, Isabella Murray and Emily Chang contributed to this report
