US Media: The Strait of Hormuz Crisis Exposes US Navy Mine-Sweeping Capabilities Shortfalls

Some former Royal Navy and U.S. Navy officers and analysts told the U.S. newspaper The Wall Street Journal on the 17th that the U.S. Navy has not been particularly strong in mine-clearing capabilities for decades. As the United States worries that Iran could lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy’s limited number of traditional mine-countermeasure ships are gradually being retired, and new unmanned mine-clearing equipment is unlikely to be able to fill the gap in time. Center for Strategic and International Studies scholar Elliott Cohn noted: “The U.S. Navy has always neglected mine clearance, and our limited number of specialized ships makes it difficult to escort oil tankers.” According to reports, the U.S. side has already begun applying unmanned mine-clearing technology. The U.S. military commissioned the “anti-mine unmanned surface vehicle” last year. These unmanned systems use towed modules to generate sound and magnetic fields to trigger mines. The U.S. Navy currently has only 9 vehicles of this kind. However, some analysts say unmanned mine-clearing technology has not yet been tested in real combat, and its actual effectiveness is unknown. (Xinhua)