How Iran's Naval Mines Work

[dalton99a]

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/13/world/middleeast/iran-mines-strait-hormuz.html

How Iran’s Naval Mines Work
By Samuel Granados, John Ismay and Agnes Chang
March 13, 2026

Iran has strangled one of the world’s most critical shipping routes, the Strait of Hormuz, by threatening merchant ships and attacking tankers.

But Iran also has more than 5,000 naval mines in its arsenal, according to estimates by the Defense Intelligence Agency. And Iran is beginning to deploy them, U.S. officials said.

The geography of the strait and the surrounding waters works to Iran’s advantage. A long southern coastline affords ample opportunity for small boats to dart out with mines.

Tight shipping lanes leave little room to navigate. And the water at the strait’s narrowest point is only about 200 feet deep — shallow enough to lay minefields.

While the U.S. military said it had destroyed larger Iranian naval vessels that could be used to quickly lay mines in the strait, Iran began using smaller boats for its mine-laying operation on Thursday, according to a U.S. official briefed on the intelligence.

Eliminating every mine in storage and every vessel capable of laying mines could mean U.S. forces would have to destroy Iran’s entire civilian maritime infrastructure.





....

[Tetrachloride]

1. the enemy is the first to discover your mistakes

— a quotation that i once read

oversimplified but the point is there nonetheless

irreguardlessly

untill the cows come home

like a rolling bone

[Johnny2X2X]

2. Low tech and low costs seems to be a trend in war

Mines like this are simple and relatively low cost.

Drones are low cost and almost impossible to stop in numbers.

Kind of means you should negotiate peace more than ever. These 2nd rate armies now can do damage even without tanks and air power.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Guess who ordered our minesweepers out of the Gulf?

Trump pulled mine-sweepers from the Middle East and they’re sitting in Philadelphia as the Iran War rages

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/iran-strait-of-hormuz-minesweepers-b2936416.html

Trump may live for Bibi, but he works for Putin.

[GreatGazoo]

4. Paradoxically as long as Iran needs to ship oil out there there will be no mines laid

The bad news is they are using more specifically targetable weapons to select the ships they want to hit.

Using projectiles:

https://www.aol.com/articles/cargo-ship-explodes-flames-strait-113600698.html

[maxsolomon]

6. They could lay them before their own shipping route out of Bandar Abbas

Is MFer not blockading Iranian tankers?

"Kick their ass and steal their gas" is the depth of his thinking here.

[gulliver]

7. Why wouldn't all the ships just follow the Iranian "secret oil" ships through the strait? nt

[maxsolomon]

9. The Iranians come out of Bandar Abbas I think

I don't know what their route is TBH. I'm not an expert; I'm just an armchair Shipping Industry critic.

[gulliver]

10. Interesting. Not sure.

Grok and ChatGPT seem to think trying to follow ships that were tipped off about where the mines are would be iffy at best.

[maxsolomon]

11. I cannot see the insurers thinking that's acceptable.

Eventually the oil industry is going to make this "Excursion" end. Probably before the month is out.

The Spice Must Flow, as they said in Dune.

Also, 90% of Iran's crude goes out of Kharg Island. Probably gets there through underwater pipelines.

[gulliver]

12. Hope they do get it ended

Big Dune fan.

[dalton99a]

14. There are underwater pipelines connecting to the oil fields.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. Here is some more on how mines work and why they are effective

Link to tweet

Iran's arsenal includes sea mines that can float as shallow as 3 feet, anchor to the seabed at depths up to 164 feet, and detonate up to 120 kg of explosives on contact.

Iran primarily deploys them using frogmen on small boats disguised as fishing vessels, making them nearly impossible to identify and eliminate.

The goal is not to sink ships but to disrupt global shipping, as even the threat of mines is enough to keep tankers out of the strait.

Mines have damaged more US Navy ships than any other weapon since World War II.

The cheapest weapon in the arsenal is causing one the most expensive disruptions.

[dalton99a]

8. +1

[vanessa_ca]

13. Rec'd. This video explains the mine situation very well

Dan posted this yesterday and it was very informative.

?si=DQeToZeGbBKTXHUB