Keeping Strait of Hormuz safe from deadly Iran drones, mines could take months with high-tech help

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz could take months and require underwater robots, laser-equipped helicopters, and elite Navy divers, according to experts and a newly updated congressional report.The threat of Iranian drones and mines have brought shipping through the vital chokepoint to a halt — cutting off 27% of the world’s maritime oil and gas.Analysts believe the US has the tools and capacity to clear the Strait despite Iran’s tactics, through high-tech hardware and what could be dangerous maneuvers.If Iran mines the Strait, divers in some cases would have to undertake the “time-consuming and dangerous task” of carefully placing charges to blow them up individually, a 2025 Congressional Research Service report found.

Underwater robots also would come into play, it said.Iran has one of the largest mine inventories in the world, said Dr.Steven Wills of the Center ror Maritime Strategy.“Any ship can deploy a mine – a fishing boat can deploy a mine .

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it only takes a couple of mines to pose a threat.” Sometimes three or four “in the right place to utterly screw up an operation.”A 2025 Defense Intelligence Agency analysis concluded Iran has 6,000 of the deadly munitions.It uses hidden ports to hide small, speedy boats.Then there are the threats from the air — cruise missiles and drones, some of which might go undetected.

Iranian ports have been “pasted pretty hard,” he said.“But there’s still the potential to have those cruise missile units out there, and who knows how many drones.”Successful US attacks on Iran’s biggest naval targets — like the sinking of the Shahid Soleimani in the Indian Ocean by submarine — have yet to eliminate the threat, with the military saying it has sunk 50 ships but Defense intelligence estimating a fleet of 200 in 2019.Reopening the Strait could take “days, weeks, or perhaps months,” according to the report, depending on the effectiveness of Iran’s aggressive tactics.

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