Iran’s Hormuz Naval Mines: A Powerful Asymmetric Weapon Paralyzing Tanker Traffic
13th March 2026
Iran’s asymmetric warfare in the Strait of Hormuz has shifted from kamikaze drone strikes on tankers, bulk carriers, and container ships to littering the world’s most important maritime chokepoint with naval mines.
Even though much of Iran’s conventional naval capability has been severely degraded in the 12 or so days of the Operation Epic Fury campaign, IRGC forces retain asymmetric leverage in Hormuz and the Gulf region through sea mines, drones, small vessels, and missile threats.
“It’s a good tool of asymmetric warfare,” Jahangir E. Arasli, a senior research fellow at Baku-based Institute for Development and Diplomacy who specializes in maritime threats, told the Wall Street Journal.
“The conventional capability is wiped out, but they have this asymmetrical capability,” Arasli said, noting that he was speaking in a personal capacity.
Mine control and countermeasures is one of the areas that the modern U.S. Navy totally sucks at—it was one of the supposed ‘tasks’ that the notorious LCS ships failed at—and has received effectively no attention since the death of the Soviet Union.