The US on Monday announced that warships USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy will conduct an operation to clear mines laid by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Soon after, reports emerged that the US Navy Avenger-class USS Chief and USS Pioneer were seen leaving Singapore port towards the west.
There were unconfirmed reports that the Avenger-class vessels arrived at Ao Makham port in Thailand on Monday. Though there is no word yet on their final destination, reports hint that they had been “dispatched toward U.S. Central Command.”
Besides the minesweepers, USS Tulsa was also seen sailing northwest in the Strait of Malacca on April 3.
That said, clearing naval mines in the Strait is said to be a complex task. Yigal Maor, an Israeli expert, told Globes: “There are several types of mines that the Iranians are likely to use. One of them is a moored mine, meaning a mine that is placed in the sea with a mooring to the bottom, and it floats in the water at a specified depth. This is a mine that is generally intended for large ships with a deep draft, such as the giant tankers that sail in the region.”
Another type is a land mine. "These mines are placed on the seabed in relatively shallow areas, and their activation mechanisms are activated by acoustic noise or magnetic induction. This means that if a ship passes by, the mine detects either the noise of the ship or the magnetic induction of its body, and this activates the explosion mechanism. And there is also a floating mine, which is a 'blind' mine that is thrown into the sea, and it floats and drifts with the currents.”
“There is no precise map of the location of the mines; similar to what happens in land mine incidents, you have to go around and search inch by inch to locate the mines," explains Maor. "Anyone who goes looking for these mines is going to search entire areas; it's really like looking for a needle in a haystack. At sea, it's even more complicated than on land."
On using devices like Sonar, Maor said: "The sonar device can't tell you whether the object it detects is a mine or a car chassis that has been thrown into the sea - which means you have to look for each object in the wreckage.”