US Navy SEALS Spent Four Months Demining the Strait of Hormuz in Dangerous, Nighttime Mission

The US Navy secretly carried out a dangerous, four-month mission to clear the Straight of Hormuz of Iranian mines using SEAL divers, drones and sonar technology, according to a new report.

The covert demining operations were carried out mostly at night, with the divers, armed with robot boats and special underwater crafts, taking the perilous journey to rid the critical oil pathway of explosives, The Financial Times reported.

The SEALS first located the bombs and cleared the area before undertaking the hardest challenge of the fraught and time-consuming mission.

“That is usually followed up by a navy diver who’s got to get in the water and approach the mine, and then put a charge on it and destroy it,” Bill Hamblet, a retired US Navy captain who often operated in the Gulf, told the FT.

The Navy also likely used robot drones to approach the mines and destroy them with explosives, which can be safer, but extremely time-consuming. (Read more from “US Navy SEALS Spent Four Months Demining the Strait of Hormuz in Dangerous, Nighttime Mission” HERE)