How Iran's Naval Mines Work [View all]

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.





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