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Iranians run out of drones. They of course could launch a swarm of small attack boats simultaneously with the air drones to attack the Navy ship and the tanker. Or they could fire off a dozen water skimming anti ship missiles that are hidden all along the coast in caves and fishing hovels. Or they could fill the Straits with assorted sea mines for which we lack the mine sweeper capability to remove (At this very moment the Navy is decommissioning multiple mine sweepers. Who would have thought we might need them?). Mine sweepers don't have defensive capabilities.

The reality is that none of those 76 destroyers are available. The very few that are in the vicinity of Iran are busy making sure the Iranians don't blow up a carrier. The rest are scattered across the world or are in port in various stages of readiness. To gather destroyers for escort duty would mean denuding other fleet assets of their protection.

Let's cut to the chase. Reality is a mother and we couldn't escort tankers if we wanted to. In the early 1980s, in the face of 1980s technology, we managed to escort one tanker a day. Right now there are 200+ tankers waiting in line. You can do the math.

Unlike us, Iran has been planning for this confrontation for decades. We don't have so much as a bar napkin sketch of a concept of a plan. Iran owns the Straits of Hormuz and we can't do anything about it.