The U.S. Navy retired its aging Avenger-class minesweepers and invested two decades building unmanned replacements aboard Littoral Combat Ships. The new systems can find and destroy mines without putting sailors inside a minefield. But they need something the Navy does not yet have in the Strait of Hormuz: a permissive environment.
Vice Admiral John "Fuzzy" Miller, a former Fifth Fleet commander, walked through the capabilities and limitations on a recent War on the Rocks episode, "Hvylya" reports.
Miller described a three-layered approach. Uncrewed vessels launched from the LCS enter the minefield with sonar to locate mines, then autonomous torpedoes neutralize them. Navy helicopters equipped with the ALMDS - an advanced laser mine detection system using a blue-green laser - can spot mines beneath the surface from the air. And explosive ordnance disposal teams operate the Mark 18 underwater drone for surveillance and neutralization. "All of that can be done autonomously without any people," Miller said.
The critical constraint is protection. "That's why they're not in the strait. That's why they're not in the Gulf right now, because it does require a permissive environment," Miller explained. Air superiority, surface escorts, and the ability to intercept incoming Shahed drones and fast attack craft within a 50-to-100-mile radius would all be necessary before the LCS ships could begin work.
Retired Admiral Jamie Foggo pushed back against critics who blame the Navy for decommissioning the Avengers. His Naval Academy classmate commanded one of those ships in 1996, he noted - the hulls were simply old. "The next generation is unmanned," Foggo said. "The beauty of this over the Avenger is you don't put the mine sweeper and the people on that ship in the middle of the minefield."
Miller added that even with full automation, clearing a route wide and long enough for very large crude carriers remains a slow process. The Navy does not need to eliminate every mine - just establish a safe corridor through the deepest part of the Gulf where tankers travel on predictable paths.