“Mine clearing force” is not generally what one thinks of when it comes to the Navy SEALs. And yet, apparently, here we are.
According to a recent report by The Financial Times, unidentified Navy SEAL elements were engaged in a “covert” mine-clearing mission in the Strait of Hormuz over the course of four months, following the American and Israeli strikes on Iran that commenced this past February. This reported operation begs the question: why use the SEALs for what should probably be a job for big Navy along with Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) units?
According to The Financial Times, the objective of the operation was to make the vitally important strait safe for the passage of commercial vessels, as Iran had mined it following the onset of strikes.
The reported said that the Navy deployed SEAL divers along with unmanned vessels, robots, and “specialized underwater equipment” to first locate and then destroy the mines. The SEALs would operate from their small inflatable boats, being guided to the mines by the various unmanned systems that located them, then would enter the water, and presumably blow the mines in place with explosives placed on the mines at or just below the waterline.
Typically, when the Navy needs to clear naval minefields “at operational scale” – meaning, more than just a few mines here and there – it employs Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), which have largely replaced the old and retiring Mine Countermeasure (MCM) Ships.
An LCS can use its equipment to locate and neutralize mines; it can also deploy MH-53E “Sea Dragon” helicopters and unmanned systems to do the same. If divers are needed in the water, to use a more hands-on approach to clearing a particular set of mines, then EOD divers are often used. This is the more conventional approach to mine clearing, anyway.
Navy SEALs were likely used in the Strait of Hormuz because they can operate covertly in denied coastal waters, where they could possibly come under attack by Iranian boats.
Hormuz is still a contested waterway, in an active war zone, and thus requires a non-conventional approach to mine clearing. The SEALs in this case needed to remain largely undetected as they worked, and vigilant to the need to quickly transition from a mine-clearing operation to a direct combat one.
The narrowness of the strait – only 21 miles across at some points – and the continued threat of Iranian naval vessels, and even shore-based units, likely made the mission unsuitable for conventional mine-clearing units in the eyes of mission commanders. After all, the U.S. military operation against Iran is still ongoing, with fits-and-starts of fighting, and thus operational commanders are forced to think in terms of a mine-clearing operation under potential combat conditions.
Additionally, the Navy SEALs also have a long tradition of underwater demolition, as the precursor to the SEAL teams were the Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), formed in part to clear beaches of mines and obstacles prior to an amphibious invasion.
Carrying out the mission in the middle of a strait would not be significantly more difficult – and in fact, is possibly less challenging – than doing it at the shoreline, as the original UDT teams did (and as today’s SEALs train for). After all, in the middle of the strait, there is no surf zone to contend with; there is a lower chance of an enemy discovering you and then firing at you from shore; and plenty of open water in which to operate. There were also likely airborne recon and surveillance elements in the area that could warn of approaching enemy naval forces and then support the SEALs with close air support, if needed.
It thus makes perfect sense to this former SEAL why commanders in the area of operations might have used various SEAL units to clear mines from the critical Strait of Hormuz.
Feature Image: VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (Nov. 14, 2022) East Coast-based U.S. Naval Special Warfare Operators (SEALs) conduct over the beach movement to simulate clandestine infiltration as part of a training scenario during Exercise Trident 23-2 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, Nov. 14, 2022. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Katie Cox)
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