The latest development in the Iran conflict is a strong possibility that Iran may be deploying, or about to deploy, sea mines in the Straits of Hormuz. Sea mines are underwater explosive devices designed to damage or destroy ships and submarines. They can be anchored to the seabed, float below the surface, or drift freely with currents. These weapons are triggered by contact or by sensing a ship\u2019s magnetic, acoustic, or pressure signatures. Iran possesses a sizeable inventory of these mines, potentially thousands, and can deploy them using a variety of platforms, from submarines and warships to small boats hidden among civilian traffic. Although sea mines relatively low tech compared to missiles or drones, their impact can be profound. In the confined waters of the Straits Hormuz, even a small number of mines can paralyse shipping traffic. The mere threat of mines can force commercial carriers to avoid the route, spike insurance costs, and push global oil prices higher due to fears of supply disruption. Experts describe sea mines as tools of asymmetric warfare: inexpensive to produce and deploy but capable of causing significant economic harm and strategic leverage against larger and more technologically advanced militaries. This is especially true in strategic chokepoints where shipping lanes are narrow and difficult to reroute. Reports from defence sources suggest that Iran has already laid a few dozen mines in the Straits of Hormutz, with the capacity to deploy many more depending using its fleet of small boats and mine-laying vessels. The mines could be moored at specific depths or sit on the sea floor, waiting to detonate when a ship passes overhead. Because commercial ships are not designed to withstand underwater explosions, even a single mine strike can severely damage a tanker or cargo vessel, endanger crews, and halt maritime traffic. In some historical conflicts, sea mines have been responsible for a majority of ship losses, underscoring their effectiveness despite their relative simplicity. The Strait of Hormuz is a critical global chokepoint; nearly 20% of the world\u2019s crude oil and a significant share of liquefied natural gas (LNG) pass through it every day. In a post on social media, CENTCOM confirmed that 16 Iranian mine-laying boats and other naval assets were eliminated as part of efforts to prevent the strait from being effectively blockaded. Even the threat of mine deployment affects global markets. Shipping companies may reroute vessels, increase insurance, or delay deliveries, causing oil and LNG prices to spike. Analysts warn that prolonged disruption could slow global trade, affect energy-intensive industries, and increase costs for consumers worldwide. Two other facts stood out as I surveyed the news from the war overnight. The first of these is the propaganda from the White House which appears to e treating the whole of the conflict as though it were an immense video game. Trump himself tells the story that he agrees with some of his military planners that sinking Iranian shipping might be ‘much more fun’ than merely capturing them. The other story to emerge that in an effort to moderate the rise oil prices (which I suspect Trump secretly fears) he is lifting sanctions on Russia which, in any case, has just received an enormous boost to its finances as the global price for oil has sky-rocketed. Although Trump is saying that he can end the war whenever he wants, that may play into Iranian hands if the war is prolonged and Iran benefits from the disruption of the world economy from the hike in oil prices. But that does not mean that Iran is losing the battle in the skies. While the U.S. and Israel are relying on billion-dollar anti-missile systems to protect themselves, Iran is launching hundreds of low-cost drones that are costing its adversaries exponentially more to shoot down than it does to make them. It has been said that the best that Iran can do at this point is try to exploit these asymmetries, put in place as many cheap drones as it can and force the U.S., Israel and the Gulf states to expend enormous sums of money defending against their cheap drones and hope that, over time, that becomes an unsustainable situation. According to an analysis by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the latest missile model used in the Patriot system costs about US$4.1-million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every so often one opens one’s email Inbox folder and finds an email which is an instant source of delight. This happened yesterday morning as I had received an invitation to a birthday party in Oxfordshire. By way of background explanation, when I was at work there were a group of colleagues five of whom had a birthday distributed throughout the month of May. As it happened, mine was towards the middle of the month so we got into the habit, some twenty years ago now, of holding a joint birthday meal for the five of us and my Oxfordshire colleague was one of the five. Now five yeas ago, we were in the middle pf COVID and so she could not celebrate her 60th but had decided to push the boat out, as it were, and to celebrate her 65th birthday in style. I accepted the invitation with alacrity and will probably stay over in the hostelry hosting the celebrations for a night, the following day being my own birthday anyway so can probably celebrate the day before as well. Our very good friend knew that it was the one year anniversary of Meg’s death so had suggested that even in the middle of her celebrations she was going to take some time out to add a little homily in praise of Meg’s life and to imbibe a glass in her memory. Needless to say, I was very touched by this gesture and accepted my friends invitation to her party with alacrity. No doubt I shall see may of my former colleagues.as well so that is an event which I shall eagerly anticipate. Later I the morning I walked into town and had a coffee in my normal Friday watering hole where I met a mother and her daughter who were keen supporters of the horse sanctuary and had walked into town from a neighbouring village some three miles away. We spent a jolly hour with lots of story telling after which I did a quick tour of the charity shops in the area. In the past I have found some excellent glass butter dishes (decorated with, I think a Swiss cow in the glass) and I used one but have made a gift of the other. Now I feel in need of a butter dish in which to store choose in the fridge and, no doubt, one will turn up soon in one or other of the charity shops that fulfils my requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The latest development in the Iran conflict is a strong possibility that Iran may be deploying, or about to deploy, sea mines in the Straits of Hormuz. Sea mines are underwater explosive devices designed to damage or destroy ships and submarines. They can be anchored to the seabed, float below the surface, or drift freely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8118,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8117\/revisions\/8118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mch-net.info\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}