GIBRALTAR — The minister of Britain’s armed forces and the British Royal Navy are here to showcase their mine-sweeping capabilities, as they stand by waiting to assist in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
On Friday, British officials invited journalists from three U.S. news organizations to see how British forces are training to use high-tech mini submarines to clear the strait of mines.
They said advanced technology and as many ships as possible will be needed to reopen the strait, an effort that is expected to take months. But British officials said that U.K. forces will not start clearing mines until an agreement has been reached between the U.S. and Iran that ends the fighting.
Risking the lives of British service members in a war that Trump launched unilaterally without consulting British, European and NATO allies remains politically toxic in the U.K. and across Europe.
Al Carns, Britain’s armed forces minister, the rough equivalent of a U.S. deputy defense secretary, did not name Trump in his remarks to reporters on board the RFA Lyme Bay, an amphibious landing ship docked in Gibraltar. But he made it clear that Britain, France and other NATO allies — in total, 40 countries impacted by the global energy crisis caused by the war — were eager to help reopen the strategic waterway.
“I would always say the Royal Navy is the best in the world,” Carns said, as British sailors moved equipment on the deck nearby. “We’ve also professionalized and really advanced our mine hunting capabilities over the last ten to fifteen years, some in collaboration with the French but also with our NATO allies and partners.”
The Lyme Bay would be the flagship of a British effort to use mini submarines to detect mines laid by Iran in the strait and destroy them. Modern mines vary from devices that float near the surface to mines on the ocean floor that are triggered by the sound of a ship passing overhead.
The U.S. Navy currently has limited capabilities in mine sweeping. The Pentagon is in the process of replacing its aging fleet of Avenger-class minesweepers. The 36-year-old wooden-hulled USS Patriot is one of them.
British and French officials have co-chaired a series of meetings in Europe to assemble the large number of minesweepers and other vessels needed to demine the strait. Britain has already sent a destroyer, and France has already sent its flagship aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle, to the Persian Gulf region. More vessels from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Italy are expected to follow.
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A British naval officer, who did not give his full name for security reasons, said that Britain, Germany and other NATO allies of the U.S. have invested in autonomous submarines that scan the ocean water and the ocean floor for mines. After mines are located, divers place explosives on them or explosives are detonated beside the mines.
The officer and Carns said that a roughly 1,000-yard-wide corridor would first be cleared of mines to allow the roughly 2,000 ships — and 20,000 crew members — that have been trapped in the Persian Gulf for months to exit. A second roughly 1,000-yard-wide corridor would then be cleared to create a route for ships to enter the strait.
“The dive teams have discrete capabilities that can complement each other and work together to find those mines wherever they are,” the officer told MS NOW. “And then neutralize them to clear that area so that we can then free up the shipping going through.”
Carns, a former royal marine, served four combat tours in Afghanistan and received a Military Cross, the British military’s third-highest award for bravery in combat. He said British forces were ready to help as soon as an agreement to reopen the strait is finalized.
“We don’t know, because we don’t know when the Americans, Iranians, and Israelis are going to come up with a suitable solution,” he said. “For me to make a guess or give you a predicted timeline, I don’t think anybody can predict that. Nobody can.”
Sherwood and Vadgama reported from Gibraltar. Rohde reported from New York.
Ian Sherwood is the director of international newsgathering for MS NOW, a former executive editor for NBC News and a former deputy Washington bureau chief for the BBC.
Rav Vadgama is a field producer for MS NOW covering international news based in London.
David Rohde is the senior national security reporter for MS NOW and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Previously he was the senior executive editor for national security and law for NBC News.