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Posted on 03/19/2026 7:15:37 PM PDT by dennisw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NNZ2u2WDD0&t=883s
SUMMARY >>>
2. Cost asymmetry ****************
Mine: ~$1,500
Destroyer: ~$2 billion
Ratio: 1 : 1.3 million
This makes mines one of the most cost-effective weapons ever created.
3. Geography of the Strait of Hormuz ************
Only a 6-mile-wide shipping corridor actually needs to be mined.
Iran doesn’t need to block the whole strait—just the key lanes.
4. Psychological & economic impact ************
Mines act as an “insurance weapon”:
One explosion → insurers withdraw coverage
Tankers stop entering the region
Trade halts without further attacks
Critical insight: ************* The goal isn’t to destroy ships—it’s to trigger fear and shut down commerce.
Types of mines discussed: ***************
Contact mines
Explode when physically touched
Influence mines
Triggered by:
Magnetic field
Sound (propellers)
Pressure changes
Can selectively target large ships
Rising mines (EM-52)
Launch upward like rockets
Nearly impossible to defend against
Main takeaway: **************** Naval mines combine stealth, low cost, and strategic disruption, making them nearly “perfect” weapons.
Chapter 3: The U.S. Navy’s High-Tech Solution **********
Traditionally, mine clearing is extremely dangerous:
Divers manually locate and destroy mines
Ships operate inside active minefields
The U.S. Navy created a fully unmanned, multi-system approach to eliminate this risk.
The Four-System Strategy: **************** 1. Laser Detection (ALMDS)
Mounted on helicopters
Uses laser scanning (LiDAR) to map near-surface mines
Works like a “CT scan of the ocean”
2. Unmanned Sonar Boats (CUSV + AQS-20C) ***************
Robot boats tow sonar systems
Detect mines on the seafloor
Operate for long durations without human risk
3. Decoy System (Unmanned Influence Sweep)
Simulates a large ship’s:
Magnetic signature
Noise
Pressure
Tricks mines into detonating themselves
4. Precision Kill Drone (Archerfish)
Small underwater drone
Identifies and destroys individual mines with shaped charges
Key concept: ****************** A complete mine-clearing chain:
Detect
Scan
Trigger
Destroy
All done without putting sailors in the water.
Chapter 4: Why the Mines Haven’t Been Cleared Yet ****************
Despite having the technology, the Navy hasn’t cleared the mines yet. This is explained through three strategic variables:
1. Stop new mines from being deployed
Clearing mines while new ones are being laid is pointless.
Military operations have:
Destroyed mine-laying ships
Hit production facilities
Eliminated stockpiles
Result: The “faucet” is turned off—no new mines are coming.
2. Protection for mine-clearing forces ****************
Mine-clearing ships are vulnerable:
Slow and focused on one task
Easy targets for:
Missiles
Fast attack boats
Submarines
They require a protective military “bubble”, including:
Air cover (fighter jets)
Naval escorts
Marine forces
This protection is being assembled (e.g., amphibious assault ships with aircraft).
3. Economic pressure on Iran **************
The mines hurt Iran too:
Iran depends on the same shipping route for oil exports
Insurance costs stop tankers from entering
Oil exports collapse
Result: The mines create a self-inflicted economic blockade. ***********
Strategic conclusion
The Navy is waiting for:
Mine production stopped ✔️
Full protection in place (incoming)
Maximum economic pressure on Iran
Only then will clearing begin.
Chapter 5: Final Message & Strategic Insight ************
The story concludes by reinforcing the central themes:
Naval mines are:
Cheap
Old
Extremely effective
A single low-cost weapon can disrupt:
Global trade
Energy markets
Military operations
The U.S. response: ******************
Replace human risk with automation
Use layered, unmanned systems
Ultimate takeaway
This isn’t just about weapons—it’s about strategy and timing:
The Navy isn’t acting immediately because waiting creates advantage.
Mines only work once.
If no replacements exist, clearing them becomes permanent victory.
Big Picture Summary ************
This content argues that: ****************
Naval mines are one of the most powerful asymmetric weapons ever created.
They can shut down critical global infrastructure (like oil routes) with minimal cost.
The U.S. has developed advanced systems to counter them—but chooses when to act strategically, not immediately. ***************
Warfare here is not just physical—it’s economic, psychological, and logistical.
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Good post. Thank you.
Thx for posting. Informative.
Put them on the bottom of the Taiwan Strait and all around the island. Set a trap for the Chicoms. Once the shooting starts their ships will be sitting ducks but there will be a whole lot of them.Their air force would be the most effective weapon but they can’t land. I wonder what the Taiwanese are doing on their own behalf.
Thanks for a Great Post: much to learn on this topic.
Dennis W, really like your bio too !!
I just dont get how the mine threat goes from none to credible. What determines if the threat is credible? We dont just take Irans word for it and go “Oh, theres mines. Really? Ok, thanks for letting us know.” There has to be some validation to say “yup, there they are!” So if we know there are mines then we know where they are. Why not just depth charge the hell out of the whole area?
I don’t know how Iran can lay any mines in the Hormuz Strait. They are allowing Chinese, Indian and other BRICS allies to sail their tankers through the Strait. Mines don’t know what flag a ship is sailing under.
Mines on the top just bob around until a ship hits them. The mines on the bottom have sensors that a ship is above and release a mine that seeks that ship but it doesn’t know one ship from another.
I don’t think the IRGC wants to sink a ChiCom or Indian tanker.
Thanks for the summary. I saw this yousetube but didn’t want to watch thinking it just another sensational bit of junk.
Far too much junk on yousetube these days. Hard to sort senseless and AI junk from useful.
Maybe we should ‘cause’ an accident. Wouldn’t want a lot of oil to spill.
Maybe they were coming in empty.
Perhaps a Chinese ship could broadcast a signal that turns off a mine. Would that give up the mine’s location? Could that signal be intercepted and duplicated? Or could it be time dependent, so the interceptor can’t use it?
Would need the signal to work on all the mines, all the time. Not sure Chinese captains and seamen would want to sail.
Dolphins might be able to clear mines. Not sure they’d want the risk. Maybe lifetime uranium, I mean fish, would do it.
I have not seen any confirmation that the Iranians have mined the shipping lanes. In any event two can play that game. Mine Kharg Island and Iran won’t be exporting any oil and their economy collapses if it hasn’t already and we don’t have to blow the facilities up. Inshore mining of the ports and coastal waters can also put an end to the small boat threat.
CentCom has said that they have no evidence that the IRGC has mined the Strait. If anyone would know!
Plus no ships have been hit by mines.
We don’t want to collapse the Iranian economy completely. And by “we” I mean Trump specifically. Iran is going to need that oil to rebuild once they finish off the regime. And they’ll be charging China, India and other BRICS countries the going price not $15 a barrel cheaper. And, at least for now, the going price in Asia is $150 bbl.
Here in the west it’s $100 bbl FWIW. :D
It should not be too hard to produce a mine that would shut down when when pinged by a friendly ship that knows the right frequency or code.
Wooden boats will not set off magnetically detonated mines. They are effective as minesweeping hunter-killers.
Why don’t you reformat it yourself.
Proper formatting is difficult when you copy n paste from chatGPT. But I look into a better way. Screen shots maybe.
Were you in the Navy?
I started reading then I saw the assumption that destroyers are minesweepers. Fail
The U.S. Bombers youTube channel makes the same point, about cost effectiveness. The U.S. mining Japanese ports was extremely cost effect, and with very low risk to the bombers sowing them. Japan was starving because of loss of merchant shipping, partially to mines.
Post war, the U.S. made great efforts to clear the mines but still lost merchant ships - with loss of life - to mines we had sown.
In one piece of supreme irony, German shore batteries did not fire on highly vulnerable (mostly British) mine sweeping operations on June 5th, 1944 because they thought they were decoys, setting the batteries up for attack by battleships’ and cruisers’ counterbattery fire. Apparently similar tactics had been deployed previously.
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