Four more minesweepers and four more minesweeping helicopters are to be sent to the Arabian Gulf, the U.S. Navy's top officer said March 15, a move which will increase the number of mine countermeasure forces available to keep open the sea lanes around the Strait of Hormuz should Iran choose to mine that critical waterway.
"We are moving four more minesweepers to the region, making eight," Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations (CNO), told the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee during a Navy budget hearing. "We want to improve our underwater minehunting capability."
Having 8 minesweepers in one place may not seem like much but apparently we only have a total of 14 in operation, so we would have more in the Persian Gulf than the rest of the world combined! Maybe we can unmothball some that were built in the 1950's but regardless, it seems like something is coming. Given this and the report that the Israeli cabinet might be supporting a strike on Iran without US permission, things are looking serious.
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