And, when necessary, the diver performs the final intervention.
A Mission With Global Economic Consequences
The strategic significance of the operation becomes clearer when the numbers are considered.
The EIA estimates that approximately 20.9 million barrels per day passed through Hormuz in the first half of 2025. That is not merely a regional flow. It represents a substantial share of the world's petroleum trade.
When the waterway becomes dangerous, the effects can begin before a single tanker is physically destroyed.
Insurance companies reassess risk.
Shipowners alter routes.
Crews become reluctant to enter the area.
Charter rates increase.
Cargoes are delayed.
Energy traders begin pricing in the possibility of shortages.
Governments release strategic stocks or explore alternative supplies.
The economic consequences can therefore become disproportionate to the physical scale of the military operation.
A mine is small.
A tanker is enormous.
But the financial system surrounding that tanker is larger still.
The same principle explains why shipping companies remained cautious even after the United States said the main international routes had been cleared.
In August, U.S. Central Command commander Adm. Brad Cooper said U.S. forces had cleared Iranian sea mines from transit routes in the Strait, praising Navy divers and SEALs as well as air and naval support involved in the effort.
Yet clearance and confidence are not necessarily the same thing.
A government can declare a route safe.
A shipping company must decide whether it believes the risk is acceptable.
Clearing the Strait Is Not the Same as Making It Permanently Safe
This may be the greatest strategic challenge.
Mines can be removed.
They can also be laid again.
Chatham House noted that Iran possesses a substantial mine inventory and has historically maintained significant minelaying capabilities. The think tank estimated Iran's pre-war stock at thousands of sea mines, although precise figures are difficult to verify.
That means mine clearance addresses the immediate problem but does not automatically remove the underlying strategic threat.
If tensions rise again, the same geography that makes Hormuz economically important can once again make it vulnerable.
The United States may therefore face a continuing surveillance problem.
Even after an area has been cleared, maritime forces may need to monitor it for new mine-laying activity.
This is where unmanned systems could become increasingly important.
A drone can remain on station longer than a diver.
An autonomous vessel can repeatedly survey a designated area.
An underwater vehicle can inspect the seabed without putting a human life immediately at risk.
The future of mine warfare may therefore be less about dramatic explosions and more about persistent underwater surveillance.
A New Kind of Naval Warfare
The Hormuz operation also offers a glimpse of how future conflicts could unfold beneath the surface.
For much of modern naval history, the most visible weapons were ships, aircraft and missiles.
Underwater mines are different.
They can be cheap compared with the ships they threaten. They can remain hidden. They do not require a large crew once deployed. And their psychological effect can exceed their physical size.
A single suspected mine can close a shipping lane.