The reports of attacks on commercial ships came after the US said it "eliminated" 16 Iranian mine-layers in the area. Elsewhere, two drones were downed near Dubai airport.
However it’d be interesting to know if its also possible for naval mines… which are a few magnitudes bigger and also usually rely on an anker (ofter heavy) to stay in position.
Given the high weight I’m sceptical if a naval minefield can be achieved by missle transport.
A missile could carry something as light as nothing or as heavy as ISS modules. And anchors don’t even have to be that heavy, they just need to be denser than water and generate enough friction with the bottom to keep whatever is attached from moving too far.
Though they could even use catapults or trebechets mounted to the backs of trucks to mine it.
I’m going to have to look into it further. If it’s a drifting mine, it could be a lot more compact and still do a lot of damage to ships. They would be less effective in theory, but all they really need is for the strait to be nominally mined.
“drifting mine”
That’s a nightmarish thought. Those will go everywhere, wash up on shore, go out into the Indian Ocean, whatever. I really hope that’s not what’s going on here.
You could presumably program them to self-detonate after a few weeks or months, but it would still present an unexploded ordnance hazard. I’m also hoping that they’re got proper anchored mines, with detailed records of locations for postwar minesweeping, but given the situation they could just be throwing them all out there as quick as they can. It is after all an existential war for national survival on Iran’s side.
I know that for land mines this is true.
However it’d be interesting to know if its also possible for naval mines… which are a few magnitudes bigger and also usually rely on an anker (ofter heavy) to stay in position.
Given the high weight I’m sceptical if a naval minefield can be achieved by missle transport.
A missile could carry something as light as nothing or as heavy as ISS modules. And anchors don’t even have to be that heavy, they just need to be denser than water and generate enough friction with the bottom to keep whatever is attached from moving too far.
Though they could even use catapults or trebechets mounted to the backs of trucks to mine it.
I’m going to have to look into it further. If it’s a drifting mine, it could be a lot more compact and still do a lot of damage to ships. They would be less effective in theory, but all they really need is for the strait to be nominally mined.
“drifting mine” That’s a nightmarish thought. Those will go everywhere, wash up on shore, go out into the Indian Ocean, whatever. I really hope that’s not what’s going on here.
You could presumably program them to self-detonate after a few weeks or months, but it would still present an unexploded ordnance hazard. I’m also hoping that they’re got proper anchored mines, with detailed records of locations for postwar minesweeping, but given the situation they could just be throwing them all out there as quick as they can. It is after all an existential war for national survival on Iran’s side.