US targets mine-laying vessels in the Strait of Hormuz amid blockade disrupting global oil markets

The Pentagon is zeroing in on mine-laying vessels that are helping Iran keep a stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz, military leaders said Thursday, as markets continue to feel pain from the waterway’s closure.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that the U.S. had destroyed 44 mine-laying Iranian vessels to combat Tehran’s capability to mine the strait and pose a threat to commercial vessels that have largely avoided sailing there.

Air Force A-10 Warthog attack jets are now “in the fight,” Caine said, hunting fast boats Iran could deploy to mine the strait.

The A-10 has been in service since the 1970s and is the Air Force’s workhorse for providing close air support, able to attack enemy forces within close proximity of U.S. troops. Its signature weapon is a 30mm chain gun, a massive automatic weapon able to fire up to 4,200 rounds per minute, according to General Dynamics, the weapon’s manufacturer.

President Donald Trump has said that if needed U.S. Navy warships could escort commercial shipping through the strait in convoy operations to facilitate commercial shipping that, in ordinary times, transits some 20% of the world’s oil trade. But military experts have told ABC News that the Navy cannot begin escort duty until the mine threat is addressed.

Trump said Thursday, while seated with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office, that the U.S. military could manage the challenge without its European allies. Caine has said he would review a “range of options to set the military conditions” with the president if ordered to escort commercial vessels.

Two of the Navy’s three warships with counter-mine capabilities that are based in the Middle East, usually stationed in Bahrain, were in a different theater for scheduled maintenance on Wednesday, a Navy spokesperson told ABC News. 

The USS Tulsa and the USS Santa Barbara, both outfitted with counter-mine capabilities and autonomous systems, are in Singapore for “scheduled maintenance and logistics,” Navy Cmdr. Joe Hontz said in a statement to ABC News.

The War Zone first reported that the vessels had left Central Command. The Pentagon has not disclosed the location of the third, the USS Canberra. 

The U.S. has no ships in its fleet which are exclusively designed to hunt and sweep mines. Its four ships with that exclusive mission were decommissioned in September. 

Central Command has publicized military action aimed at the Iranian mine threat — including strikes this week with bunker-busting bombs along the Iranian coastline, from where Iran could potentially launch anti-ship missiles at vessels transiting the strait.

But mines are low-cost and easily deployed, even by small boats — an “asymmetric weapon,” said retired US Adm. James Foggo, who commanded the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet. 

“Some might say [mines are] a poor man’s weapon,” Foggo said. “So if you don’t have anything else, you lay mine. … [and] any vessel is a minelayer. So you could have a [boat] that looks like a fishing vessel running around and rolling mines off the stern in the dark.”

Military experts told ABC News that Marines who are deploying to the region could take part in ground raids — short combat landings followed by swift exits — to target assets, like missile and drone depots, along Iran’s coasts that could menace U.S. and commercial vessels. 

“We have capability” to demine the Strait, Foggo said, “but it needs to get there, and before you put the capability to work, you have to suppress the Iranian ability to attack you from other means than mines.”

Foggo could speculate only that the ships were in Asia “because the resources [are] being husbanded and put into some kind of a safe haven so they could be used, if necessary, if the Iranians mined the straits.”

Trump said Thursday Japan was “really stepping up to the plate” without providing details.

“Unlike NATO,” he then added, taking a jab at European allies. Trump has repeatedly called for other countries to assist with opening the strait.

“We don’t need anything from Japan or from anyone else, but I think it’s appropriate that people step up,” the president said.

Speaking to Japanese media after her meeting with Trump, Takaichi condemned the escalating crisis in the strait but stopped short of committing to provide assistance. 

“While the conversation was of a sensitive nature, the consensus was that ensuring the safety of the Strait of Hormuz is of the utmost importance,” she said. “However, there are certain actions we can and cannot take within the scope of Japanese law, so I provided a detailed and thorough explanation of this matter.”

Foggo, who was the commander of Allied Joint Force Command in Italy, said an operation to demine the strait would be “a big lift for the United States.”

European leaders have said they do not want to involve their militaries in the strait amid active hostile fire between the U.S., Iran and Israel, reasoning that they did not initiate the war.

“I think we do need their help,” Foggo said of European allies. “You always want allies and partners and friends with you, and so I’m glad that the president [asked] for help.”

“I understand there’s some reluctance there,” he added.

ABC News’ Steven Beynon, Isabella Murray and Emily Chang contributed to this report