The Pentagon is\u00a0zeroing in on mine-laying vessels\u00a0that are helping Iran keep a stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, military leaders said Thursday, as markets continue to feel pain from the waterway’s closure.<\/p>\n Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Air Force A-10 Warthog attack jets are now “in the fight,” Caine said, hunting fast boats Iran could deploy to mine the strait.<\/p>\n Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine hold a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, March 19, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Evan Vucci\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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\u00a0weapon’s\u00a0manufacturer.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump\u00a0has said that if needed\u00a0U.S. Navy warships\u00a0could\u00a0escort commercial shipping through the strait in convoy operations to facilitate commercial shipping that, in ordinary times, transits some 20% of the world\u2019s oil trade. But military experts have told ABC News that the Navy cannot begin escort duty until the mine threat is addressed.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0USS Tulsa\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0the USS Santa\u00a0Barbara, 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.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n U.S. CENTCOM shared video of U.S. forces eliminating multiple Iranian naval vessels, including what they say are 16 minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, March 10, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n U.S. Centcom\/X<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But mines are low-cost and easily deployed, even by small boats\u00a0— an “asymmetric weapon,” said retired US Adm. James Foggo, who commanded the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Military experts told ABC News<\/a>\u00a0that 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, March 19, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Alex Wong\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Trump said Thursday Japan was “really stepping up to the plate” without providing details.<\/p>\n![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/92f6bd23-d7f5-435b-9b3f-10c0b3797baf\/caine-2-rt-gmh-260319_1773923709289_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"A-10")
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