[donalhunt]

Iran has indicated they will only target ships tied to countries that are involved in the conflict.

That likely means US and Israel. Unclear if countries like the UK that are facilitating the US through use of their bases would be considered legitimate targets (likely yes).

[Pay08]

That's not how mines work. They don't only explode on people you want them to explode on.

[torginus]

I'm not a military guy, but I would think you can make mines nowadays that do exactly that.

[Pay08]

With what communication protocol? Does high-frequency radio have the range for that?

[torginus]

I was thinking you could run a fiber optic cable. Those have proven themselves to work over 10s of miles in Ukraine with drones.

[beedeebeedee]

That’s an interesting idea. I think the fiber optics for drones works because it is only used once over a short period of time. It seems like a cable connected to a mine could be easily disrupted by dragging an anchor with a small robot boat.

And as another commenter noted, mines get moved by currents, so the cable could get tangled and snap.

[mikkupikku]

In the modern era, the difference between sea mine and drone or torpedo can be a lot fuzzier than you may expect. People think of spikey balls, but some sea mines today can do stuff like use passive sonar to match targets against an internal database before firing a homing torpedo. I doubt Iran has these, but they certainly have the proficiency to think creatively about the problem.

[torginus]

I mean you could have some slack in the cable easily, and have the mine become intert should its cable snap.

You have to be mindful of enemy tampering, but overal I would say the idea's worth investigating.

On an unrelated note, I was also thinking of using fiber optic drones to rapidly set up an unjammable communications network on the battlefield. Surely that would be useful for something?

[Pay08]

Wouldn't you need to invest into deep sea cables then?

[dzhiurgis]

Sonar can work over 100km. Mines obvs need to maintain radio silence so passive mode only.

[dzhiurgis]

Yep. IIRC Norway and Sweden has actually have a network of smart mines deployed.

[catlifeonmars]

That’s not fundamental to how mines work. You could arm/disarm them remotely, either manually or via transponder. But I assume most mines are not like this.

[Pay08]

The problem is that it's to my knowledge very difficult to know where maritime mines are, since they get swept around by currents.

[bigyabai]

CAPTOR is your solution: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_60_CAPTOR

$130,000 a pop in 1980s money, probably even cheaper if you have trade inroads with China and a bunch of 533mm torpedos sitting around in storage.

[littlestymaar]

Easy: you mine the straight except the water immediately near your shores, where you can control the boat. We don't know about the mining part (the straight may or may not be mined yet) but the second part is what the Iranians are doing right now (the tankers which cross are doing to between Qeshm Island and mainland Iran, not in the straight proper)

[lukan]

Unfortunately Iran's leadership is in a bit of distress and communication disrupted, and "involved in the conflict" is a very broad term - so they do make some effort to get chinese oil out, but any ship not asking for explicit permission from Iran - will have some great risk of being targeted.

Remember, the strait is not Iranian property, but International waters. So no one would have to ask them for permission, but that is the way it is and most do not risk it (insurance won't cover).

[fc417fc802]

> the strait is not Iranian property, but International waters

That seems to depend on who you ask. Iran has expressed a differing opinion on the matter and appears to be capable of striking the area in practice.

[Kwpolska]

Nah, the narrowest points are below 24 nautical miles, so all ships need to pass through Iran and/or Oman's territorial waters (12 nmi each).