{"id":442703,"date":"2026-05-24T07:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442703\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T07:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:48:13","slug":"british-navy-prepares-to-clear-mines-in-strait-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/442703\/","title":{"rendered":"British navy prepares to clear mines in Strait of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aboard the RFA Lyme Bay docked off the coast of Gibraltar, hundreds of British sailors are waiting to be deployed for a mine-clearing mission to the Strait of Hormuz that is still in doubt.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at allies for not doing more to support the United States’ war effort in Iran, whose chokehold on the strait has crippled international shipping and sent energy prices soaring. In March, Trump told NATO allies to \u201cgo get your own oil\u201d and secure the strait themselves.<\/p>\n

On the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, the UK\u2019s Royal Navy was preparing to do that \u2013 but only once a peace agreement is reached. Trump said Saturday that a deal with Iran has been \u201clargely negotiated\u201d after calls with Israel and other allies in the region, but it still needed finalising.<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Armed Forces Minister Al Carns took a small group of reporters to visit the RFA Lyme Bay as it prepared for a possible international operation, led by the UK and France, to secure the strait. As Carns spoke, the amphibious landing vessel, docked at the gateway to the Mediterranean, was being loaded with ammunition and mine-hunting sea drones equipped with sonar.<\/p>\n

\"Britain's<\/p>\n

Britain’s Armed Forces Minister Al Carns speaks during an interview on RFA Lyme Bay, in territory of Gibraltar, on Friday, May 22, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

With a crew of several hundred sailors, the RFA Lyme Bay would soon depart Gibraltar to link up with the UK destroyer HMS Dragon and allied ships for air support before sailing through the Suez Canal to the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich other country can pull together 40 nations and come up with a solution to deal with a complex problem that we couldn\u2019t predict because we weren\u2019t involved?\u201d asked Carns, responding to a question from The Associated Press about what Trump wants from his British ally.<\/p>\n

After the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, Tehran retaliated by effectively closing the strait, a key waterway for the region\u2019s oil, natural gas and fertiliser, causing global economic pain. The UK in particular has drawn the ire of Trump, who has described Britain\u2019s navy as \u201ctoys\u201d and Prime Minister Keir Starmer as \u201cnot Winston Churchill.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 6000 ships have been blocked from passing through the strait since the conflict began, Carns said.<\/p>\n

\"Britain's<\/p>\n

Britain’s Armed Forces Minister Al Carns, centre, inspects autonomous vehicles with sonar sensor that can detect and identify mines, on RFA Lyme Bay in territory of Gibraltar, on Friday, May 22, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

There could be a range of threats from Iran\u2019s mines<\/p>\n

Iran could have a \u201chuge\u201d variety of mines throughout strait, said Commander Gemma Britton, who was in charge of the Royal Navy\u2019s Mine and Threat Exploitation Group. Mines could be rocket-propelled, cabled or sit on the seabed and be triggered by sound, movement or light.<\/p>\n

AP was shown autonomous systems that could scan the seabed and the water with sonar in about half the time it took for a crewed vessel to enter and map potential dangers. The sea drones equipped with sonar produced a picture of objects under the water, from fishing traps to pipelines. The picture was used to identify mines that could be explored with advanced acoustic systems and cameras, Britton said.<\/p>\n

Some of the systems on the RFA Lyme Bay could be loaded onto a smaller vessel that could be launched and piloted autonomously from the ship, which acts as a mother ship, waiting outside any potential minefield, Britton said. That reduces the number of people needed to enter, she said.<\/p>\n

Once a mine has been located, a diver with explosives normally placed a charge on the mine before swimming away to detonate it. But RFA Lyme Bay was trialing a remotely operated vehicle that dived and dropped a charge by a mine before setting it off, Britton said.<\/p>\n

The priority, she said, would be to clear a transit lane in the strait to allow around 700 ships to leave. A lane flowing in the opposite direction would then be cleared, allowing ships to enter, she said, but added that clearing the entire strait could take months or years.<\/p>\n

\"Autonomous<\/p>\n

Autonomous vehicles with sonar sensor that can detect and identify mines are soon on RFA Lyme Bay, in territory of Gibraltar, on Friday, May 22, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

It’s still not clear if the UK and its allies will be deployed<\/p>\n

It still wasn’t clear if any mines were in the strait \u2014 or if the UK and its allies would be deploying to remove them.<\/p>\n

When asked by AP if the British effort was partly for show, to curry favor with the US, Carns said he was sure some mines had been blown up or floated away but that assurance is not good enough for commercial insurance companies. He said those companies need \u201cabsolute certainty\u201d to get vessels traveling through the strait again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what this capability will provide,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The international effort to secure the strait would happen only once hostilities were over.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinal aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,\u201d Trump said Saturday on social media, with no details on timing.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time in recent weeks that a deal has been described as close.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know when the Americans, Iranians and Israelis are going to come up with a suitable solution,\u201d Carns said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the RFA Lyme Bay and its crew will be waiting and will be \u201creally, really ready,\u201d Carns said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aboard the RFA Lyme Bay docked off the coast of Gibraltar, hundreds of British sailors are waiting to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39,1745],"class_list":["post-442703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-uk-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}