The United States is launching helicopters from the coast of Oman to guide commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz in secret.
Dozens of ships have been supported through the strategic waterway, turning off their transponders and often sailing under cover of darkness to avoid detection by Iranian radar and patrol boats.
Despite continuing US and Iranian blockades shutting the strait, both sides have been quietly helping tankers navigate the waterway to lessen the conflict’s effect on global markets.
The management of the strait has been a sticking point in negotiations, but the apparent standoff both in the talks and on the water has been subverted by the secretive military operations, ensuring continued passage by stealth.
The ships have to move slowly, operating without the usual navigation aids that would allow for sailing at faster speeds, largely relying on guidance from US forces watching the Iranian coast.
The US navy is helping a handful of tankers cross the Strait of Hormuz each day to try and alleviate the world oil crisis – US Centcom
The US military has secured passage for up to four commercial vessels a day in recent weeks, and has been evaluating whether there “appear to be any threats emanating from Iran”, said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and retired US navy commander.
“Do we have small boats making their way out into the Strait? Are there any missile launchers popping up over there, or any Shahed [drones] coming out of a village?” he said. “Basically, they’re providing that sensing layer that allows you to run through the strait, and understand whether there are any threats coming at you.”
The US is manoeuvring a tricky middle ground. Technically speaking, the US military is not offering resource-heavy official escorts for tankers but is keeping communication lines open about potential threats.
A full defensive escort would require putting “military ships out there, and having them basically act as bodyguards for the shipping”, said Cdr Clark. “And that’s the line the US doesn’t want to go over.”
The US did try this – for a day. In early May, Donald Trump, the US president, announced “Project Freedom” – an effort to escort stranded vessels out of Hormuz.
Hundreds of container ships remain stranded outside the Strait of Hormuz – Reuters
Keeping such defences up would take significant military resources – roughly a dozen destroyers on rotation, which would basically consume all the surface combatants that the US navy has in the Middle East.
Now, America is taking a “different approach … which doesn’t require you to necessarily put [military] ships between the enemy and the ship you’re trying to protect, so it limits your risk,” said Cdr Clark.
“Though US forces are not escorting, we continue to communicate and coordinate with commercial ships seeking to freely and safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international corridor for regional and global economies,” the US Central Command, responsible for the Middle East, said earlier this week.
Helicopters have been very useful as they can fly high enough to detect potential threats coming from Iranian territory.
That’s what “they’re trained for; except they’re usually doing it against tanks and trucks. But here, they can do it against boats and drones”, said Cdr Clark.
The helicopters can also shoot down drones, possibly explaining recent US “self-defence” strikes against Iran.
It is also possible that the US has put clandestine communication protocols in place – potentially providing radios to some commercial ships to prevent Iranians from listening in on conversations.
Generally speaking, vessels are hugging the coast of Oman, essentially staying as far away as possible from Iranian waters and potential mines.
0605Transit of the Strait of Hormuz
Experts say the majority of ships travelling this way are probably US-flagged vessels, as they will be more likely to trust in American guidance. Ships linked to allies, such as Japan and South Korea, may also be given priority.
Other countries, such as China, India and Pakistan, have made their own separate arrangements with Iran, which has established its own “safe” corridor of passage.
Iranian authorities have directed vessels to deviate from the usual central route and sail closer to the coast.
This gives Iran’s feared Revolutionary Guards the option of visually verifying vessels before waving them through the “Tehran tollbooth”. Some vessels have paid to sail through the strait, charging at least one oil tanker the sum of $2m (£1.5m) according to industry analysts.
But whether ships are passing with Iranian approval or US support, this remains only a temporary solution. The few ships sailing through with American military assistance amount to a very small fraction of the 135 vessels that typically transited through the strait each day before war broke out.
Countries have already changed their buying patterns and rerouted supply chains elsewhere to mitigate the impact of Iran’s closure of the strait.
The level of traffic that used to pass through the shipping channel may never return to pre-war volumes, given worries that Iran may again seek to seal off the key waterway.
While US support is allowing some vessels to pass, passage through Hormuz remains dangerous.
“If the Iranians really wanted to stop this secret ‘escort’ mission, they could send a bunch of small boats out there,” said Cdr Clark.
But for now, “they’ve chosen not to do that, maybe because they’re looking not to escalate further”, he said. “It seems like they’re just trying to manage it, as opposed to completely stop it.”