The United States said that the bombing it launched on Sunday on Lark Island was aimed at destroying Iran's new capabilities to plant mines in the Strait of Hormuz. It is about a potential and unique use of missiles to lay sea mines in a vital and strategic corridor. But some experts expressed doubts about the reality and feasibility of this.

Published on: 09/02/2026 - 19:24

Washington justified its raids on Sunday on Iranian missile launch pads on Lark Island near the Strait of Hormuz, by saying that they were directed to eliminate a new threat to navigation in the sea lane vital to the global economy.

The US military said that it had officially resumed the bombing campaign that stopped a month ago, justifying this by the willingness of the Revolutionary Guard forces to launch missiles loaded with sea mines into the strait.

Converting missiles into mine launchers...is possible?

This question raises the eyebrows of specialists in the field of maritime security. A maritime conflict expert who preferred to remain anonymous says, “This alleged new Iranian ability to plant mines in the strait leaves me confused.”

Since the outbreak of war following the Israeli-American strikes on the Islamic Republic, the Iranians have transported mines on board small, fast boats, and then spread them in the Strait of Hormuz, making maritime navigation in these waters extremely dangerous, as ships do not know the potential location of these explosives.

Mines were sometimes transported using small submarines or even dropped from aircraft flying at very low altitudes, according to what the Qatari Al Jazeera channel reported in an article devoted to this topic.

Read also: The United States resumes its strikes on Iran and targets Lark Island in the Strait of Hormuz

But Dirk Siebels, a maritime security expert at Risk Intelligence, considered that loading these explosives on missiles and launching them towards the Strait of Hormuz “is, to my knowledge, an unusual method” in military operations. However, the New York Times confirmed the existence of “a new type of Iranian sea mine.”

For his part, Harlan Ullman, a former US Navy officer, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the use of missiles was “unlikely,” as launching mines in this way would lead to “most likely damage when they hit water.”

Despite this, “Iran has been conducting tests on several Fajr-5 missiles for this purpose for some time,” said Siddharth Kaushal, a specialist in the impact of new technologies on naval warfare at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI), one of the most prominent strategic research centers in Britain.

In January, Iranian television even broadcast a report about the Fajr-5 missile launcher, presenting it as a new weapon for laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

The fastest way to plant sea mines

“Mines can be launched using artillery,” says Mark Hilburn, an expert on air and space security issues at King's College London. "The missiles carry the explosives and drop them over the target area. The impact shock can be reduced, for example, by equipping the mines with small parachutes."

What is noteworthy is that Iran’s planting of mines in the strait using Fajr-5 missile systems will place Trump and the Pentagon in a dilemma before American and international public opinion, especially since they have always boasted of “completely destroying the Iranian navy.”

On the other hand, for the Iranians, it is a way to “demonstrate their prowess and their ability to overcome the Americans’ destruction of their naval fleet,” said Shaheen Modarres, an Iran expert at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) in Verona.

This is not the only advantage that Tehran has achieved in this context. “It's also faster,” says Siddharth Kaushal. “Using boats requires loading the mines, assembling the crew, and heading to a specific location to plant them. But with a rocket launcher, it's enough to load and fire.” The expert adds that the time the Iranians gain through this new method of warfare may make the difference because it “reduces the Americans’ chances of discovering and neutralizing the threat.”

However, this is not definitively a magic solution, as there are other objective reasons that make using boats a better option, Kaushal adds. On the one hand, a larger quantity of mines could be loaded on board a ship because “a sea mine is a fairly large and heavy cargo because it has to be strong enough to damage the hull of the ship. It is also difficult to load a large number of them in a single missile launcher. In order to travel long distances, the cargo must be light.”

On the other hand, there is the issue of accuracy regarding the use of missiles compared to other methods of laying sea mines. Their dispersion in the event of a missile launch will deprive the Iranians themselves of knowing the exact location of all mines.

Propaganda or real escalation?

In the same regard, Dirk Siebels finds this approach "quite reckless." The expert considered that the Islamic Republic would harm itself because "Iranian cargo ships also need to know the exact locations of mines in order to avoid them." In addition, it is impossible to guarantee that ships that have paid the fees that Tehran is trying to impose will pass the strait without knowing the locations of the mines.

Therefore, Siebels doubted the benefit Iran might gain from using missile launchers. Even with the drawbacks of boat missions, including the risks to the crew, these traditional methods remain more consistent with Iran's overall strategy in the Strait of Hormuz.

In fact, Siebels is not the only expert to question the feasibility of missile platforms for deploying mines. “It's war propaganda,” said Christian Boger, a specialist in maritime security issues at the University of Copenhagen. He believes that the United States originally needed a new bogeyman to “justify the strikes” it is now launching against Iran.

Boger continues that the US military is trying to reassure shipping companies, adding: “The United States is seeking to prove that the mine threat is under control.” He also considered that these mine launchers may be part of the psychological warfare waged by the two warring parties.

In the video they released in January, the Iranians boasted about the new capabilities of the Fajr-5 missile, and tried to prove that they could cause chaos in the Strait of Hormuz, regardless of whether they could achieve it.

Read also: Two American sources: Iran has prepared sea mines in anticipation of closing the Strait of Hormuz

“The advantage of mines is that the mere possibility of their presence is enough to deter shipping companies from using the Strait of Hormuz,” Boger explained. Hence, the expert believes that the bombing of Lark Island and its official justification is the American response to these Iranian allegations.

On the other hand, Shaheen Modarres insists that “the use of missile launchers is a typical Iranian method in terms of resorting to unconventional methods to thwart the enemy’s plans” for Tehran. According to him, the Iranian response to the comprehensive economic war announced by Washington will be by proving Tehran's ability to escalate pressure in the Strait of Hormuz, by surprising the Americans with this new weapon to plant mines in the vital sea lane.

In any case, whether it was merely psychological warfare or a real threat in the Strait of Hormuz, this new episode of the conflict between Iran and the United States reveals that the mine threat is still very effective, even in the age of drones and artificial intelligence-supported warfare.

Original text in French, transcribed into Arabic by: Amine Zerrouati

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