Zero Hedge

U.S. Navy Deploys Sea Robots To Sweep Hormuz Chokepoint For Mines

U.S. Navy Deploys Sea Robots To Sweep Hormuz Chokepoint For Mines

The US military is deploying unmanned and autonomous surface platforms that can tow an advanced mine-hunting sonar system to detect sea mines that were deployed by Iranian naval forces. This development comes even as Iran closed the Hormuz chokepoint on Saturday morning.

By Sunday morning, Iran's chief negotiator said some progress had been made in negotiations with the US, but there is still a long way to go before a deal is reached.

Despite the volatility in the Hormuz chokepoint's operational status, somewhat like Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold," the US military deployed numerous sea drones towing the floating sonar minesweeping system. 

WSJ explained: 

The Common Uncrewed Surface Vessel, a drone made by RTX that tows a new floating sonar system called the AQS-20, scans the bottom of the sea for mines, patrolling columns that are 100 feet wide at a time.

Battery-powered submarine drones, called the MK18 Mod 2 Kingfish and the Knifefish, made by General Dynamics can be dropped in the water from a small boat and then scan for mines in a pattern.

MK18 Mod 2 Kingfish

Knifefish

"You're less concerned about attrition, so sending them through the minefield is much more palatable, and if you lose some, they can be replaced," said Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at Rand who previously worked with the Navy's mine warfare command and U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

The minesweeping push by the US Navy is unfolding alongside the US blockade at Hormuz, which the Trump administration hopes will pressure Tehran in talks.

On Saturday, Iran shut the waterway, and two Iranian gunboats fired on a tanker near Oman, while a second tanker was hit by a "projectile."

Clearing the backlog of tankers trapped in the Gulf could take weeks or months, and restarting energy assets in the region will also take time. There is also a loss of sizeable energy production capacity in the Gulf area, such as LNG production in Qatar, which could take several years to return to prewar levels. We've noted that the beneficiary of this loss production will be US energy exporters in the Gulf of America.

Autonomous minesweeping operations in Hormuz by the US Navy are part of a broader push toward automation and AI on the modern battlefield, as low-cost unmanned systems rise and future wars are expected to be fought with robots.

Related:

And this:

Can't stop the 'Rise of Skynet'....

The core issue is that the hyperdevelopment of low-cost autonomous warfare systems in Ukraine, Russia, China, and elsewhere has effectively pulled 2030s-era warfare into the present. Washington is already preparing for that threat on the Homeland (read here).

Tyler Durden Sun, 04/19/2026 - 08:45

Turkey Could Be 'Next Iran' For Israel: US Envoy Scrambles To Calm Tensions

Turkey Could Be 'Next Iran' For Israel: US Envoy Scrambles To Calm Tensions

Via Middle East Eye

US Envoy Tom Barrack has downplayed escalating tensions between Turkey and Israel as just "rhetoric" and pushed for regional cooperation between the two countries in security and energy projects.

Speaking during a panel at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Barrack pushed back against comments from some officials in both countries that suggested they could come into conflict in the near future. "I think Turkey is just not a country to be messed with," Barrack said.

​​​​​Handout: Antalya Diplomacy Forum via AFP

Barrack said that both countries were seeing a distorted image of each other as a result of sensationalized media coverage that painted both as expansionist.

"So if you wake up in Tel Aviv, you read the newspaper, what do you see? You see the diagram on the paper of The Ottoman Empire 2.0, which is Vienna to the Maldives, right," he said.

"You wake up in Istanbul and read the paper and it's Greater Israel."

Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognize the state of Israel in 1949, and has enjoyed largely cordial security and trade ties throughout most of their modern history.

However, since the 2010 attack on the Mavi Marmara flotilla, when Israeli forces raided a Turkish ship delivering aid to Gaza and killed 10 of those on board, tensions have been strained and the government has increasingly hit out at Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

The 'next Iran'?

The most recent attempt to restore relations in September 2023 - which saw Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meeting and shaking hands for the first time in New York - collapsed the next month after the 7 October Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the subsequent genocide in Gaza.

Since then, the rhetoric has escalated from politicians in both countries, with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett describing Turkey as potentially the "next Iran" in March.

The US government has staunchly backed Israel's military actions across the region, including joining its war on Iran. However, Turkey's status as a Nato member and US President Donald Trump's stated admiration for Erdogan has led American officials to seek to restore relations between the two countries.

Barrack told the forum in Antalya that the energy price shocks from the Iran war had proven the importance of regional cooperation to maintain energy security.

"Everything comes from Turkey. It's fiber optics. We're talking about Azerbaijan and Armenia, which is flowing oil, gas, information, data and materials. Where does it go? How does it go?" he said.

"So Israel aligned with Turkey, like Israel aligned with Abu Dhabi. Saudi Arabia could be aligned with Israel and, for the prosperity of the Israeli people, to me that's the answer."

Some recent rhetoric out of Israeli media:

Barrack added that Israel should go further, and try to engage Turkey as part of the International Stabilisation Force established for Gaza as part of the ceasefire deal signed in September. "The smartest thing that Israel could do is to entice and embrace Turkey to enter that force," he said.

Barrack said that Erdogan's interactions with the Palestinian group Hamas was instrumental for reaching a deal to release Israeli hostages, and that it happened because Ankara didn't designate the group.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also met with Barrack on Monday for what they said was a "productive" meeting.

Tyler Durden Sun, 04/19/2026 - 08:10

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