Missile Attacks Define Strait of Hormuz Risks, Officials Say

Heather Mongilio, Mallory Shelbourne and Sam LaGrone

March 13, 2026 6:51 PM

THE PENTAGON — Missiles are currently the largest threat to merchant shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf instead of sea mines, defense officials told reporters Friday.

Iran has used surface-to-surface missiles to attack shipping in the northern part of the Strait, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said during a Friday Pentagon press briefing.

“We’ve not seen any [unmanned surface vessel] activity out of Iran that we’ve seen in the Gulf at this point,” Caine said.

Acting on direction from the White House, the Pentagon and the Navy are devising a plan to escort merchant ships and tankers through the narrow passage. In the past, mines have been a primary weapon to restrict transit through the waterway, but during the current conflict, Iran is choosing projectiles to control the waterway.

Still the U.S. is striking Iran’s mine layers, Caine said.

“We’ve made it a priority to target Iran’s minelaying enterprise, their mine layers, the naval bases and depots, in addition to the missiles that could influence the straits,” Caine said. “And [U.S. Central Command] continues to attack those efforts.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated the U.S. military is working on a plan for the strait during the press conference.

“That’s not a strait we’re going to allow to remain contested or with a lack of flow of commercial goods,” Hegseth told reporters. “So we’re aware of that. We’re laser-focused on our military objectives, but also want to make sure that our partners across this government understand we’re working with you to make sure that energy flows.”

Caine called the strait “a tactically complex environment” while talking about comments from Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who said earlier this week that the Navy is not yet ready to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, walking back an earlier social media post that Wright deleted that said an escort had already been done.

“And before I think we want to take anything through there at scale, we want to make sure that we do the work pursuant to our current military objectives to do that safely and smartly,” Caine said.

Missiles and Drones Lead Iran’s Hormuz Campaign

The Iranians have chosen to use projectiles to control the Strait of Hormuz, Nicholas Carl, assistant director for the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project, told USNI News.

Projectiles allow Iran to choose which ship to allow to pass compared to mining the strait, which would endanger Iranian vessels, as well as those belonging to the Iran-friendly Chinese government.

There have been conflicting reports about the existence of mines in the strait. Hegseth said the U.S. currently has “no clear evidence” that Iran is mining the strait, and no ships operating in the chokepoint have hit any mines. The defense secretary disputed a question suggesting that the U.S. did not plan for Iran potentially closing the strait and how that would affect tanker flow.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy’s fast-attack craft have also been missing from the action, which Carl described as “unsurprising.”

“The Iranians have had this theory for many years now that they can swarm our major surface combatants, overwhelm them and then strike them from a bunch of different directions. But in reality, especially at a point when the United States has air superiority over the area, that isn’t going to work out that well for them,” Carl said.

U.S. air superiority is an issue for the fast-attack craft, which can easily be destroyed by U.S. fire, Mohammed Albasha, who authors the Middle East risk analysis Basha Report, told USNI News.

“The real threats emanate from land launches of drones and missiles,” he said.

Since the Iran strikes, 20 commercial vessels have been hit with projectiles.

Although Caine said Friday that drones have not been used against commercial shipping, at least one shipping company – the New Jersey-based Safesea Group – said one of its motor tankers was struck Thursday by a suspected unmanned underwater vessel.

Safesea’s MT Safesea Vishnu and MT Zefyros – managed by Greek company Benetech Shipping SA – were both hit Thursday while conducting a ship-to-ship transfer about five nautical miles off the coast of Al Basrah, Iraq.

The crews of the motor tankers abandoned their respective vessels. All 23 crew members of Zefyros were rescued, Benetech Shipping SA said in a statement. One crew member died on Safesea Vishnu, Safesea said in a LinkedIn post.

Container ship MV Source Blessing was also hit while anchored, according to the Joint Maritime Information Center, an information service created by the Combined Maritime Forces.

Commercials Transits Remain in Single Digits

Tanker and cargo vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz remain in the single digits. Cargo vessel transits climbed to seven Tuesday before dropping back down to one on Wednesday, according to a Friday Joint Maritime Information Center advisory.

On Thursday, there were five cargo transits. From March 7 and Thursday, there was one tanker transit. The JMIC does not track transits made by members of the “shadow fleet,” which are internationally sanctioned vessels that often use deceptive measures.

The historical average of transits through the Strait of Hormuz is 138 vessels in a 24-hour period.

So far in March, there have been 17 “dark” transits, meaning ships are turning off their identification systems as they pass through the strait, according to slides from a Friday webinar by Lloyd’s List, a shipping analysis. These “dark” transits are split between sanctioned and non-sanctioned ships.

Lloyd’s List tracked 10 transits Tuesday, with half attributed to Iranian ships, according to the slides.

If ships continue to be hit while anchored, it might prompt other vessels to attempt a strait transit in hopes of getting out of the danger zone, Bridget Diakun, senior risk and compliance expert with Lloyd’s List said during a webinar Friday.

The 20 ships that have been hit are:

• Sanctioned ship Skylight, near Kumzar, Oman
• MT MKD VYOM, near Muscat, Oman
• MT Hercules Star, near Mina Saqr, UAE
• MV Ocean Electra, near Sharjah, UAE
• MT Stena Imperative, in port in Bahrain
• MV Gold Oak, near Fujairah, UAE
• MT Libra Trader, near Fujairah
• MV Pelagia, in the Gulf of Oman
• MV Safeen Prestige, near Oman while transiting the strait
• MT Sonangol Namibe, near Mubarak Al Kabeer, Kuwait
• Tug Mussafah 2, assisting Safeen Prestige, near Oman
• Oil rig Arabia III near Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia
• MV GH Kahlo, near Abu Dhabi
• MV Mayuree Naaree, in the strait, north of Oman
• MV ONE Majesty, near Ra’s al Khaymah, UAE
• MV Star Gwyenth, northwest of Dubai
• MT Zefyros, off the coast of Al Basrah, Iraq
• MT Safesea Vishnu, off the coast of Al Basrah
• MV Source Blessing, north of Jebel Ali, UAE

There are at least seven reported seafarer fatalities – one from Safesea Vishnu, four from Mussafah 2, one on MKD Vyom and one on Skylight. Three mariners are missing from Mayuree Naaree, and a seafarer is missing from Skylight. There have been multiple injuries reported, according to the International Maritime Organization.

About 20 percent of the world’s oil flows through strait. Brent crude oil price is at $102.38 a barrel as of Friday, according to the Energy Information Administration – one of the highest prices so far in the conflict. The Brent crude oil price was $71.32 on Feb. 27, the day before the U.S.-Israel offensive in Iran.