Where Are The U.S. Mine Sweepers?

USS Ponce

Can The U.S. Navy Cope With Iranian Mines? -- PH Media

Well, we don't have any minesweepers ...

The USS Ponce, a lightly armed and slow-moving amphibious transport dock built in 1970, is about to be upgraded by the U.S. Navy. According to The Washington Post, it will become a forward staging base aimed at Iran.

Navy specifications published in Federal Business Opportunities indicate that the refurbished ship will carry 370 personnel, plus four video teleconferencing centers each capable of holding 25 staff and an operations center of 20. It will be loaded with 10,000 gallons of extra fuel for helicopters, and store weapons and ammunition. The ship itself has only a couple of small guns — a CIWS Phalanx gun (with an old and ineffective sensor) and a machine gun — neither of which can challenge an incoming missile.

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My Comment: Iran is thought to have the 4th largest sea mine inventory (around 5000) in the world behind the United States, Russia, and China ... and we now know the reason why. Western navies are not equipped to handle an Iranian strategy of positioning naval mines in crucial parts of the Persian Gulf .... hell ... the U.S. Navy is not even equipped to protect their own ships from Iranian mines. As for the USS Ponce .... yup .... Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen are correct when they say that the future plans for the USS Ponce would only make it optimal for becoming a very large fireball. A sobering thought as we inch closer to a possible military conflict with Iran.