Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy, preparing for a showdown with Iran, has
been ordered to send additional surface vessels to the Gulf.

Officials said the Navy would send special ships to foil any Iranian
attempt to blockade the Strait of Hormuz in 2012. They said the vessels were
expected to arrive in the Gulf as early as May to stop Iran from mining the
region.

“We are moving four more minesweepers to the region, making eight,” U.S. Navy operations chief Adm. Jonathan Greenert said. “We want to improve our underwater minehunting capability.”

In testimony on March 15 to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Greenert outlined the first naval steps to defeat Iran’s threat to Gulf waters. He said the four minesweepers would be accompanied by helicopters in the voyage from San Diego, Calif. to the Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

“I’m not going to define it as a surge,” Greenert later told reporters.
“You called it a deployment, how’s that.”

Officials said the minesweepers marked a series of measures that the Navy was preparing to counter Iran’s so-called swarm strategy in the Gulf. They said the measures would include a radar upgrade to detect small Iranian ships and powerful guns to destroy suspected booby-trapped boats around Hormuz, located some 700 kilometers from Bahrain.

Each minesweeper weighs 1,379 tons and contains a crew of 84. The
vessel, with the SLQ-48 system, was said to have a top speed of 14 knots per
hour, which means the additional vessels could take weeks to arrive in
Bahrain.

Officials said the U.S. fleet in the Gulf would be enhanced by the
acquisition of an advanced mine counter-measures system by 2013. They
identified the system as SeaFox, produced by Germany’s Atlas Elektronik, and
fitted on British Royal Navy minesweepers.

“I wanted to be sure that we are ready — that our folks are
proficient,” Greenert said. “They are confident and they’re good at what
they do in case called upon.”

  Adm. Jonathan Greenert, British Royal Navy, Iranian blockade, Senate Armed Services Committee, Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Navy, U.S. Navy adds four minesweepers to Gulf fleet