The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) transits the Strait of Hormuz while operating in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Indra Beaufort)
WASHINGTON — The Navy doesn’t have the bandwidth to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Navy’s top officer.
“There are many things we can continue doing to enhance the blockade, and but to actually start doing something where I’m providing escort services through a contested straight will, in my military opinion, exceed the capacity of the Navy to do that effectively,” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee today.
The US Navy has enforced a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports since April, although transit through the strait itself is not blocked by the US for vessels traveling to and from non-Iranian ports. Still, the threat of attack from Iran or its proxies has kept a vast majority of ships from braving the waterway.
In early March President Donald Trump announced a plan in which “[i]f necessary, the United States Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait or Hormuz, as soon as possible.” But such an escort mission never came to fruition.
