In October 1950, during the Korean War, Rear Admiral Smith of US Naval Forces Far East sent a frustrated signal to his commander: “We have lost control of the seas to a nation without a navy, using pre-World War I weapons, laid by vessels that were utilised at a time of the birth of Christ.” This came after North Korean mines held up the planned invasion of Wonsan for weeks, forcing the entire invasion fleet to wait offshore while clearance operations took place.
The delay meant that by the time US forces reached Wonsan, South Korean allies had already taken the city, only for it to be recaptured by North Korea months later. The mining of Wonsan is regarded as one of the major setbacks of the Korean War, directly linked to the neglect of mine countermeasures by the US Navy after World War II.
In 1945, the US Pacific fleet alone had between 525 and 550 minesweepers, but by 1950, Commander Naval Forces Far East had only six small wooden ships and one larger steel minesweeper in active commission. This neglect led to a brief resurgence of interest in mine warfare, but minesweeping was soon seen as unglamorous drudgery compared to submarines, guided missile ships and aircraft carriers, and lessons were forgotten.
Fast forward to 1991 and the first Gulf War: the mining threat was again overlooked. The only naval casualties of Operation Desert Storm were the USS Princeton and USS Tripoli, both damaged by mines. General Schwartzkopf noted that the losses alerted the coalition to the severity of the mine threat and contributed to the cancellation of a planned amphibious assault into Kuwait.
Now, in 2026, history has repeated itself. Iran has threatened for years to mine the Strait of Hormuz if attacked, and has now done so, bottling up shipping on both sides of the strait since the end of February. No shipowner or insurer will risk transiting the strait until it is declared mine-free, a difficult negative to prove. President Trump’s call for other navies to help reopen the waterway implies the US Navy cannot do so alone, and mine countermeasures remain a slow, grinding business.
