Question: Isn’t it possible to prevent mining in the Straits of Hormuz in the first place? Is mining something that can be easily and quickly performed without detection?
There's one spot - between the UAE and Iran that's about 30 miles wide or so... Ships could be sunk in the shipping channel - ours or theirs. Too tight to maneuver easily - like shooting ducks in a pond.
The actual available transit lanes at its narrowest point total six miles in width, divided into two three-mile lanes, one each for entrance to and exit from the Gulf. Not a big deal to close these off for oil traffic.
” Is mining something that can be easily and quickly performed without detection?”
Absolutely. And as effective as it’s low tech. It just requires a fleet of small, cheap boats with a lot of inexpensive mines. Iran has them. This is a much more serious threat than the nuclear one that people are focused on. No matter how many of them you sweep you can’t be sure that you have them all. That will put a serious kink in sending billion dollar supertankers into the gulf like we do today.