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Cargo ship catches fire in Strait of Hormuz after three vessels hit by 'unknown projectiles' (www.bbc.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/world@lemmy.world
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[–] 4 points 8 months ago (6 children)

I'm not sure if you're making a joke that the rockets are the explosives or if they actually have rockets they launch that are like cluster munitions that drop a bunch of mines in to the water.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (5 children)

    As far as I know, they have the capability to deploy minefields by rocket from long range. I'm not sure if we're talking the bigger MLRS or the smaller ballistic missiles, but it's certainly possible.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    I know that for land mines this is true.

    However it'd be interesting to know if its also possible for naval mines... which are a few magnitudes bigger and also usually rely on an anker (ofter heavy) to stay in position.

    Given the high weight I'm sceptical if a naval minefield can be achieved by missle transport.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I'm going to have to look into it further. If it's a drifting mine, it could be a lot more compact and still do a lot of damage to ships. They would be less effective in theory, but all they really need is for the strait to be nominally mined.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    "drifting mine" That's a nightmarish thought. Those will go everywhere, wash up on shore, go out into the Indian Ocean, whatever. I really hope that's not what's going on here.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago

    You could presumably program them to self-detonate after a few weeks or months, but it would still present an unexploded ordnance hazard. I'm also hoping that they're got proper anchored mines, with detailed records of locations for postwar minesweeping, but given the situation they could just be throwing them all out there as quick as they can. It is after all an existential war for national survival on Iran's side.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    A missile could carry something as light as nothing or as heavy as ISS modules. And anchors don't even have to be that heavy, they just need to be denser than water and generate enough friction with the bottom to keep whatever is attached from moving too far.

    Though they could even use catapults or trebechets mounted to the backs of trucks to mine it.

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