{ "archive_path": "archive/1788429975.267777", "base_url": "www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz", "basename": "20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-03 10:06", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.france24.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz.html" }, "domain": "www.france24.com", "extension": "", "hash": "E2PPZCP0JVQEPYDS93ET", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.france24.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:44.154075+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788429975.267777", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:43.805065+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:44.502592+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788429975.267777", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:44.163409+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz", "--format=text" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:50.898404+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "ArchiveError: Mercury was not able to get article text from the URL", "pwd": "/data/archive/1788429975.267777", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:49.921155+00:00", "status": "failed" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpor565u3e", "https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260903-has-iran-modified-its-rocket-systems-to-fire-mines-into-the-strait-of-hormuz" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-03T16:27:49.912146+00:00", "index_texts": [ "The motive behind the US strikes on Sunday, which hit Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, appears to have been the prevention of a new threat to shipping in the vital waterway. Officially, the US military decided to resume its strikes after a month-long hiatus because Iranian forces from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were preparing to \u201claunch rockets loaded with sea mines into the strait.\u201d Read moreIran, Qatar hold Hormuz talks as US blockade squeezes Iran oil exports Rocket launchers as mine launchers Some maritime security experts say they were taken by surprise by the US\u2019s claim. \u201cThis alleged new capability by the Iranians to deploy mines into the strait is puzzling,\u201d said a specialist in maritime conflicts who preferred to remain anonymous. Since the conflict with the United States and Israel began, Iranians have typically transported sea mines in small, fast boats and then scattered them across the Strait of Hormuz. This has made the strait extremely dangerous as vessels have had to navigate it not knowing the exact location of the underwater explosives. \n \n To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.\n \n\n One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n \n Cover image: Un panneau d'affichage appelant \u00e0 la vengeance contre le pr\u00e9sident am\u00e9ricain Donald Trump, dans la rue Jomhouri, dans le centre de T\u00e9h\u00e9ran, le 27 juillet 2026. \u00a9 AFP \n04:29 \n \n \n \n \n Sea mines have also been delivered typically by small submarines or dropped by aircraft flying at very low altitudes.\u00a0 They can be positioned on the seabed or moored above it\u00a0\u2013 or left just beneath the surface of the water where they detect passing ships before exploding on contact with a vessel. A not so new novel method? According to Dirk Siebels, a maritime security specialist at Risk Intelligence, using land-based rocket launchers to shoot sea mines into the Strait of Hormuz \u201cwould, as far as I know, be a novel method\u201d. Harlan Ullman, a former US Naval officer, agreed. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said it was \u201cunlikely\u201d rocket launchers would be used to fire mines because they would be \u201chighly likely to be damaged upon impact with the water,\u201d he said. However, reports have been circulating for several months about Iran\u2019s capacity to use missiles to lay sea mines. Iranian state television broadcast a report on the Fajr-5 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) as early as January 2025, referring\u00a0to it as the newest weapon for mining in the Strait of Hormuz. Read moreHow ships are risking \u2018safe\u2019 passage through the Strait of Hormuz \u201cIran has been conducting tests with Fajr-5 multiple rocket launchers for this purpose for some time now,\u201d said Sidharth Kaushal, an expert on the impact of new technologies on naval warfare at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI), one of Britain\u2019s leading strategic think tanks. A quicker way to deploy sea mines In principle, weapons can be used to deploy mines. \u201cMissiles carry the explosives and drop them over the target area,\u201d said Mark Hilborne, an expert in aviation and space security at King\u2019s College London. \u201cThe impact can be minimised by equipping the mines with small parachutes, for example.\u201d If Iran has indeed begun launching mines into the strait using Fajr-5 systems, it would greatly undermine the rhetoric from US President Donald Trump and the Pentagon, who have boasted of having \u201ccompletely destroyed the Iranian navy\u201d. For Iranians, \u201cthis would be a way to demonstrate their ingenuity and their ability to overcome the destruction of their fleet by the Americans,\u201d explained Shahin Modarres, an Iran specialist at the International Team for the Study of Security (ITSS) in Verona. And it would give the Iranian regime yet another advantage. \u201cIt\u2019s also faster. Using a boat requires loading the mines, assembling the crew, travelling to the site, and dropping the mines. With a rocket launcher, all you have to do is load and fire,\u201d Kaushal said. Time saved can make all the difference. \u201cIt limits the opportunities the Americans have to detect and prevent a threat,\u201d the RUSI analyst added. Despite its strategic merits, the rocket system is not a panacea. There are practical reasons why using boats is preferable. First, it\u2019s possible to carry more mines on a boat. \u201cA naval mine is a fairly large and heavy warhead because it must be powerful enough to damage a ship\u2019s hull. It\u2019s difficult to fit many of them into a single rocket launch, because to travel a long distance, the warhead must be lightweight,\u201d Kaushal explained. Second, rocket-launched mines are not particularly precise compared to other methods. The rocket system tends to scatter mines once they have been fired, making it difficult even for the Iranians themselves to ascertain their location. \n Latest flare-up between US and Iran bring conflict's lull to an end\n \n \n \n \n To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.\n \n\n One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.\n \n \n\n\n \n \n\n\n \n\n\n \n\n\n \n Cover image: Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Oman on August 31, 2026. \u00a9 Stringer, Reuters \n01:52 \n \n \n \n \n\n Propaganda or a veritable escalation? Siebels considers the military tactic \u201crather reckless\u201d, suggesting that Iran would be shooting itself in the foot because \u201cIranian cargo ships also need to know exactly where the mines are in order to avoid them.\u201d Without knowing the whereabouts of these mines, it is impossible to guarantee ships safe passage through the strait, even if they have paid the transit fee Tehran is demanding. Siebels said he is doubtful that rocket launchers are being used. Despite the drawbacks of naval missions \u2013 particularly the risk to crews \u2013 these more traditional methods would align more with Iran\u2019s overall strategy in the Strait of Hormuz. Others share his scepticism. \u201cIt\u2019s war propaganda,\u201d argues Christian Bueger, a specialist in maritime security issues at the University of Copenhagen. He said he believes that the United States needed to find a new threat to maritime traffic to \u201cjustify the strikes\u201d and to reassure shipping companies. \u201cThe United States is seeking to demonstrate that the mine threat is under control,\u201d Bueger said. Regardless, it cannot be ruled out that laying mines is part of the psychological warfare being waged by these military rivals. With their January 2025 video touting the new capabilities of the Fajr-5, the Iranians sought to demonstrate that they could still wreak havoc in the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 whether it is true or not. \u201cThe advantage of mines is that the mere risk of their existence may be enough to discourage ships from passing through the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d Bueger said, adding that the official response by the US to the bombings on Larak Island would be justified because of Tehran\u2019s actions in the strait. Modarres is less convinced. \u201cThe use of rocket launchers is typical of how Iran employs unconventional methods to thwart enemy plans.\u201d Confronted by Washington\u2019s declaration of an all-out economic war, he said Iran may want to demonstrate that it is still capable of imposing its military might over the Strait of Hormuz, blindsiding the Americans by wielding a new weapon to disrupt the vital maritime route. Whatever the reality \u2013 whether bluff and psychological warfare or a veritable threat to the strait \u2013 this latest development in the intransigent conflict between Iran and the US reveals that, in an era where drones and AI-enhanced warfare dominate, the threat of mines remains highly effective. 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