Does the US Navy’s LCS Finally Have a Mission?

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The Navy has retired most of its dedicated minesweeping vessels—but the Littoral Combat Ship has the same capabilities and could fill in for them in the Strait of Hormuz.

The ongoing war in Iran cost US taxpayers at least $11.3 billion in the first week alone, with roughly $5.6 billion spent on munitions, according to new analysis. That number doesn’t include the human toll—which, following a KC-135 tanker plane crash in Iraq on Thursday evening, has seen 13 servicemembers killed and more than 140 wounded. Nearly 1,400 Iranian civilians and others have also been killed since the US launched Operation Epic Fury in the early hours of February 28.

President Donald Trump has said the war is proceeding “ahead of schedule,” even as the administration hasn’t been fully clear about what its schedule is or what it is trying to achieve. To be clear, Iran’s naval capabilities, its air force, and even its air defenses have been significantly diminished. Warships have been sunk, airplanes destroyed on the ground and shot down, and missile launchers targeted.

However, even as the United States is fighting a 21st-century war, a piece of very old technology could be an overlooked threat: naval mines. To solve the threat they pose, the US Navy may need to turn to a piece of equipment it has never quite figured out how to utilize effectively: the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS.

The US Doesn’t Have Any “Mine Craft” Anymore

In response to the US-Israeli bombing campaign, Tehran has announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital chokepoint separating the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman and the wider ocean. Around 20 percent of the world’s oil trade flowed through Hormuz every day prior to the start of the war, and its closure has severely impacted global oil markets.

While Iran doesn’t have the warships to impose an effective blockade, it does have land-based missiles and drones that could target ships attempting to transit the narrow passageway. Another danger is that Iran could deploy low-tech mines, threatening oil tankers and other commercial vessels.

“They predate World War I and haven’t advanced much since; they look like the spiky metal balls you’d imagine from the movies, small enough to slip neatly into a fishing boat and packed with TNT and ammonium nitrate,” Fortune explained of the naval mines.

Trump has demanded that Iran remove any mines and warned that ships attempting to lay mines will be sunk. The issue is that there could be dozens, even hundreds of mines already laid, and as noted, small craft can deploy them. Laying mines is far, far easier than removing them.

The issue is complicated by the fact that the United States has retired most of its Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships (MCS) that were previously based at the US 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain last year. The wood-and-fiberglass hull vessels—built to avoid the use of mine-sensitive steel—were first deployed to the region during Operation Desert Storm in 1991.

“For the next four decades, the US kept minesweepers forward-deployed in Bahrain to deter use of mines in the Gulf region amid fears that Iran could use them to effectively block the narrow chokepoint through which one fifth of the world’s oil supply passes each year,” The Independent reported.

The decision was made even as the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) warned during the first Trump administration that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has embraced mine warfare as a major tenet of its doctrine, as the low-cost and low-tech ordnance is a force multiplier and part of the IRGC’s asymmetric warfare strategy.

The US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships Can Double as Minesweepers

Despite the fact that mines could remain a serious threat, the United States Navy seems confident it has the right platform to counter sea-based mines. That would be its Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), specifically the Independence-class variants, which have been equipped with the Mine Countermeasures Mission Package (MCM MP).

The MCM package is an integrated suite of unmanned maritime systems and sensors that can be used to locate, identify, and destroy mines in the littorals while increasing the ship’s standoff distance from the threat area. Embarked with the MCM MP, an LCS or another vessel of opportunity can conduct the full spectrum of detect-to-engage operations (hunting, neutralizing, and sweeping) against mine threats. These ships will use sensors and weapons deployed from the MCM Unmanned Surface Vehicle, an MH-60S multi-mission helicopter, and associated support equipment.

“The LCS Mission Modules program delivers to the fleet a modernized and integrated MCM mission package that removes Sailors from the minefield and allows for the future retirement of legacy MCM ships,” explained Capt. Matthew Lehmann, program manager of the LCS Mission Modules program office, in April 2024.

The Independence-class littoral combat ships outfitted with the MCM MP arrived in Bahrain last year. Three LCS are now in the region, with a fourth reported to be on the way.

Unlike the Avenger-class vessels, which had a non-magnetic signature that allowed them to operate in areas where mines were believed to have been deployed, the LCS must operate outside a “mine threat zone,” the Navy Times reported.

“Unlike the minesweepers, which have a long history of being battle-tested, the LCS with the MCM package has never been deployed in combat,” the Navy Times wrote. “If the LCS is used during Operation Epic Fury to address Iranian mines, it will be a first.”

The US Navy will now need to hunt and sweep for mines.

That will involve deploying the drones and helicopters, possibly operating just miles from the Iranian coast. One advantage the LCS will have over the Avenger-class is that the mine-hunting vessels weren’t built for a dynamic environment and have limited armament in case of an Iranian fast-boat ambush. The LCS, which was designed for operations in littoral waters, is a true warship.

For those reasons, it is unlikely that the four remaining Avenger-class minesweepers will be redeployed from their current base in Sasebo, Japan, with the US 7th Fleet.

It might be time for the warships dubbed the “Little Crappy Ships” to step up and show that they have a role to play—which could be clearing mines in one of the most vital ship lanes during an active war.

About the Author: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.

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