US eyes swift Middle East return of mine sweepers held up in Singapore, official says

A picture shows French minesweeper Orion before its crew detonated a World War II-era bomb of the US air force during a demining operation in Bastia on June 2, 2015. (FILE/AFP)

• The official acknowledged the United States had “not a lot of options” in the Indian Ocean to maintain the two littoral combat ships based out of Bahrain

SINGAPORE: The US Navy hopes ‌to expedite the return to the Arabian Gulf of two ships refitted for minesweeping now undergoing maintenance in Singapore, a ​senior US official said on Wednesday, as concerns mount over Iranian threats to mine the Strait of Hormuz.
The official acknowledged the United States had “not a lot of options” in the Indian Ocean to maintain the two littoral combat ships based out of Bahrain, saying it hoped to minimize time spent laid ‌up in ‌Singapore, 6,300 km (3,915 miles) away.
The ​work ‌would ⁠be ​completed as ⁠soon as possible to prepare the ships to get “back into the theater” where they were based, the official said, declining to provide a timeframe and speaking on the condition of anonymity. Since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, Tehran has attacked countries that ⁠host US bases and effectively closed the ‌Strait of Hormuz, a ‌conduit for a fifth of ​the world’s oil and liquefied ‌natural gas, causing the worst energy supply shock in ‌history. Iran has deployed mines in the Strait, sources have said, and its Defense Council on Monday warned various types of mines, including floating mines deployed from the coast, ‌could be used if the US were to blockade Kharg Island, Tehran’s main oil export ⁠hub.
The ⁠official said the ships had been at sea for quite some time due to military operations and needed to be refitted and undergo maintenance.
The US Navy has decommissioned Bahrain-based Avenger-class ships designed as minesweepers, replacing them with littoral combat ships that can be fitted out with mine-countermeasure equipment. Asked what minesweeping capacity the United States currently has in the Middle East while the ships were in Singapore, the official said ​the military’s mine ​warfare capabilities included unmanned undersea vehicles, four Avenger-class vessels, helicopters and divers.