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<div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Robert Johnson</div></div></div>The US Navy and allies just completed a 12-day mine clearing exercise in the Strait of Hormuz. While the <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> avoided mentioning the standoff with Iran, the message was clear.
The allied nations were here and would do anything it takes to keep this critical 21-mile channel open.
<h2 class="p1"><a href="##slideshow##">Here's what we saw in the Persian Gulf &gt;</a></h2>
It was August when I put up a post saying I wanted to attend this week's Persian Gulf mine clearing exercise. 
After reporting Iran's incessant threats to mine the Strait of Hormuz and choke the global oil supply, I wanted some reality.
I thought the words out of Iran would have a different meaning 50 miles offshore of the Islamic Republic, and would carry greater weight to the troops sailing through the Strait on a regular basis.
I expected answers. Some concrete, hang-your-hat-on opinions and experience from U.S. Naval troops that would give face to the threat.
To that end, I was disappointed. I mean, I should have known better. Known that the lower ranks are so busy performing the mission that they have little time to consider anything else. And the upper ranks aren't going to express anything outside policy: "The Iranian Navy has been nothing but professional and courteous," was the inescapable line last week.
When I asked why the enlisted troops I spoke to had little awareness of what was happening in the Gulf, one Navy Lieutenant Commander told me, "We need them to be occupied every second of every day." He was referring to keeping sailors from dwelling on home and family and preserving morale, but the effect applies to current events, as well.
Most sailors had little idea of Iran's bluster. And the few I talked to who were aware, just shrugged and laughed. "Doesn't matter much," they said. "The mission is the mission." In the end, it's still hot and they still get paid. 
Fear is something that may flicker through the cockpit of an F/A-18 desperate to find its mark on a carrier deck at night, or appear full blown for an instant during one of the disfiguring accidents that plague carrier flight crew, but it rarely settles in for the night.
Still this fails to explain how complex marine mines are, and how daunting the task of neutralizing them really is. With about a dozen variations, knowing a mine is laid remains only a fraction of the fight. Magnetic, resonant, triggered … there are mines for every occasion.
Several admirals we spoke with pointed out how it costs as little as $1,000 to $1,500 to create a marine mine that could cause billions of dollars in damage. It's an almost romantic idea; biblical in its David-like ambition, but perhaps unlikely. 
What officials refer to when they mention this figure and contraption is an animal bladder filled with fuel, placed near the surface of the sea. While not only being easy to identify but difficult to control and ignite, surface mines lack a formidable favor of physics.
The deeper a mine, the greater the pressure imposed upon it by the water above, which results in a more powerful explosion when it detonates. 
Just one of many slippery perceptions out here in the Gulf about a device that invites no easy answers.
If Iran does manage to dump a string of mines into the Strait without the U.S. stopping them, it will take a long, long time to conclude an acceptable risk of passage.
And as one Navy LT,—an oceanographer—told me, that is what it will come down to: acceptable risk. I pressed him, "So what? Eighty percent, 70, 65 percent secure? What's the number that sends commercial traffic back through the strait? Is it even a number?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "But, yes, it is a number."
Acceptable risk. If you're crewing a vessel through the Strait, you may want to check your company's insurance policy.
As simple as it sounds, the only way to know all the mines are gone is to see that nothing explodes. If one gets missed, chances are someone will find it, but that won't keep the strait from serving global vessels and ensuring tankers make their way to the marketplace.
But as picturesque as the strait may seem, it could just as easily become ground zero for the planet's next big global conflict.

The US Navy And Allies Showed Iran Who Really Controls The Strait Of Hormuz

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right no-rightrail"><div class="image"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defense">Robert Johnson - Business Insider</a></div></div>Ordered by the U.S. Navy more than 45 years ago and cruising the world's oceans since 1971, the USS Ponce (pronounced pon-say) was given a new lease on life in March of this year.
It was almost literally pulled from the scrapyard, when CENTCOM Commander General James Mattis cancelled the Ponce's decommissioning and ordered updates fitting its new role in the Persian Gulf.
<a href="##slideshow##">Check out the Ponce &gt;</a>
Almost immediately The Washington Post reported the hastily retrofitted Ponce was to be a commando base for U.S. special forces, but that was quickly quelled by the Pentagon.<a href="##slideshow##"></a>
Now listed as an Afloat Forward Staging Base, Interim - the former amphibious assault ship is the first U.S. floating base ever for <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> and humanitarian operations.
These are the things I knew before I arrived on deck of the Ponce early Friday morning packed into a MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter with about a dozen other people from the media, and a handful of Navy public affairs officers.
What I learned while onboard, is that the Ponce is manned by a limited U.S. Navy crew almost entirely pulled from other commands and serving temporary duty to support the Ponce's mission.
That mission seems largely to serve in support of the four permanent U.S. mine countermeasure ships in the Persian Gulf, but not entirely.
The Ponce also stores forward materiel for various branches of the U.S. military, according to civilian crew I spoke with. The ship is staffed largely by civilian seamen and one also told me he believes SEALs are a constant part of the crew.
When Navy officials were asked about the presence of SEALs onboard, they said they could neither confirm or deny the Navy special force's presence.
But it makes sense, as the Ponce hosts many different training missions for many different groups within the Navy.
This week, that training mission is the <keyword id="1736927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="IMCMEX-2012">IMCMEX 2012</keyword>, reportedly the largest mine clearing effort ever performed in this part of the world.
Keeping the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz, safe and free of underwater mines that could hamper commerce is part of the Ponce's objective.
From what I saw, the military crew is in a state of constant training and readiness for mine countermeasures. From enlisted seamen in the well deck who told me they consistently train with anti-mine hardware, to oceanographers, who hold permanent positions that evaluate data picked up by sophisticated mine sweeping equipment.
They do it all on a ship that's more than 40 years old, with what the Ponce's Captain Rogers told us was a modest $60 million worth of upgrades.
To build a new ship to do the same thing, the Captain said, would cost billions. Capt. Rogers was good enough to allow us the run of his ship and personally guided us through spaces never before seen by the public.
The following photos show some of what we saw.

America Has Never Had A Ship Like The USS Ponce [PHOTOS]

<div class="image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/defense">Robert Johnson - Business Insider</a></div></div></div>Ordered by the U.S. Navy more than 45 years ago and cruising the world's oceans since 1971, the USS Ponce (pronounced pon-say) was given a new lease on life in March of this year.
It was almost literally pulled from the scrapyard, when CENTCOM Commander General James Mattis cancelled the Ponce's decommissioning and ordered updates fitting its new role in the Persian Gulf.
<a href="##slideshow##">Check out the Ponce &gt;</a>
Almost immediately The Washington Post reported the hastily retrofitted Ponce was to be a commando base for U.S. special forces, but that was quickly quelled by the Pentagon.<a href="##slideshow##"></a>
Now listed as an Afloat Forward Staging Base, Interim — the former amphibious assault ship is the first U.S. floating base ever for <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> and humanitarian operations.
These are the things I knew before I arrived on deck of the Ponce early Friday morning packed into a MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter with about a dozen other people from the media, and a handful of Navy public affairs officers.
What I learned while onboard, is that the Ponce is manned by a limited U.S. Navy crew almost entirely pulled from other commands and serving temporary duty to support the Ponce's mission.
That mission seems largely to serve in support of the four permanent U.S. mine countermeasure ships in the Persian Gulf, but not entirely.
The Ponce also stores forward materiel for various branches of the U.S. military, according to civilian crew I spoke with. The ship is staffed largely by civilian seamen and one also told me he believes SEALs are a constant part of the crew.
When Navy officials were asked about the presence of SEALs onboard, they said they could neither confirm or deny the Navy special force's presence.
But it makes sense, as the Ponce hosts many different training missions for many different groups within the Navy.
This week, that training mission is the <keyword id="1736927" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="IMCMEX-2012">IMCMEX 2012</keyword>, reportedly the largest mine clearing effort ever performed in this part of the world.
Keeping the Persian Gulf, and the Strait of Hormuz, safe and free of underwater mines that could hamper commerce is part of the Ponce's objective.
From what I saw, the military crew is in a state of constant training and readiness for mine countermeasures. From enlisted seamen in the well deck who told me they consistently train with anti-mine hardware, to oceanographers, who hold permanent positions that evaluate data picked up by sophisticated mine sweeping equipment.
They do it all on a ship that's more than 40 years old, with what the Ponce's Captain Rogers told us was a modest $60 million worth of upgrades.
To build a new ship to do the same thing, the Captain said, would cost billions. Capt. Rogers was good enough to allow us the run of his ship and personally guided us through spaces never before seen by the public.
The following photos show some of what we saw.

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The US Navy And Allies Showed Iran Who Really Controls The Strait Of Hormuz

Robert Johnson

America Has Never Had A Ship Like The USS Ponce [PHOTOS]

Robert Johnson

America Has Never Had A Ship Like The USS Ponce [PHOTOS]

Robert Johnson

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