The CENTCOM commander, Admiral Brad Cooper, visited the Strait of Hormuz on a low-altitude flight aboard a CH-47 Chinook helicopter. This flight is seen as a sign of confidence in the control of U.S. Central Forces over this sensitive maritime area.
Flight Over Ships
During this visit, Admiral Cooper was accompanied by an attack helicopter and flew over two empty ships. Currently, there is no precise information about these ships, but evidence suggests that they were located near the shores between Limah and Dibba Al-Fujairah to the east of the Strait of Hormuz. One of the ships resembles the Samah oil tanker (IMO 98584500) belonging to Saudi Arabia, which was observed near Galle in Sri Lanka on October 24.
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Security Developments in the Strait of Hormuz
During this visit, Admiral Cooper also referred to a group of U.S. Navy Marines at a coastal facility that appears to be involved in mine-clearing operations. Despite an increase in attacks by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, these attacks do not seem to affect the flow of maritime traffic. Admiral Cooper stated during this visit that "the main corridors in the Strait of Hormuz remain open and free of Iranian sea mines."
While reports of IRGC attacks are widely published, only a small portion of these attacks have been reported by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO). Additionally, no sailors were killed in the Strait of Hormuz in October, whereas five had lost their lives in September. However, on October 5, twelve sailors were injured due to a projectile hitting the Panama-flagged tanker On Peace (IMO 9893204).
Admiral Cooper emphasized that 95 percent of ships are safely passing through this strait. Information regarding the number of ships successfully passing through this strait is not available on any credible open-source database, which is part of the reasons for the collaboration between Kpler and Airbus in developing a new method for tracking movements using satellite imagery.
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