U.S. Military Guided 200+ Ships Through Hormuz Undetected as Trump’s 100 Million-Barrel Claim Faces Doubt
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
U.S. Military Guided 200+ Ships Through Hormuz Undetected as Trump’s 100 Million-Barrel Claim Faces Doubt
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 10
Summary
More than 200 commercial vessels have been quietly shepherded through the Strait of Hormuz in just over a month, a senior U.S. military official said, far above the roughly 70 previously reported.
The crossings were designed to avoid Iranian detection and likely attack, with ships switching off transponders and apparently using routes closer to Oman rather than Iran’s coast.
Trump described the effort as a newly revealed “secret mission” and later said it moved more than 100 million barrels of oil to the open market, but that figure could not be independently verified.
Iran was unlikely to be learning of the operation for the first time: the U.S.-guided passages had already been reported publicly, even if officials withheld vessel types and exact routes.
The escorted traffic remains a small share of normal Hormuz volume—about 3,000 ships a month before the war—underscoring both the waterway’s importance and the disruption from Iranian threats.