U.S. Navy destroyer USS Roosevelt transits the Strait of Hormuz, Dec. 16, 2025. The U.S. moves to blockade the Strait of Hormuz in a high-stakes bid to choke Iran’s economy and force American conditions, a mission with major naval costs and considerable risks. (Indra Beaufort/U.S. Navy)
The last-ditch U.S. effort to bring Iran to its knees through a naval blockade in the Persian Gulf is a gamble that will take tremendous resources and come with serious risks, according to analysts and former U.S. military officials.
The bifurcated strategy involves strangling the Iranian economy by keeping ships from entering or exiting the country’s ports while eliminating Tehran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, retired Adm. James Stavridis and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday.
The effort will take at least two Navy aircraft carriers, more than a dozen destroyers and other military assets, and the help of regional Arab navies, Stavridis told CNN.
The Navy already has a dual carrier presence and 16 destroyers stationed in the region, along with other vessels and a contingent of Marines. The U.S. wager could pay off, he said.
With Iran’s military degraded, internal political dissent starting to rumble and other problems plaguing the country, the regime in Tehran has few options and may be looking for an exit, he said. But Iran “still has cards to play,” Stavridis said,
Tehran could use its remaining arsenal of missiles and drones to strike vessels in the strait and target Gulf region oil, gas and fertilizer facilities.
It also could employ cyberwarfare, potentially aided by Russia or China, or terrorism in the American homeland to strike back at the U.S., Stavridis said.
“We need to be very wary here, very alert as we go into this phase,” he said.
On Sunday, U.S. Central Command said U.S. forces will begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports starting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday.
It wasn’t immediately clear after the deadline whether the blockade was in effect.
The blockade “will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the (Persian) Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” CENTCOM said in a post to its X account.
U.S. forces “will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”
The announcement followed a statement earlier Sunday by President Donald Trump that the U.S. Navy would begin a blockade of all ships transiting the strait.
“At some point, we will reach an “ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT” basis,” Trump said in post on the Truth Social platform.
Iran’s chokehold on traffic going through the strait had been reinforced by the recent announcement that it had lost track of its mines in the vital waterway, he said.
The posts followed a breakdown in U.S.-Iran negotiations to end hostilities that saw both sides pointing the finger at each other.
Vice President JD Vance said Iran had for now rejected “our final and best offer,” while Iranian state media said the talks broke down over the U.S. negotiators’ “excessive demands,” including issues related to control of the Strait of Hormuz and the removal of nuclear materials from Iran.
On Monday, Trump warned that if Iranian navy fast-attack boats came near the U.S. blockade, “they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea.”
It’s not clear how many sea mines Iran has laid in the strait, a vital waterway in the Persian Gulf through which some 20% of the world’s consumption of oil and petroleum products passes through daily.
While U.S. forces had destroyed much of Iran’s navy, including mine-laying vessels, and 90% of its mines, the country still has the capability to lay more, Stavridis said.
On Saturday, Navy destroyers USS Frank E. Peterson Jr. and USS Michael Murphy transited the strait, part of a broader mission to ensure that the waterway was fully clear of sea mines, CENTCOM said in a statement.
The passage of the two destroyers, which followed the standard route through the strait outside Iran’s territorial waters, likely was an indication that the U.S. believed there weren’t any mines in the area, Sal Mercogliano, an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, said in a podcast posted Monday to his X account.
The action not only demonstrated that the strait could be safely transited but also likely was a test of Iranian defenses, Mercogliano said.
“They’re not going to do an escort mission initially until they basically feel out the waters, and that’s exactly what they did,” he said.
It wasn’t clear Monday whether the U.S. will send three littoral combat ships capable of clearing sea mines into the region as part of its efforts to make sure the strait is safe for transit.
Also unclear was when Washington would begin other operations to ensure safe passage for non-Iranian affiliated ships through the region.
Over the weekend, it appeared that two of the ships, USS Tulsa and USS Canberra, were in or near the CENTCOM area of responsibility following scheduled repairs and maintenance outside the region. A third, USS Santa Barbara, was still at port in Singapore on Saturday, a ship watcher posted on X.
While the U.S. accomplished its stated mission to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons and degrade its military and weapons stockpiles, among other goals, it didn’t prioritize the safety of commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf, Mercogliano said.
The “one mission that was never talked about ... and it should have been up there higher than it was, was keeping the strait open,” he said.
