Bloomberg Surveillance · Tuesday, July 21, 2026
Admiral Dennis Blair explains that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz not with its navy, but with irregular maritime forces, including speedboats, short-range missiles, and drones. He states that the US must employ traditional strait-opening tactics, such as escorting merchant ships and destroying these irregular forces, to maintain open passage.
“Well, the Iranian navy that is, ships and aircraft and so on, it's not what controls the Strait. What controls the Straight are these irregular maritime forces, speedboats, short range missiles, and drones being fired from the from hidden and protected sites. So, because the Straight of hor Moves runs so close to Iranian territory, you don't need a big navy to control it. To cause damage to ships going through it, you just need missiles and drones and speedboats coming out of caves and rocks and protected ports along that along that extended Iranian coast.”
“So the What the United States must do is go to traditional straight opening tactics, which is escorting, escorting merchant ships through just continuing to destroy these irregular forces that threatened threaten them and keep this rate open by force, which we are very capable of doing.”