Location
Southwest Larak channel
Mosquito Fleet · Mission 3 · Southwest Larak channel
OPERATIONAL ORDER 2026-12-02-LRK-019 Eyes only. Captain R. Tahami, Boghammar-7. Defensive mining authorized along southwest Larak channel. Four mines, marked grid Q-3 to Q-7. Cover of darkness only. USN P-8 POSEIDON conducting maritime patrol overhead. Engine-off transit between drops is mandatory. Any electronic emission inside the patrol arc invites a follow-on inspection visit and a bad week for everyone on this island. Return to Larak by 0500. — Cmdr. M. Alavi, Larak Naval Station
Cockpit and net traffic recorded during the operation, timestamped from mission start.
Naval mines are among the cheapest and most disruptive weapons available in a narrow waterway, and the Strait of Hormuz has a documented history with them. On 14 April 1988 the frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts struck an Iranian M-08 contact mine — a First World War-era design — while escorting reflagged tankers, nearly sinking and injuring ten sailors. The United States responded four days later with Operation Praying Mantis.
Iran has maintained and displayed naval mining capability ever since, from moored contact mines to more sophisticated bottom-influence and limpet designs, and its ability to seed the shipping lanes is a recurring feature of Western war-gaming. Because roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil passes through a channel whose navigable width narrows to a few kilometres, even the credible threat of mining raises insurance rates and reroutes traffic. Mine countermeasures — slow, dangerous, specialised — remain a standing preoccupation of the US Fifth Fleet based in Bahrain.
A scene from the campaign's narrative, shown after a successful run. Mild spoilers.
The dock at 0530. The eastern sky is just barely thinking about turning. Yusef has the kettle on and is doing nothing with it while it boils.
"Bridgeton was eleven thousand meters from where you put the last one tonight," he says. "Thirty-eight years ago. They called it a 'limpet' to make it sound like a small thing. It was a Sadaf-2. Same family as what you laid down."
He pours one cup. Then a second. He sets one in front of Reza without looking at him.
"My father said you can hear them, sometimes, on a quiet night. Not the ones you set. The ones from before. Ours, theirs, doesn't matter. Just the ones already down there."
Reza drinks.
"He was lying," Yusef says. "About hearing them. He just didn't want to forget."
He picks up his own cup and looks at it.
"Get some sleep, Captain."