US Central Command told CBS News its cumulative vessel redirections at the Strait of Hormuz had reached 70, nine more than the 61 logged on 10 May, a rate of roughly 1.5 per day with no published change to the rules under which redirections are issued1. Redirections instruct merchant vessels to alter heading or hold position when CENTCOM judges the route through the strait unsafe; they are a tempo measure of how often the operating environment is being declared hazardous.
CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper told a Washington forum on 14 May that US forces had destroyed 90% of Iran's ~8,000-unit naval mine inventory through more than 700 airstrikes. That figure has not been revised in the eight days since. CBS noted in its 19 May reporting that the 90% claim covers warehoused destruction before deployment, not in-water clearance of mines already laid in shipping lanes2. Cooper has not separately quantified the second number, and CENTCOM's redirection tempo continues independently of the destruction figure.
The distinction shapes who actually clears the strait. Mines destroyed at IRGC depots before they reach the water reduce future deployments; mines already in the shipping lane have to be physically swept, and that requires hulls. Italy's two Lerici-class minehunters were the first MCM platforms forward-deployed; Belgium's Primula, Germany's Fulda and France's Charles de Gaulle now extend the European in-water capability that Cooper's strike-tally does not address. For shippers, only the second set of numbers matters, and only Italy, France and Belgium are visibly working on them.
