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U.S. Takes Quiet Approach to Unblock Strait of Hormuz
Rather Than Announcing an Open Challenge Against Iran, U.S. Is Coordinating With Shippers on a Different Approach
Key Takeaways:
- The U.S. military has shifted to quieter coordination with commercial ships to help them transit the Strait of Hormuz, avoiding direct escorts after scrapping its earlier plan.
- Ships are reportedly hugging Oman’s coast and disabling transponders to reduce detection risk, with U.S. forces intervening against threats like Iranian drones and fast-attack boats.
- Officials say coordination will continue without formal escorts as limited traffic resumes through the strait, a key global energy corridor still affected by U.S.-Iran tensions.
A month after President Donald Trump announced — and then abandoned — a plan to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. military is trying less public ways of protecting vessels in the vital waterway.
Rather than announcing an open challenge against Iran, the U.S. is quietly coordinating with shippers willing to take a different approach. Evidence gleaned from U.S. Central Command statements, shipping data and people with knowledge of the transits suggest ships are turning off transponders and sticking close to the Omani coast on the strait’s south to avoid Iranian mines, with the U.S. military assisting if needed.
The latest evidence came at night June 2 amid a flareup between the U.S. and Iran. Central Command issued a statement saying its forces shot down Iranian attack drones aimed at “civilian mariners that were rightfully transiting regional waters.”
U.S. forces also conducted “self-defense strikes” on an Iranian military ground control station.
The effort marks a change in tactic from Trump’s previous effort, dubbed Project Freedom, that he rolled out in early May. That initiative, unveiled with a social media post and detailed in a formal White House briefing, provoked attacks from Iran and risked collapsing a fragile ceasefire between the two adversaries. Trump later said he was scrapping the idea after allies in the region asked him to back down.
The latest U.S. push has no title and the administration has offered little public explanation. But it has been accompanied by other signals that suggest the U.S. is working with shippers in ways that officials have declined to specify.
🚫CLAIM: Recent media reporting claims that the U.S. Navy has restarted escorting or assisting commercial vessels during transits through the Strait of Hormuz. FALSE.
✅TRUTH: Project Freedom has not resumed, and U.S. forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through… pic.twitter.com/JD9cY5FUNN — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) May 26, 2026
Centcom, which has oversight over American military assets in and around the Persian Gulf, has shifted its tone to leave open that possibility. In a social media post late last month, Centcom denied as “FALSE” reports that the U.S. Navy “has restarted escorting or assisting commercial vessels during transits through the Strait of Hormuz.”
After more evidence emerged in recent days that several vessels had gotten through, the command changed its messaging.
“Though U.S. forces are not escorting, we continue to communicate and coordinate with commercial ships seeking to freely and safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, a critical international corridor for regional and global economies,” U.S. Central Command’s public affairs director, Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, said in a statement on June 1.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth alluded to the U.S. effort over the weekend, saying traffic would eventually resume thanks to “what we’re able to do, and are doing — whether it’s known or unknown — in the strait.”
Two shippers said previously they were in touch with the U.S. military, which advised them on how best to navigate the waterway, Bloomberg News reported earlier. When one vessel was approached by suspected Iranian fast-attack boats on a recent transit, helicopters appeared and drove them away, according to the person with knowledge of that transit.
“If the commercial ships are hugging the coast opposite of Iran and turning off their AIS transponders, Iranian forces would need to use radar or spotters to detect the movement and direct drone or missile attacks,” said Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
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“The U.S. Navy could detect these efforts and counterattack the Iranian units,” he said.
While some shippers are growing more optimistic about a pickup in traffic, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg indicates that movement through the strait has been limited. Just two inbound commercial transits were observed on June 2, following two outbound ships on June 1.
Steve Wills, a naval expert at the Navy League’s Center for Maritime Strategy, said the U.S. military can coordinate protection for vessels using Navy ships equipped with a modern AEGIS command-and-control system that integrates air and missile defense as well as early warning E-2D aircraft to provide an overall picture of the area.
That “makes possible a kind of distant but direct coverage” of the strait, Wills said.
