Kevin O’Leary reveals ‘huge opportunity’ amid Strait of Hormuz closure
O’Leary Ventures chairman Kevin O’Leary analyzes how global markets are reacting to the Strait of Hormuz’s closure on ‘America Reports.’
Iran still has a range of weapons capable of threatening one of the world’s most critical oil choke points — even after U.S.–Israeli strikes targeting its military and capabilities.
From naval mines and anti-ship missiles to drones and fast attack boats, Iran retains enough asymmetric capability to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz without fully shutting it down.
Roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply moves through the Strait, and analysts say Iran does not need to block it outright to have a global impact.
Even a limited mix of those capabilities — mines in key shipping lanes, a handful of anti-ship missiles or harassment from fast boats — can be enough to raise risk, slow traffic and drive up energy prices across the globe.
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Shipping through the strait already has slowed in recent weeks, pushing oil prices higher worldwide and forcing most vessels to avoid the route, with knock-on effects on fuel costs and global supply chains.
The mounting risk to global oil flows also comes as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Iran to reopen the strait Friday, issuing a 48-hour ultimatum threatening strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure if shipping was not restored.
For commercial shippers, even a small risk of disaster is too much. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Days later, however, Trump backed off that deadline, pausing potential strikes amid what he described as "productive" discussions — highlighting the uncertainty over how far Washington is willing to go to restore shipping.
"It doesn’t take much to disrupt commercial traffic through a constrained maritime choke point," former U.S. 5th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan told Fox News Digital, pointing to recent disruptions in the Red Sea as an example of how even limited capabilities can slow or halt shipping.
For commercial shippers, even a small risk of disaster is too much.
"You might just end up getting hit by an Iranian drone. You might end up being hit by Iranian anti-ship cruise missile or you might end getting hit by Iranian kamikaze surface robotic naval system," Can Kasapoglu, defense analyst at the Hudson Institute conservative think tank, told Fox News Digital. "Maybe it's only a 5% chance, but that alone causes a spike in insurance rates, crews understandably asking for more money, it's not a business-friendly environment."
The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) smaller, fast-moving vessels are harder to track and can blend into regular maritime traffic, making them difficult to eliminate entirely.
"Keeping the Strait 100% threat-free would actually divert CENTCOM’s main objective right now," defense analyst Kasapoğlu told Fox News Digital, pointing to ongoing efforts to target Iranian missiles and drones across the nation.
Even a limited remaining capability can still pose a risk, he added, noting that "one single anti-ship missile battery" could be enough to threaten maritime traffic in the region, meaning Iran does not need large stockpiles to sustain disruption.
Iran’s fast-attack fleet has taken losses in recent U.S. strikes, with U.S. officials saying dozens of boats have been destroyed. But analysts say hundreds of smaller vessels — many capable of carrying missiles or laying mines — likely remain, making them difficult to eliminate entirely.
Eliminating the threat entirely would require near-constant surveillance across a vast and crowded waterway — something U.S. forces cannot guarantee at all times.
But the most disruptive tool may be naval mines, which are relatively cheap to deploy but can have an outsized impact on shipping due to the uncertainty they create.
Unlike missiles or drones, which can be tracked and intercepted, mines can sit undetected in the water, with some designed to detonate only after a ship passes over them multiple times. That makes them harder to locate and forces commercial vessels to assume risk even when no attack has occurred.
Iran is believed to possess thousands of naval mines, though only a small number would be needed to disrupt traffic in the strait.
Recent reporting has suggested that as few as 10 times to 12 mines may have been deployed or prepared, though U.S. officials have not publicly confirmed exact figures. Confirming their exact number and location requires physically detecting them on the seafloor — a process that takes time and a presence in the strait.
A screenshot of a marine traffic terminal showing vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on March 4, 2026. (Kpler/Marine Traffic)
Mining operations can be particularly difficult to counter because of that uncertainty, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
"You kind of have to catch them in action," he told Fox News Digital, describing the challenge of stopping smaller vessels used to deploy mines.
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If mines are suspected, U.S. and allied forces focus on identifying and securing narrow transit lanes rather than clearing the entire strait at once.
That process typically begins with sonar and unmanned underwater vehicles scanning the seabed for mine-like objects. Once detected, those objects are either marked and avoided or destroyed using remotely operated systems that place small explosive charges next to the mine.
Because many of these systems are deployed remotely, ships conducting mine countermeasure operations can remain outside the most dangerous areas while using drones and underwater vehicles to carry out detection and disposal.
The tools the U.S. would rely on have also changed.
In 2025, the Navy decommissioned several Bahrain-based Avenger-class minesweepers — aging ships that had long been used to detect and neutralize mines in the Gulf — and replaced them with newer systems centered around the littoral combat ship.
Rather than entering mine-threat areas directly, those ships act as platforms for unmanned systems that can be deployed remotely to locate and disable mines.
U.S. forces already have targeted Iranian mine-laying vessels and related naval assets in the strait, but large-scale mine-clearing operations likely would come later, after the threat environment is further reduced.
Capabilities are not limited to a single platform, Donegan said, noting that the systems used to detect and neutralize mines can be deployed from a range of vessels.
"We’re not the only ones with that capability," he said, emphasizing that allied and regional navies can also contribute to mine-clearing operations and the protection of commercial shipping.
"Keeping the Strait 100% threat-free would actually divert CENTCOM’s main objective right now," defense analyst Can Kasapoğlu told Fox News Digital. (Reuters/Stringer/File Photo/File Photo)
"The world economy needs a maritime coalition with allies," said Kasapoglu. "If there is a time for the Europeans to step up, especially for Western Europeans — France, Britain, all these naval nations, to pay for decades long of security provided by American military might, it is right now."
Questions remain about how newer systems perform under real-world conditions.
A recent Pentagon testing report found there was insufficient data to fully assess the effectiveness of key mine-hunting and mine-clearing technologies deployed on littoral combat ships, while earlier testing flagged reliability and availability issues with some of the unmanned systems.
Even so, clearing mines and restoring shipping would likely be a multinational effort, with U.S. forces working alongside allies to secure transit lanes, escort vessels and gradually expand safe passage along the waterway.
The immediate challenge is not just removing threats, but restoring enough confidence for global shipping to resume — a process that could force U.S. and allied navies into sustained escort operations while insurers and energy markets recalibrate around persistent risk in the Strait.
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Rather than an immediate return to normal traffic, vessels would likely move in smaller, controlled groups under military protection, with safe corridors expanding as threats are identified and cleared.
And as long as Iran retains even a reduced ability to deploy mines, launch drones or harass vessels, the risk to one of the world’s most critical oil routes is unlikely to disappear entirely — leaving global markets, military planners and political leaders navigating a prolonged period of uncertainty.
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