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Britain’s military chiefs are considering sending drones to unblock Iran‘s stranglehold over a key oil shipping route, as US President Donald Trump called for allied warships to protect tankers in the region.
On Saturday, Trump urged the UK and other nations to send naval vessels as part of a global flotilla to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran is blockading the narrow sea passage out of the Persian Gulf, stemming the flow from the Middle East and pushing up energy prices across the globe.
Over the last few days, oil had reached around $100 (£76) per barrel, while petrol prices in the UK are also slowly creeping up by 8p a litre. Diesel meanwhile has increased by more than 17p.
There are also concerns that Iran has laid at least a dozen mines to stop oil tankers or warships passing through the Strait.
In an appeal to nations affected by the price spikes on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said: ‘Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint will send ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a nation that has been totally decapitated.
‘In the meantime, the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline and continually shooting Iranian boats and ships out of the water.
‘One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!’
Donald Trump urged the UK and other nations to send naval vessels as part of a global flotilla to help secure the Strait of Hormuz
‘Octopus’ interceptor drones, made in the UK for Ukraine to use against Russia, could also be used against Iran’s aerial Shahed drones
The US President’s new post asking other nations for help in opening the Strait of Hormuz suggests Iran has been successful in closing the passage
The Ministry of Defence responded by saying ‘a range of options’ were being considered to secure shipping through the strait, where some 20 per cent of the world’s oil ordinarily passes through each day.
Numerous oil tankers have come under fire as they attempted to pass through since the start of the conflict.
There have also been growing concerns that Iran has starting placing sea mines in the strait to frustrate shipping.
Military chiefs are now considering the deployment of minehunting drones to deal with that threat.
The Sunday Times, which first reported the proposals, said the minehunting drones could be deployed from the Royal Navy’s Mine and Threat Exploitation Group, which is currently in the Middle East.
But the newspaper said it is not known how many drones are in service and which could be deployed.
Minehunter drones work by replicating a ship’s signature and tricking sea mines into detonating a safe distance away from vessels.
The Sunday Telegraph meanwhile reported that ‘Octopus’ interceptor drones, made in the UK for Ukraine to use against Russia, could also be used against Iran’s aerial Shahed drones.
That option is understood to be at a much earlier stage of consideration, but is attractive in terms of helping to fight the ‘axis of aggression’ between Russia and Iran.
A defence source told the paper that while Ukraine remains the ‘first priority’ for interceptor drones, there were also ‘clear’ benefits in stopping the Iranian Shahed drones.
‘The Ukrainians are the best at stopping these drones as they have been doing it for the past four years.
‘We are playing a leading role here, working with Ukrainians in a way that no other nation is to develop and manufacture anti-drone systems and drone interceptors, designed to take out Shahed drones.
‘As this conflict [in the Middle East] continues, we should absolutely be looking at how we can bring in Ukrainian expertise and innovation – and ensuring the Ukrainians see benefits from that in terms of increased support for their ongoing, heroic resistance against Putin.’
The UK government could also deploy a ship to the Gulf, although no final decision has yet been made.
It is understood Britain has seven minehunting vessels, but three are currently being used to protect UK waters from Russian threats, while another, HMS Middleton, returned home from the Gulf before the war began.
Last Tuesday, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon finally left port to shore up defences at a UK military base in Cyprus.
Analysts have said that any move to support operations in the Middle East could be used to counter some of the criticism levelled at Sir Keir Starmer by Trump and military figures over his diluted response to the Iran war.
Admiral Lord West of Spithead, the former First Sea Lord, said that it would serve Britain well to be part of a joint maritime response with other nations to keep the Strait of Hormuz open – and slammed the Government for withdrawing four Royal Navy ships from Bahrain before the conflict started.
‘We still have no warships between Gibraltar and Singapore – that shows a lack of strategic understanding of maritime power,’ he said.
Timothy Cross, a retired major general and military logistics expert, described the situation as ‘a pretty poor state of affairs.’
Rear Admiral Neil Morisetti, who captained British warships through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq war, said the decision to bring HMS Middleton back to Britain ‘wasn’t terribly bright’.
He added: ‘We’re in a pretty dire state if we can only send one warship out there.’
Donald Trump previously boasted that he ‘totally obliterated’ Iraq and said the US had hit all military targets on Kharg Island
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘We are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region.’
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, vowed to keep blocking the Strait of Hormuz as a means of pressuring the US in his first public statement this week.
Mr Trump has threatened to ‘wipe out’ Kharg Island, a vital part of Iran’s oil infrastructure, should Tehran not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Situated off the coast, the small island handles around 90 per cent of Iran’s crude oil processing.
The US has already ‘totally obliterated’ a series of military targets on the island in recent strikes which Mr Trump described as ‘one of the most powerful bombing raids in the history of the Middle East’.
Elsewhere, the Metropolitan Police is preparing for a ‘difficult public order’ environment on Sunday, when there will be an Al Quds Day demonstration in London.
At least 1,000 officers have been drafted in to manage crowds expected to reach about 12,000 people.
Fruit and vegetable producers have also been warned they could be forced to halt production and end the season early because of the rising price of energy and transportation costs linked to the war.