Naval Mine Clearance Optimization in the Strait of Hormuz

Naval mine clearance operations in the Strait of Hormuz constitute one of the most complex and hazardous military tasks in the current geopolitical environment. As the world’s critical maritime chokepoint, the strait carries approximately 20% of global oil production daily. This study develops an advanced Operations Research framework based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP), formulated as a Set Covering Problem (SCP). The model divides the area into a realistic grid of 20 geographic zones and aims to minimize the number and cost of clearance interventions — performed by mine countermeasure vessels, UUVs, and surface drones — while ensuring complete coverage of all high-risk zones. The framework incorporates sensitivity analysis, multi-objective Pareto frontiers, and an extension to the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) for dynamic sweep path optimization. Numerical results show that the optimized approach reduces the number of missions by 50–60% compared to conventional unstructured strategies, achieving 100% coverage of critical zones with only 5 interventions on a 20-zone grid.