Analysis: The US protected ships from Iran in the Strait of Hormuz in the '80s. Could it again?

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Naval mines bobbing in the waters of the Persian Gulf, threatening oil tankers. Iranian speed boats raking ships with machine-gun fire in the Strait of Hormuz. And the United States right in the middle of the fight.

This isn’t the current conflict between Iran and the U.S., paused by a shaky ceasefire. Instead, it’s the “Tanker war,” when Iran targeted shipping during its 1980s war with Iraq, and U.S. warships stepped in to escort Kuwaiti tankers to ensure the flow of crude oil to the global market.

The U.S. could follow that model now and become more aggressive to protect ships passing through the strait, through which 20% of the world’s traded oil and natural gas passes in peacetime. It conducted more limited escorts of ships that came under attack in the Red Sea in recent years, and President Donald Trump said this week that he has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats.

But offering escorts in the Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t be so easy. Military technology has advanced since the "Tanker war." The U.S. hasn’t defined the same clear, narrow goals in this war as it did in the 1980s. And it’s not clear international shippers would feel safe even with an American Navy escort given it is a combatant now.

The U.S. Navy has long been familiar with the small boat tactics deployed by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has adapted to international sanctions blocking its ability to access military vessels by using smaller civilian ships for military purposes.

For years, the Guard has used vessels the size of small commercial fishing boats to shadow American aircraft carriers whenever they pass through the strait. Instead of bearing fishing poles, most have Soviet-era heavy machine guns bolted to their bows with a small rocket launcher atop.

Using those small boats, Iran seized two cargo ships this week. A video released by the Guard showed its forces aboard patrol boats dwarfed by the massive container ships. Guardsmen opened fire on the cargo ships, then stormed the vessels, carrying assault rifles.

Beyond their propaganda value, the seizures showed that nearly eight weeks into the war with the U.S. and Israel, with the American Navy imposing a blockade on Iran's coasts, the Guard can use limited resources to effectively shut down the strait and hold the global economy hostage.

The “Tanker war” grew out of the fierce eight-year war between Iraq and Iran in the 1980s.

Iraq first targeted Iranian oil infrastructure and tankers in the Persian Gulf. Iran eventually responded with a concerted campaign of its own against ships in the region, including laying mines.

Iraq ultimately would attack over 280 vessels to Iran’s 168, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. But Iran’s use of mines caused havoc in the region.

The U.S., which supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with intelligence, weaponry and other aid, launched “Operation Earnest Will” and began escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers — which were reflagged as American.

It wasn’t without danger. The Kuwaiti supertanker Bridgeton struck a mine while under U.S. escort at the start of the operation. An Iraqi missile strike on the USS Stark killed 37 sailors, while an Iranian mine attack wounded 10 on the USS Samuel B. Roberts. The U.S. also mistook a commercial airliner for a fighter jet and shot it down, killing all 290 people aboard Iran Air flight 655.

Despite the challenges, the “Tanker war” operation succeeded as U.S. Navy ships escorted some 70 convoys through the region.

But it would be hard to replicate that today.

The U.S. would have to guarantee that it could create a cordon that Iran couldn’t pierce — a tall order since just one Iranian missile, drone or boat-borne attack would bring back the fear that now pervades the strait.

“I think even if you compare it with the ‘Tanker war,’ I think just in terms of the way military technology has evolved, especially on that asymmetrical side, it’s much more difficult to secure a waterway now than it was then,” said Torbjorn Soltvedt, an analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

“Unless there is some sort of agreement or unless the U.S. can significantly curb Iran’s ability to launch fast boats, to launch drones, to launch short-range missiles, then this problem just remains unresolved.”

That's one of the reasons European countries, despite pressure from Trump, have said they wouldn't join a mission to escort ships until the war is over.

The Reagan administration also had narrower, clearer goals in its Cold War operation, such as keeping the strait open, according to Tom Duffy, a former U.S. diplomat and naval officer.

“In contrast, the American goals (now) have been sort of a kaleidoscope of regime change to all sorts of very maximalist goals,” said Duffy, who recently published a book called “Tanker War in the Gulf.”

In recent years, the U.S. Navy offered limited escorts of vessels through the Red Sea corridor to protect them from attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. But the Navy focused on U.S.-flagged ships or those carrying supplies for the American government.

In those operations, the Navy faced its most intense combat at sea since World War II. Using force to make the Strait of Hormuz safe to transit may see a similarly intense fight.

And Duffy noted that it’s not clear the Trump administration even wants the fight.

“There’s a White House statement this week in which we said that the ceasefire is not in jeopardy because they aren’t attacking U.S. and Israeli ships. That’s a fundamental shift,” he said. “That goes past centuries of U.S. practice and statements about the needs for freedom of the sea.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Jon Gambrell, news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press, has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the Mideast and the wider world since joining AP in 2006.

A cargo ship sails in the Persian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz, Wednesday, April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)

A container ship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Qeshm Island, Iran, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Asghar Besharati)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Late every summer, hulking white bears gather outside a tiny Alaska Native village on the edge of the continent, far above the Arctic Circle, to feast on whale carcasses left behind by hunters and to wait for the deep cold to freeze the sea.

It’s a spectacle that once brought 1,000 or more tourists each year to Kaktovik, the only settlement in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, in a phenomenon sometimes called “last chance tourism” — a chance to see magnificent sights and creatures before climate change renders them extinct.

The COVID-19 pandemic and an order from the federal government halting boat tours to see the bears largely ended Kaktovik's polar bear tourism amid concerns that the tiny village was being overrun by outsiders.

But Kaktovik leaders are now hoping to revive it, saying it could be worth millions to the local economy and give residents another source of income — provided the village can set guidelines that protect its way of life and the bears themselves.

“We definitely see the benefit for tourism,” said Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp, which owns 144 square miles (373 square kilometers) of land. “The thing is, it can’t be run like it was before.”

As far back as the early 1980s, anyone in Kaktovik with a boat and knowledge of the waters could take a few tourists out to watch the bears as they lumbered across the flat, treeless barrier islands just off the coast or tore into the ribs of a bowhead whale left by subsistence hunters.

Tourism in Kaktovik soared in the years after federal officials declared polar bears a threatened species in 2008. The rapid warming of the Arctic is melting the sea ice that the bears use to hunt seals, and scientists have said that most polar bears could be wiped out by the end of the century.

As visitation boomed, the federal government imposed regulations requiring tour operators to have permits and insurance, and that began to squeeze locals out of the industry, Lampe said. Larger out-of-town operators moved in, and before long, crowds of tourists were coming to Kaktovik — a village of about 250 people — during the six-week viewing season.

The town’s two hotels and restaurants lost out on some business when large operators began flying tourists in from Fairbanks or Anchorage for day trips. Locals complained that tourists gawked at them or traipsed through their yards.

Small plane capacity became an issue, with residents sometimes battling tourists to get on flights to or from larger cities for medical appointments, forcing those left stranded in the cities to get expensive hotel rooms for the night.

When the pandemic struck, Kaktovik paused visitation. Then in 2021, the federal government, which manages polar bears, halted boat tours, mostly over concerns about how tourists were affecting bear behavior and overrunning the town.

Alaska Native leaders are now in talks with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address those concerns and reignite the industry, perhaps as early as 2027. The agency told The Associated Press in a statement that it’s working with Kaktovik “to ensure that any future opportunities are managed in a way that prioritizes visitor safety, resource protection, and community input.”

Among the changes Kaktovik leaders want to see is a limit on how long a boat can sit in the water near the bears. Too long, Lampe said, and the bears get used to humans — making for a dangerous situation when bears wander into town looking for food.

During the height of the tourism boom, it became tougher to haze bears out of town, even with the town’s bear patrol shooting at them with nonlethal rounds. The patrol had to kill about three or four bears per year, compared with maybe one per year before the boom, Lampe said.

“Our safety was at risk,” Lampe said.

In 2023, a 24-year-old woman and her 1-year-old son were killed in a polar bear attack in Wales, in far western Alaska. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in nearly 30 years in Alaska, the only U.S. state home to the species.

Since the boat tours in Kaktovik were halted, the bears once again seem more fearful of humans, Lampe said.

Polar bear tourism coincides with Kaktovik’s subsistence whaling season. When a crew lands a whale, it's usually butchered on a nearby beach. While the community encourages visitors to watch or even help, some were recording or taking pictures without permission, which is considered disrespectful, Lampe said.

Sherry Rupert, CEO of the American Indigenous Tourism Association, suggested that Kaktovik market itself as a two- or three-day experience.

Native communities that are ready for tourists "want them to come and be educated and walk away with a greater understanding of our people and our way of life and our culture,” she said.

Roger and Sonia MacKertich of Australia were looking for the best spot on the planet to view polar bears in the wild when they came to Kaktovik in September 2019. They spent several days in the village, took a walking tour led by an elder and bought souvenirs made by local artists, including a hoodie featuring a polar bear.

For Roger MacKertich, a professional wildlife photographer based in Sydney, the highlight was the boat tours to see bears roaming on the barrier islands or taking a dip in the water. The bears paid them no attention.

“That’s nearly as good as it gets,” he said.

FILE - The Kaktovik Lagoon and the Brooks Range mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are seen in Kaktovik, Alaska, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

FILE - A polar bear and a cub search for scraps in a large pile of bowhead whale bones left from the village's subsistence hunting at the end of an unused airstrip near the village of Kaktovik, Alaska, on Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

FILE - Charles Lampe, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, poses for a portrait outside his home in Kaktovik, Alaska, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)