Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-23-2026
Abstract
In 1990, during Operation DESERT SHIELD, the buildup to the first Gulf War, the United States began to amass a naval presence not seen since World War II. The Navy deployed eight aircraft carriers, three amphibious ready groups, and numerous smaller warships to the Persian Gulf alone. Prior to this, no aircraft carrier had entered the Gulf since 1974, because the Navy considered the water space too constricted for carrier operations. It perceived the chief threat to warships operating in the Gulf to be from the Iraqi air force—USS Stark had been hit by two Iraqi air-launched Exocet missiles just three years before during the Iran-Iraq War. But in the fall of 1990, the Navy encountered an unanticipated threat from floating mines; the Iraqis deployed their nominally obsolete and nominally moored LUGM-145 contact mines unanchored, allowing them to drift in the Gulf.1 The Navy tasked explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) units to counter the Iraqi sea-mine threat; their response was innovative but risky, ad hoc, low-tech, and extremely successful.
Recommended Citation
Bernitt, Thomas; Dalrymple, Michael; and Gilbert, Jason, "Set and Drift—Disposing of Sea Mines in Operation Desert Shield: Developing EOD Doctrine in Wartime" (2026). Naval War College Press Preprints. 3.
https://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/preprints/3
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