An Iranian missile ship is seen in the Strait of Hormuz. (Chris Cavas / Defense News)
Hormuz Transits: Never Dull, Never Routine, Always Tense -- Defense News
THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ — This is definitely a place, not just a patch in the sea.
The land can close in on both sides — Iran to the north, Oman or the United Arab Emirates to the south. The waterway is crowded with ships, among them the world’s largest oil tankers, big container ships, small dhows and merchantmen, tiny fast smuggling craft darting across traffic, gray warships lurking in the haze.
At the strait’s narrowest point, 21 miles across, the traffic separation scheme (TSS) — a sort of highway on the sea with inbound and outbound lanes, separated by a neutral buffer zone — requires great attention from bridge watches to maintain proper distances between ships and avoid collisions, no easy feat when maneuvering enormous vessels that require miles to stop.
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