Pentagon eyes Hormuz strikes if Iran ceasefire collapses

US military officials are quietly drawing up new strike plans targeting Iran’s presence in the Strait of Hormuz, should the current ceasefire collapse, media reports said on Friday

The plans represent a significant shift in focus — the first month of bombing largely concentrated on targets deeper inside Iran, the new options zero in on the waterways themselves. Central to the planning is what officials call “dynamic targeting”: going after Iran’s small fast-attack boats, minelaying vessels, and other nimble assets that have allowed Tehran to effectively choke off the Strait of Hormuz, the southern Arabian Gulf, and the Gulf of Oman.

Iran’s closure of the strait has sent shockwaves through the global economy and complicated Trump’s push to bring down inflation, all while a ceasefire that paused US strikes since April 7 remains technically in place.

The problem, as multiple sources including a senior shipping broker told CNN, is that strikes alone probably won’t reopen the waterway anytime soon.

A large share of Iran’s coastal defense missiles are still intact, and the country has no shortage of small boats that could menace passing ships. “Unless you can unequivocally prove that 100% of Iran’s military capability is destroyed,” one source said, “it will come down to how badly Trump is willing to accept the risk and start pushing ships through the strait.”

Beyond the waterway itself, planners are also weighing strikes on Iran’s energy and infrastructure, a move that would be a sharp escalation, some current and former officials have warned, but one that could pressure Tehran back to the negotiating table.

There’s also a more targeted option on the table: going after specific Iranian military leaders seen as actively undermining diplomacy, including IRGC Commander-in-Chief Ahmad Vahidi.

Trump, for his part, has framed the Iranian regime as fractured and feuding, pointing to an apparent rift between hardliners and the officials engaged in talks with Washington. He extended the ceasefire but has made clear it won’t last forever, and his frustration over the closed strait has been palpable.

Adding to the complexity, Iran has used the ceasefire period to quietly reposition some of its surviving military assets , a fact Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged publicly last week, warning those relocated assets would become targets if a deal fell through.

US intelligence had previously assessed that roughly half of Iran’s missile launchers and thousands of one-way attack drones survived the initial campaign.

On the water, the US currently has 19 ships in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers, and another seven in the Indian Ocean.

Since April 13, American forces have enforced a naval blockade of Iranian ports, redirecting at least 33 ships and boarding three others. The most recent boarding happened overnight Wednesday, when US forces intercepted a sanctioned stateless vessel carrying Iranian oil some 2,000 miles from the Persian Gulf.

Till now, the Trump administration had underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the strait in the first place, a move that might have been deterred if the US had positioned assets nearby from the start.