The United States Navy has awarded a contract worth nearly $100 million to Domino Data Lab, an artificial intelligence company, to accelerate the detection and removal of naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
The new technology shifts mine-detection tasks from traditional vessels to AI-powered autonomous underwater vehicles, enabling faster and more efficient operations.
A key advantage lies in speed: the system reduces the time required to train submersible units to identify new types of mines from six months to just a few days.
Speaking to Reuters, Thomas Robinson, the company’s operations director, highlighted the importance of this capability, noting that systems trained in other regions—such as detecting Russian mines in the Baltic Sea—can be rapidly adapted and deployed in the Strait of Hormuz to identify Iranian mines.
He added that, thanks to Domino’s technology, the Navy could be ready within a week instead of a year.
This move comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has emphasized the priority of securing the strategic waterway, whose potential closure poses a major threat to the global economy.
