"The aim of Exercise Stake Net is to practise the tactics and procedures of protecting maritime infrastructure such as gas and oil installations," Commodore Peter Hudson said in a US Fifth Fleet statement.
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in remarks published late last month that Tehran would impose controls on shipping in the Gulf and the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it was
attacked. Speculation about a possible attack on Iran because of its nuclear programme has risen since a report last month said Israel had practised such a strike. Most of the world’s oil is shipped through the waterway.
Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said last week the United States would not allow Iran to block the Gulf.
Two US vessels were taking part in the exercise alongside a British warship and one from Bahrain, a Gulf Arab ally which hosts the Fifth Fleet.