Reopening the Strait of Hormuz & Saving Downed Pilots

Two retired U.S. admirals with deep experience at sea and in the air joined Ryan to discuss the military challenge of reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Adm. (ret.) Jamie Foggo and Vice Adm. (ret.) John "Fozzie" Miller unpack how Iran has been able to throttle one of the world's most important waterways and what it would actually take to restore freedom of navigation. The conversation explores mines, drones, missiles, escorts, air strikes, how a Marine expeditionary unit might raid Kharg Island, and (of course) the strategy. Hours before this was recorded, news had broken that a U.S. Air Force F15E had been shot down over Iran. The pilot had been rescued at the time of recording, but the weapons system officer was still on the run (thankfully, he has since been rescued). Foggo and Miller have deep experience in this area and were able to share some insights on how these rescue operations unfold. And they close with a few words on what lessons the Navy should be learning from this war in terms of fleet design.

You can listen to Reopening the Strait of Hormuz & Saving Downed Pilots online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz & Saving Downed Pilots is an episode from War on the Rocks by War on the Rocks.

This episode is 59:58 long.

This episode was published on Apr 6, 2026.

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