In WWII during the battle known as Iron Bottom Sound the battleship Washington used its 1st generation radar to successfully target the Japanese ships during a nighttime shootout. Turning off the AIS maritime transponder does not 'hide' the ship from the US surveillance assets... though it may hide the ship from the Iranian targeting drones, etc...
So the ships are willing to 'run the gauntlet' of mines....
Willing to risk potential collisions, which is what AIS is for....
Reading of the tea leaves
This is a coordinated withdrawal from the Gulf with the US purposely turning a blind eye to 'their escape', lol
many, if not most, of the mines have already been removed by the US
the US WANTS these ship to leave so that they can then become vessels used to carry non Iranian oil in the future... i.e. oil prices globally drop
the 'Acid Test' of the blockade so to speak is whether ships are allowed to enter the Strait after leaving. That is the tell, and turning off AIS transponders is NOT going to be effective in that scenario. Which leads to the limited reports of US stopping ships. Are these vessels that are trying to enter the Gulf??
The blockade is a one way inverse 'roach trap' . They can leave, but can never enter again.
And radar couldn't detect those?
No, there was a report they turned off their transponders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar
In WWII during the battle known as Iron Bottom Sound the battleship Washington used its 1st generation radar to successfully target the Japanese ships during a nighttime shootout. Turning off the AIS maritime transponder does not 'hide' the ship from the US surveillance assets... though it may hide the ship from the Iranian targeting drones, etc... So the ships are willing to 'run the gauntlet' of mines.... Willing to risk potential collisions, which is what AIS is for....
Reading of the tea leaves
The blockade is a one way inverse 'roach trap' . They can leave, but can never enter again.