A viral OSINT claim alleged that the U.S. Department of War covertly dredged a secret, brand-new deep-water channel for supertankers near the Strait of Hormuz to bypass Iran. However, fact-checking shows this claim is false. The channel, known as Bab Musandam or Fakk al Asad, has been charted for decades and used by tankers long before the current war.
Furthermore, the dredging claim fails basic physical checks. Optical satellite imagery cannot see the seabed at the location’s natural depth of roughly 28.5 meters, and bathymetry data shows this depth occurs naturally rather than from excavation. Since a fully loaded supertanker only needs about 22 meters of clearance, no dredging was necessary.
The idea that the route was hidden from Iranian observation is also incorrect, as Iranian forces have been striking ships in that exact channel for months. What actually exists is a known, long-used southern Omani corridor that remains under fire, rather than a covert engineering project.