US Navy turns to AI firm Domino for options to counter Iranian mines

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy is ramping up its AI capabilities to hunt for Iranian mines in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, a recently awarded contract shows. President Donald Trump has said the U.S. Navy is clearing Iranian mines from the strait, a vital sea route for oil shipments, whose disruption is increasingly threatening the global economy. Sweeping for underwater explosives could take months despite a tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran in their weeks-long war. The up to $100 million contract for the San Francisco artificial intelligence company Domino Data Lab could quicken this process with software that can teach underwater drones to identify new types of mines in a matter of days. RELATED ‘Alpha’ troops and more ships: Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao outlines vision for service In one of his first public addresses as acting Navy secretary, Hung Cao said he didn't need "cross-dressers" or "leaf eaters" in the service. By Riley Ceder “Mine-hunting used to be a job for ships,” Thomas Robinson, Domino’s chief operating officer, said in an interview with Reuters. “It’s becoming a job for AI. The Navy is paying for the platform that lets it train, govern, and field that AI at a speed required for contested waters that block global trade and imperil sailors.” Last week, the U.S. Navy awarded the up to $99.7 million contract to expand Domino’s role as the AI backbone of the Navy’s Project AMMO - Accelerated Machine Learning for Maritime Operations - a program to make underwater mine detection faster, more accurate, and less dependent on human sailors. The software integrates data from multiple sensor types, including side-scan sonar and visual imaging systems, and allows the Navy to monitor how well various AI detection models are performing in the field, identify failures, and push corrections to improve performance. The core of Domino’s pitch - and the Navy’s wager - is speed. Before the company’s involvement, updating the AI models that power the Navy’s unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) to recognize new or previously unseen mines could take up to six months. Domino says it has cut that cycle to days. Robinson illustrated the relevance to the Middle East crisis: “If there were UUVs in the Baltic Sea trained on Russian mines, and then they needed to be deployed to the Strait of Hormuz to detect Iranian mines, with Domino’s technology, the Navy could be ready in a week rather than a year.” A Navy spokesman was not immediately able to provide comment. Share: More In Naval Guardsman learns to fly autonomous Black Hawk in less than an hour In a training first, an Army National Guardsman used a tablet to control Sikorsky's optionally piloted Black Hawk and plan its task during an exercise. Recap: Highlights from the US Army’s 2025 conference in Washington The Army continues to transform, with efforts focused on next-gen weaponry, long-range artillery, unmanned systems and much more. Pentagon stages first ‘Top Drone’ school for operators to hone skills Industry and military drone operators flew tethered and untethered first-person drones through a course designed to test endurance and maneuverability. Space Development Agency launches first operational satellites The 21 spacecraft could start providing operational capability to combatant commands and other users within four to six months, according to SDA. Space Development Agency director leaves post for academia The agency’s deputy director, Gurpartap Sandhoo, will lead SDA in an acting capacity.