| Date | 27 Apr 2023 |
| Tracker | Strait of Hormuz Tensions |
| Type | Interception |
| Location |
Strait of Hormuz
26.18, 56.25 (approximate) |
Iran seized two oil tankers within six days in April-May 2023. On April 27, the Iranian Navy captured the Marshall Islands-flagged Advantage Sweet, carrying Chevron-chartered Kuwaiti crude, about 40 miles east of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman; US officials linked it to Washington's earlier seizure of Iranian oil from the tanker Suez Rajan. On May 3, IRGC Navy fast-attack craft swarmed the Panama-flagged Niovi mid-transit of the Strait of Hormuz and forced it toward Bandar Abbas. Both tankers were held for over a year before eventual release, and the pair of seizures prompted a US naval reinforcement of the strait.
| Series | That day | Prior 30-day avg | Week after vs before |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transits | 85 -12% | 97.1 | -14% (720 → 616) |
| Tankers | 52 -10% | 58.1 | -13% (430 → 372) |
| Cargo ships | 33 -16% | 39.1 | -16% (290 → 244) |
| Date | Type | Incident |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Aug 2021 | Interception | Armed boarders briefly seize tanker Asphalt Princess off UAE in foiled hijacking |
| 27 May 2022 | Interception | Iran seizes two Greek-flagged tankers, Prudent Warrior and Delta Poseidon, in the Persian Gulf |
| 11 Jan 2024 | Interception | Iran seizes Marshall Islands-flagged tanker St Nikolas in the Gulf of Oman |
| 13 Apr 2024 | Interception | Iranian commandos rappel from helicopter to seize container ship MSC Aries near Strait of Hormuz |
IMF PortWatch data published on GMN's Strait of Hormuz tracker shows commercial ship transits averaging 3.17 a day over 1-6 September 2026, against 85.5 a day in 2025; other counters read higher, but every independent count is a small fraction of the pre-war norm.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard said on 8 September 2026 it had recovered a US Navy Anduril Dive-LD autonomous underwater vehicle at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz; US Central Command said the vehicle had malfunctioned more than a day earlier, and Anduril confirmed the loss.
The United States decommissioned its four Bahrain-based Avenger-class mine hunters in September 2025 and shipped the hulls home in January 2026. When Iran began mining the Strait of Hormuz two months later, according to CENTCOM, the Navy had to sail two of its last four minesweepers from Japan.