Over 1,000 ships reported their GPS satellite navigation systems were jammed in the Strait of Hormuz in the last few days, as the Iranian parliament decided to close the passage in retaliation to the US bombing of three nuclear sites at the weekend.
Over the past week, between 970 and 1,100 ships a day have been experiencing GPS jamming in the Straits of Hormuz, in the vicinity of Iran’s coast. The jamming has significantly complicated navigation in one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors and there has already been a report of a collision between vessels. The collision of the Front Eagle and Adalynn at the end of last week may have been caused by the navigational interference.
Some 20% of the world’s oil tanker traffic pass through the Straits. The jamming incidents started being reported after Israel’s attack on Iran on June 12, but appear to have got worse after the US bombed three of Iran’s nuclear facilities on June 21.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office announced on June 23 that it has received reports from several vessels that have encountered GPS interference in the Strait, which lasted several hours.
"Masters who experience disruption to electronic navigation systems (GPS / AIS / other PNT) anywhere within the UKMTO Voluntary Reporting Area (VRA) are requested to contact UKMTO watchkeepers," the office said in a statement.
Although not as frequent as reports of GPS disruptions in the Baltics, connected to Russia’s war in Ukraine, disruptions have occurred in the Strait before, and have previously been linked to Iranian actors, the Maritime Executive reports.
The last major instance of jamming in 2019 was blamed on Iranian electronic warfare outposts on Abu Musa Island, located at the eastern entrance to the strait, a defence source told CNN.
As tensions in the Straits increase, there have been reports of individual tankers turning around before entering the straits, although at the time of writing the traffic through the straights does not appear to have been unduly reduced. However, daily transits through the Strait have dropped 20%, from about 147 to 114 ships in just one week.
