---
title: "Over the cables of Hormuz, Iran-linked tankers slow down and go dark"
description: "Windward tracked three sanctioned tankers and a fishing boat looping above Gulf of Oman cables as Tehran threatened to cut them"
author: "Jan Sokol"
published: 2026-11-06T22:41:37Z
modified: 2026-11-07T08:48:57Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/over-the-cables-of-hormuz-iran-linked-tankers-slow-down-and--c55991
language: en
tags: ["cables", "iran", "hormuz", "infrastructure", "war", "tech", "mideast"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Over the cables of Hormuz, Iran-linked tankers slow down and go dark

*Windward tracked three sanctioned tankers and a fishing boat looping above Gulf of Oman cables as Tehran threatened to cut them*

By Jan Sokol · November 6, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/over-the-cables-of-hormuz-iran-linked-tankers-slow-down-and--c55991

## In brief

- Windward tracked three sanctioned Iran-linked tankers and an Iranian fishing boat near Gulf of Oman subsea cables in October
- Some vessels switched off AIS transponders; one tanker drifted about 73 hours off Muscat after changing its flag code and call sign
- Windward said the pattern fits mapping cable routes or placing charges, but could not confirm surveying or sabotage
- IRGC officials called the Hormuz cables legitimate targets if the US and Israel strike Iran again
- Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar rely entirely on cables through Hormuz; a third of India’s westbound traffic passes there

Some power lies on the seabed and doesn’t look like power at all. On the charts of the Gulf of Oman it shows up as a set of thin lines running out of the Strait of Hormuz towards Europe, Africa and Asia. Whole countries talk to the rest of the world through those lines. Nobody who uses them thinks about where they run, and in October someone on the surface apparently started to.

As [Jeremy Hsu reported for *Ars Technica*](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/11/ships-loiter-near-subsea-cables-amid-irans-warnings-to-trump/), citing the Financial Times, the maritime intelligence firm Windward spent October tracking three sanctioned tankers and an Iranian fishing boat as they moved over major undersea internet cables near the strait. These were Iran-linked vessels, and they were behaving in a way that suggests Tehran may be preparing to strike the cables if the United States and Israel bomb it again.

Windward combined ship-tracking data with satellite images. The vessels slowed down and circled near several cables. Some of them then went dark, switching off the automatic identification system (AIS) transponders that normally broadcast a ship’s position to anyone watching.

![A dark tanker ship with coral pipes floats on teal water, encircled by a coral turning arrow above three cream curved lines.](https://rews.cc/img/b3c75bb58bb702e0b880668431ef80829a19d23b.webp)

## Seventy-three hours off Muscat

In a blog post on October 26, Windward described two sanctioned Iran-linked tankers that spent days drifting “directly over regional cable corridors… both with no commercial reason to stop.” Neither was carrying commercial cargo. According to [an account of Windward’s findings by SAFETY4SEA](https://safety4sea.com/irans-subsea-cable-threats-put-unusual-tanker-movements-under-scrutiny/), the first tanker drifted for about 73 hours off Muscat, between September 30 and October 3, at an average of 0.6 knots. Its track crossed or came close to the AAE-1, 2Africa, FALCON and Gulf Bridge International corridors. Four days before it began drifting, it changed its MMSI, its call sign and its flag code. A satellite image confirmed its position on October 1.

The second tanker drifted for about 115 hours in the central Arabian Sea between October 4 and 9, crossing five cable routes, among them AAE-1, IMEWE and SeaMeWe-4, above water roughly 3,700 metres deep. Then both ships picked up normal speed and sailed on.

Other reports of the tracking add more names and dates. A tanker called the Celestial Sea is said to have circled the 2Africa cable for more than four hours on October 14. The next day it switched off its transponder between the 2Africa and Bay of Bengal Gateway cables and could not be followed for about 86 hours. Between October 21 and 26, the fishing boat reportedly hung over the Europe India Gateway and Transworld cables. The 2Africa system, still under construction, belongs to a technology consortium that includes the American company Meta. It was one of the main corridors the vessels visited.

Windward told the Financial Times that the pattern could mean the ships were “mapping the cable routes, or placing charges or mines on them while dark.”

![A dark blue bent pipe with a cream rim rises from a wavy cream and teal base against a yellow background, with three cream bubbles nearby.](https://rews.cc/img/b1aa771e07cd1adaa41ecba32fa6602d96c77cd7.webp)

## The thread and the knife

Tehran had been saying the same thing for months. In March the Revolutionary Guards warned that the cables under Hormuz would not be spared. In May a Guards spokesman talked about charging fees to the American technology companies that own them. On October 19, the Guards spokesman Hossein Mohebbi went further, [calling the cables “legitimate new targets”](https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/iran-threatens-to-attack-undersea-cables-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-calls-them-legitimate-new-targets-in-future-conflict-irgc-spokesman-warns-that-a-future-third-phase-in-war-with-us-could-lead-them-to-sever-global-data-links) in a future phase of the war. Two days later Yadollah Javani, the Guards’ political deputy, told Al-Alam that possible targets “includes internet cables, including seven major cables that run underwater through the Strait of Hormuz”. Reuters later quoted a senior Iranian security official: “If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines … from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones.”

The two sides don’t count the cables the same way. The Guards say seven. Industry figures cited by Windward and others say six are active, with segments of two more under construction and expected in 2027. Whichever number is right, the whole of it is now on the list of things that can be threatened.

A state that can no longer win in the air turns to the parts of the world nobody guards because nobody thought they needed guarding. That is a reflection, not a finding. But it is the logic the Guards themselves have been spelling out.

## Who goes dark

The people who would pay first are not in Washington. Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar connect to the outside world entirely through cables running through the Hormuz chokepoint. A third of India’s westbound internet traffic also passes through the Persian Gulf and the strait. For those four countries, a cut would mean more than slow connections. It would leave them cut off from the rest of the world.

![A cream power strip topped with stylized skyscrapers sits on a teal background, with its cable fraying at a narrow gap between dark navy shapes.](https://rews.cc/img/13f740711232b17171f632c41f5ff756a4a21c99.webp)

Others have alternatives. The UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia have connections that avoid the strait, and several cables land at Fujairah, on the Gulf of Oman side. [Iran International has argued](https://www.iranintl.com/en/202610216166) that the waterway carries only a fraction of global bandwidth, so cutting it would not shut down the world’s internet. There is also an irony buried in the seabed: some systems, FALCON and Gulf Bridge International among them, connect directly to Iran, so any damage could hurt Iran’s own communications as well.

## What a drifting ship proves

Caution is needed. Windward itself said it could not confirm that either tanker had been surveying or preparing sabotage. Long drifting and odd movements do not by themselves prove hostile intent, and a single damaged cable would not necessarily cut a country off if other routes still work. What the data shows is ships with no cargo stopping, for days, over corridors they had no commercial reason to cross, and in one case changing names and flags before doing it.

The boats were drifting while the war was being argued over in other places. American bombs had already [fallen on Qeshm on the eve of the midterms](https://rews.cc/a/blasts-on-qeshm-the-night-before-the-vote-washington-calls-i-8cc88c), and President Trump has since said he may [“destroy the rest” of Iran](https://rews.cc/a/trump-says-he-may-destroy-the-rest-of-iran-and-tehran-answer-867662). Tehran’s answer on the cables is that if it is hit again, the strike will land on the seabed under the Gulf of Oman, which is where those tankers spent October drifting.