M/T Sea Star III
Iranian-flagged oil tanker disabled on 8 May 2026 by a US F/A-18 Super Hornet firing precision munitions into its smokestack while attempting to reach an Iranian port.
Last refreshed: 9 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
What happened to M/T Sea Star III after the US disabled it on 8 May?
Timeline for M/T Sea Star III
Mentioned in: CENTCOM redirections hit 58; four ships disabled
Iran Conflict 2026CENTCOM redirections rise to 61, disabled count holds at four
Iran Conflict 2026Disabled by US F/A-18 precision munitions through smokestack on 8 May
Iran Conflict 2026: F/A-18 disables tankers via smokestack on 8 May- What happened to the Iranian tanker Sea Star III?
- US Navy F/A-18s struck M/T Sea Star III's smokestack on 8 May 2026, disabling propulsion. The vessel was left adrift in the Persian Gulf pending salvage.Source: The War Zone
- Why did the US disable Iranian tankers instead of sinking them?
- Disabling rather than sinking preserves a legal distinction under the San Remo Manual and UNCLOS frameworks, avoiding an act of war that a sinking would constitute.Source: US Naval War College
- Is M/T Sea Star III still operational after the 8 May strike?
- No. The smokestack strike destroyed propulsion. The vessel was adrift in the Persian Gulf as of 8 May 2026 awaiting salvage.Source: Lowdown
Background
M/T Sea Star III is an Iranian-flagged crude oil tanker that was disabled on 8 May 2026 when US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets from USS George H.W. Bush struck its smokestack, destroying propulsion while keeping the hull intact. The strike, coordinated with a simultaneous attack on M/T Sevda, was the first confirmed instance of US forces directly disabling Iranian vessels at sea since the tanker war era of the 1980s.
The vessel is believed to have been transporting sanctioned Iranian crude oil in violation of US OFAC restrictions. The smokestack targeting technique — first reported by The War Zone — was chosen to minimise escalatory risk: a disabled ship is not a sunk ship, preserving a legal distinction that matters enormously under the San Remo Manual and UNCLOS Article 58 frameworks governing naval enforcement in contested waters.
The disabling of Sea Star III alongside M/T Sevda sent an unambiguous signal that the US was prepared to move beyond financial sanctions to kinetic enforcement of its oil embargo. Iranian state media did not immediately confirm the vessel's identity or cargo, while international shipping monitors tracked the tanker adrift in the Gulf pending a salvage response.
