U.S. military aircraft movements through the United Kingdom this week are consistent with preparations for a maritime interdiction operation targeting a Venezuelan-linked oil tanker, according to open-source analysis, as Washington moves to tighten enforcement following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

According to reports from CBS, U.S. forces are planning to seize the tanker Marinera, formerly known as Bella 1, rather than sink it. The vessel has been linked to Venezuelan crude exports and is sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. Two U.S. officials told CBS the operation could mirror a boarding conducted last month, when U.S. Marines and special operations forces, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, seized another tanker after it departed a Venezuelan port.

Open-source flight tracking shows a concentration of U.S. military aircraft operating from RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall over recent days. According to analysis by UK Defence Journal’s senior editor Jon, the pattern includes multiple C-17 strategic airlift arrivals, continued patrols by P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft, and repeated low-altitude hover and approach activity by special operations-capable tiltrotor aircraft between the two bases.

At least one heavy-lift helicopter linked to U.S. special operations aviation has also conducted local test flights. While some elements of the activity may be attributable to routine training, the timing, platform mix and geographic focus closely align with known requirements for a compliant or non-compliant maritime boarding operation. The continued presence of P-8 aircraft in particular suggests sustained intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance coverage over shipping lanes connected to the tanker’s projected route.

Our senior editor’s analysis also highlights that the tempo of C-17 arrivals has slowed, which is consistent with an operation moving from force positioning into a monitoring and execution phase. Similar patterns were observed during previous U.S. interdiction and seizure operations conducted under sanctions enforcement authorities, where heavy airlift surged early and surveillance assets remained persistent until action was taken.

U.S. officials have not confirmed the use of UK-based forces or facilities, and neither the Pentagon nor the UK Ministry of Defence has commented on the movements at this time.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
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96 COMMENTS

  1. US spec ops are now flying into Prestwick. Operation to board the Bella 1 could just be hours/days away

    • I’m sure Kier Starmer has morals, he was the Director of Public Prosecutions after all. He’s very clearly absolutely lacking in moral courage though since he’s very clearly afraid to say no to Trump over anything. If Europe allows him to play out his craziness in its waters then there’s a precedent set that he and the US owns us in the way they’ve been bossing things in the middle east for generations.

      • Any country regardless of being friend or foe will be slammed with punitive tariffs if they stand up to Trump. The economic ramifications of such measures are too risky for Starmer to even consider. All countries can do is to use the UN as a mouth piece of concern and leave it at that. The protest warriors will have a field day keeping riot police busy.

        • We shouid have been grabbing these shadow fleet tankers two years ago then the war would be over. We should be doing the same as the US in this regard now.

          I don’t agree with what Trump has done but best to make good out of a bad situation.

          Show China and Russia just how weak they are. If the “global south” doesn’t like it then f**k them. Most are Putin supporters anyway.

      • Yeah starmer should totally stand up for the Russians, blocking the US from interdicting a Russian flagged tanker fleeing to Russia right now.

      • His powerless. Critising trump will achieve nothing positive. All it will do is cause trump to lash out at the UK. Our economy is barely recovering, last thing we need is a US trade war.

        The US is a super power and we are not. It’s why Europe as a whole is being very careful about this mess.

      • The ‘rules based international order’ is an American construct. Global free trade was a construct of the British Empire. Europe is rapidly turning into a 21st Century version of what Africa was in the 19th Century … defenceless and easy pickings for any opportunist power. In short Pax Americana is dead. We’re in a new world. The liberal order is dead and gone. The only thing that counts in this new world is raw power and power projection.

      • Blair set the agenda for dubious military action with his dodgy dossier, after being told the Iraq war was not legal he told the law chief to rewrite the ruling. After bombing Libya, Syria and Iraq is there really international law against these actions as China, Russia, USA etc seem to please themselves.

      • I have no issue with the US interdicting a grey fleet tanker in international waters.. any navy that wishes to do so could have done so. It changed flag nations mid Atlantic, which itself is good enough reason to seize it.

      • Given that Starmer was DPP from 2008-2013, when the grooming gangs first came to light, and he failed to prosecute any, I would refute your claim that he has any morals.

    • Starmer is a deer in the headlights, whatever ‘indecisions’ he makes this could go very badly. Toeing a line that could get very wavy, where it leads if Greenland gets invaded who the hell knows. One note on that the US actually has very few highly trained artic forces and even vehicles, Europe and Canada actually outnumbers them massively in this regard but would they dare resist? Again no good answer.

        • We have the best Division in the World, Fact.

          (Shame Tottenham are so crap)

          The Yanks have a “World Series” lol. Get’s me everytime ! 🙄😁

          • ‘Minimum strength in the Canadian Armed Forces regular force is 71,500. “As of July 31, 2024 the trained effective strength” was 52,539, said the note. Figures included 28,270 in the Canadian Army.’

            ‘….there are Army Reserve units commanded by a lieutenant-colonel with three majors, half a dozen captains, ten lieutenants, a regimental sergeant major and any number of warrant officers, and under seventy in the ranks. It is a rare Reserve regiment, even those in Canada’s largest cities, which has a strength above 200’

            • If I wanted to talk to someone thick as mince I would have replied to you. Bore off and find someone to peddle your conspiracy theories too.

      • Europe and Canada will not send the west into a war with itself over Greenland.. but I would expect Europe and Canada to be essentially end all diplomatic ties with the US over it.. I’m not sure what the UK would do.. essentially we would be living in what I always considered a worst case but unlikely scenario of being stuck between the US and Europe.. with Russia looking at us for dinner.

  4. That’s an awful lot of hardware for one ship, so I think the Marinera story is a deception.
    My bet is that they’re coming for Starmer, Khan, et al.

        • I hope that’s a joke, being a colony of the US has never proved particularly fruitful for the ‘natives’ but under the present regime it would be a catastrophe and a humiliation we could never recover from.

          • I think being colonies of the UK is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. That has never worked out great for anyone. Which is why basically the US told you to f*** off 250 years ago. And that’s why the British empire does not exist anymore

            • Canada didn’t have a War of Independence. It got rid of slavery decades before the US without needing a civil war (the bloodiest war in US history). It only had a War of 1812 because the expansionist US attacked them, before they took Washington and burned it down. If it hadn’t abandoned the monarchy, the US could have had universal healthcare, decent public transport, police who say good morning rather than show me your hands, and the graduated rights for teenagers that every country in the world has signed up to but them.

              And polite. You could have been polite.

            • No the US tried to f@ck off 250 years ago because you lot wanted to steal land from the Native Americans and Britain had given them assurances that the colonies wouldn’t expand west of the Appalachians. In the end you couldn’t until France bankrupted itself fighting the UK at the same time. In the end, seems we were well rid of you nutters.

            • I see that reading history is not an America strong point, It was America who bankrupted the UK before it would enter the 1st WW and again before entering the 2nd WW and co-incidentally the biggest Nazi party outside of Germany was in America who disappeared into the either when Germanys allies Japan attacked Perl harbour. Germany Italy and Japan were rebuilt after the 2nd WW France never paid a penny for being liberated by the allies but the UK paid for every ship, tank, rifle and box of ammunition sent to the UK by the US and took us till the 1980’s to pay for the “assistance” of the USA. Now we see a president in the USA schooled by an ex Nazi (Roy Cohn) with zero regard or understanding of History trying to build a new empire to the detriment of the countries like Canada, Denmark and the UK who have stood by the USA for the 80 years. I would admit that a lot of the “issues” come from poor leadership shown in the UK and Europe who have wrongly or rightly thourght that American military might would always be at hand so have allowed there respective armed forces dwindle but now we are all starting to see the true America so with Europe now starting to wake up to the fact that we cannot depend on America (if we ever could) so must redeveloped our respective armed forces in double quick-time or fall by the way side.

              • Good comment Steven. Facts never survive contact with MAGA lies.
                If the USA wanted to be taken seriously they never should’ve elected an entitled village simpleton.

            • Doesn’t it . 13 overseas territories and a king as our head of state sounds like an empire to me admittedly a lot smaller but u can only get smaller when u were the largest empire in history , plus former British colonies make up the vast majority of global GDP now I wonder why that is

          • You say “under the present regime it would be a catastrophe and a humiliation we could never recover from”
            But under Starmer isn’t that what we’ve already got?

        • James, they aren’t getting it !!!!🤔

          Too many stuffy types here, barely 5% have any sense of humour or Sarcasm 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

          That’s why I love It here 😁

    • Coming after the UK is clearly nonsense, we have a recently democratically appointed government. Sounds more like a GB news aka Russian talking a point.

      However it is a fair point, it is a lot of hardware for one ship, I can’t see the two things being linked, as the US already had enough forces in Europe to do the job.

  5. There’s more to the story than what’s been in the headlines over the last few days. The ship was sanctioned by the US in 2024 (under the previous administration), largely because it was involved in transporting Iranian oil and linked Venezuelan crude in ways the US considers sanctions evasion. At the time, it was Guyana‑flagged, though that flag was disputed. Recently, while under pursuit, it tried to evade enforcement by changing its name from Bella 1 to Marinera and reflagging mid‑voyage from Guyana to Russia, which the US argues left it effectively stateless and legally boardable. Russia then stepped in, accepted the vessel onto its register under the name Marinera, and warned the US off. It is currently a Russian-registered ship heading toward Russia, and Moscow obviously does not want the US to board or seize it. So I say, do it! And welcome to the UK, to the US forces.

    • I agree, let’s see what Russia does next, even better if they try and repel US forces. Then let’s go after the rest of the shadow fleet

      • There’s stories that armed personal, including with manpads, went aboard when it was in Venezuelan waters. Which is supposedly why the US Coastguard has hung back.
        Still 10 C17 coming in, including from where the Nightstalkers are based, two AC-130 gunships, does seem like overkill.

      • Changing flags mid-voyage sounded a bit weird to me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if what you suggest is correct. Having said that the big nations of the world seem to think that are above the law. And boy do we live in weird times…

        Cheers CR

      • Andrew, Under international maritime law (UNCLOS), a ship is meant to sail under one flag at a time, and a change of registry is normally done in port, with the old flag formally cancelled and the new one properly issued. You can’t just switch flags at sea to dodge enforcement.

        If a vessel claims a new registry mid-voyage, especially while being pursued or investigated, other states can legitimately argue that the change has no legal effect at that moment. In that case the ship may be treated as stateless, which allows foreign forces to board it on the high seas.

        That’s why this tanker matters: the US argues the Guyana flag was dropped and the Russian one claimed while the ship was underway, making the reflagging invalid until properly completed. Russia, unsurprisingly, disputes this.

  6. The post 1945 ‘world order’ is stone dead. Great Powers will do what they wish, take what they want, and so long as they are successful, might will be right.

    ‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.’ – Yeats

  7. Well, the US didn’t particularly like being a colony of Britain. And the British empire turned out to be a complete and absolute s*** show.. check the scoreboard

    • FFS if you’re going to keep pretending to be a Yank, choose a name that isn’t so obviously fake.
      Coming into a defence website and using the name of one of the USA’s most famous WW2 admirals and expecting people not to notice 🤦🏻‍♂️

      Or if you want to, choose an admiral that’s more appropriate – perhaps Nik Kuznetsov instead?

    • Stupid comment.

      And if the US Founding Fathers saw the US today under Trump, they wouldn’t have even bothered with their revolution. They’d have just grumbled and paid the tax on the tea!

    • U think the largest most powerful empire in history that ended slavery and oversaw the largest advance in human history with the industrial revolution was a S show ? I have a feeling your anti British for some reason simply because nothing u said makes any sense

    • Funny how nearly everyone once under the Russian/Soviet empire never wants to be under Russian control again. Putin has been demonstrating in full why that is since at lweast 2022 in Ukraine.

  8. I think the British Empire didn’t do too badly.

    Brought courts, law and order to 52 nations. And roads, railways and infrastructure. And hospitals and schools. And democratic electoral systems and freedom of worship. Basically, all the cornerstones of a modern democratic state. And then granted independence to all of them.

    That is why the Commonwealth today survives and expands with new members joining. It accounts for a fifth of the world’s population and the predominance of English as the principal world language.

    The 14 US colonies were just a little blip in history. Oh how the US struggled to run just one colony, the Phillipines, semi-successfully!

    ((Surmising that you are actually a Russian troll, Russia didn’t do too well with its colonies either, half of which formed a big queue to join NATO, with most of the rest.endeavouring to escape Russia’s malign shadow).

    We have very little to learn from the USA or Russia, other than to lock up the spoons when we see the mad MAGA mob or Kreml9m weasels on the horizon.

  10. They need removed from UK bases. Venezuela aside (and literally an ocean away) they are a threat to our European neighbours who are on our doorstep.

      • Offer to sell Argus to the US. I’ll bet she could support a Chinook or a V-22. No UK ‘involvement’. What could possibly go wrong?

            • It makes me laugh when I read comments in here saying we shouldn’t buy any more F-35s because of our ally Denmark.

              Meanwhile, just a few months ago, the Danish government and parliament approved the purchase of 16 additional F-35 fighter jets, expanding their planned fleet from 27 to 43 aircraft… And they’re even trying to speed up the process with the international F-35 programme office as we speak… You couldn’t make this stuff up!🤣

              • “It makes me laugh when I read comments in here”.

                Me too, Pissing myself here mostly ! 😁😁😁

                Loving the fake American currently Y’all !

                • I just come here for the comments section. I obviously read the articles I’m interested in, but even the ones I’m not, the comments usually make up for it. 👀

  12. With everything America’s doing lately, I don’t know whether to be relieved that they’re giving off a massive threat posture to China, or worried that Trump is going to start invading and plundering countries he really shouldn’t be, like Greenland.

    The UK hasn’t had strong leadership for a long time. Starmer’s response to Trump is being viewed negatively by world media who appear to see Starmer as our if his depth. I’m just hoping things don’t hit the fan, because what will we do then?

    • I disagree, I haven’t seen any world media look at Starmar negatively, can you share non UK media where you are seeing this?

    • I agree with Starmer. What do the gutter press and far left agitators expect him to do? Put him on the spot, get him to verbally condemn to get headlines and create even greater rifts, because at heart the UK USA relationship has got to them for the last 60 years and they want a greater rupture.
      These same agitators who scream blue murder about Gaza, yet are silent on attempts at democracy in Iran, how interesting. One far left MP has posted several times in the last 4 days on Gaza and Venezuela yet is silent on Islamists raping children in his own constituency. THAT is their priority and ideology, it is noted by many and again that is another reason why Reform rises. Priorities?
      Starmer, more than the vast majority of posters here, knows the links between the UK USA behind the scenes and is advised accordingly. Of course, ministers of this same government were themselves screaming when in opposition, until the student politics ends and they are in the driving seat, and confronted with the real world, and grow up somewhat. That does not apply to the far left on the Labour benches or their cheerleaders in the press.
      For once, I think Starmer is doing the right thing at the moment. The UK is, as so often, in the middle and has to tread accordingly.
      IF things deteriorate concerning Greenland and the US annexed it, well, that is a different story and we are in uncharted waters.
      Meanwhile, where is this defence uplift HMG?

  16. Considering the direction the present US administration (sic) is taking, the UK should reconsider arrangements which permit UK territory to be used for staging such actions – the UK shouldn’t want to be associated with this administration and anything it does.
    .
    .
    Some may mention the ‘Special Relationship’; you could bet (their) bottom dollar, that matters little to them, so why grant them the same consideration? (Rhetorical)
    .
    .
    There are parallels with the 1930s again and the UK should have realised now, it needs a beef ups its military, especially the RN, bringing home all the development and manufacturing – the benefit will of course be more taxes from all those companies and workers – further recognising that low percentage scenario from eons past is getting a bump in numbers from dump (sic) and co – raising questions whether a divorce is inevitable and what happens then? (Also rhetorical if the UK doesn’t wake up).

    • My point is to stimulate thought, considering if a rift occurs in the ‘Special Relationship’, by dump (sic) taking Greenland. Let’s face it, he could quite easily take it (I would speculate a ground resistance could make it ‘difficult’ after the fact). Disagree with him, say goodbye to Trident, TLAMS and F-35 support; then ask the question, what is the UK military then (in comparison to say France, Germany or Italy) apart from insignificant? (Final rhetorical).

      • If Trump takes Greenland – then so be it. The UK won’t do anything of consequence about it – but neither will anyone else. Tbh it’s not in the UK interest – no matter how much we would dislike such an act.

        Now as for boarding the tanker – as its Russian flagged – Trump is like to do sod all tbh.

        • …that would be conventional wisdom, something dump lacks in spades, expect delta to be thrown in and Putin to go yak yak yak red line

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