Britain confirmed on Wednesday that it provided military support to the United States during the seizure of the sanctioned oil tanker Bella 1 in the North Atlantic, backing Washington’s enforcement action against what officials described as a vessel linked to sanctions evasion and illicit oil trading.
In a statement, the Ministry of Defence said the UK had provided “enabling support” at the request of the United States to interdict the tanker between the UK and Iceland. The support included pre-planned operational assistance, basing for U.S. military assets, and surveillance activity carried out by the Royal Air Force.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker RFA Tideforce also provided support to U.S. forces involved in pursuing and interdicting the vessel, according to the MoD. The operation followed a formal request from Washington and was conducted in line with international law, the statement said.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the operation demonstrated the depth of the UK–U.S. defence relationship and the role of British forces in enforcing international sanctions. “Our UK Armed Forces showed skill and professionalism in support of a successful U.S. interception of the vessel Bella 1 while on its way to Russia,” he said, adding that the action formed part of “global efforts to crack down on sanctions busting.”
Healey described the tanker as part of a wider network involved in illicit activity. “This ship, with a nefarious history, is part of a Russian-Iranian axis of sanctions evasion which is fuelling terrorism, conflict, and misery from the Middle East to Ukraine,” he said.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the Bella 1 is sanctioned by the United States under counter-Iran measures aimed at disrupting illegal oil sales used to finance regional instability. Officials said the vessel had attempted to evade enforcement by switching off its transponders, operating under a false flag, and seeking to reflag while being pursued at sea.
The ministry added that assessments stretching back several years had linked the tanker to illegal activity, including connections to international terrorism and organised crime. “The Russian flagging of the vessel shows their role in this interconnected shadow activity we are seeing across the world,” the statement said, warning that such networks undermine national security and global stability.
Healey said Britain would continue to intensify efforts against what he termed “shadow fleet activity”, noting that the UK has sanctioned 520 Russian-linked vessels to date. “The security of the North Atlantic is critical to both our homelands,” he said, adding that the latest operation showed how closely the two allies work together in practice.
Where Is It heading now then ?
Hi halfwit, it must be heading to a safe place to offload the spaghetti sauce. Oh wait, it’s the Marinera, not the Marinara…
Ha, It’s probably gone “Pasta” It’s port !
« the depth of the UK–U.S. defence relationship ». Je must be joking…
He*
In what way is he joking?
Just a quick outline.
1958 UK USA Mutual Defence Agreement.
So AWE, LANN co operation and assistance on nuclear matters.
The CCC, co operation and direct assistance from the US regards the targeting of Trident on the UK side, deconflicting with the US SIOP and desensitising material that is US eyes only for use by the UK at both the CCC and the NOTC under the MoD in the DCMC.
UKUSA agreement, 5 Eyes, Echelon, MTI, endless Intelligence co operation between NSA, GCHQ, and the intelligence agencies of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We are literally, for good or bad, hand in glove. One particular UK SIGAD is one of the biggest sources of take for the NSA.
Certain places ( at least 3 ) in the UK mainland have NSA personnel as well as GCHQ staffing.
Special forces, also hand in glove, in training and on operations in the Grey Zone.
SIS, CIA likewise.
Military Intelligence, have a dig into what is going on at MoD Digby and MoD Wyton, hand in glove intelligence co operation, with both US military, NSA, UK military and UK GCHQ staff involved:
Namely –
JSSU (D)
JESC
MCIC
FIOC
IOC
All joint UK/ USA staffed.
And at Wyton –
JIOC
NCGI
DOSIC
DIFC
Again, US personnel and other 5 eyes present here as well in Pathfinder building.
The JIO / JIC in London, the SUSLO sits in on meetings weekly, or did.
Maritime Surveillance, so the RMP, the IUSS, SOSUS, feeds both nations, RAF and RN personnel are embedded at Dam Nek after the operation moved from JMF St Mawgan.
DARPA / BAES research into advanced stealth and aerospace technologies.
AUKUS likewise, in SSN reactor tech and also AUKUS pillar 2.
The list is endless.
Yes, there is indeed depth, whether we like it or not.
People can go look up the acronyms themselves if they don’t know what they are….might learn something!
Meant to add, all that is open source. If I know of it, so can others. Nothing officially secret in there that has not already been publicised.
And yet trump has just started that the US will always be there for NATO but doubts NATO would be there for the US🤬
How soon does he forgets 20 yrs in Afghanistan by NATO at American A5 declaration ! What an absolute idiot.
Yes, an outrageous comment, given that we followed them into Iraq and Afghanistan.
As you say, they activated Article 5.
But he knows it’s untrue, I guess it’s aimed at his rednecks the likes of which ask why Windsor Castle was built under the Heathrow flight path.
I still maintain hope that more sensible heads remain in the DoD, USIC, and Pentagon.
NATO did not follow the US into Iraq. Ironically it went much better.
NATO participation in Afghanistan varied wildly by country. Some, like Germany completely forbid their forces from participating in direct combat action and forbid themselves from being stationed in hotspot provinces. “We’re helping” made the newspapers, but not the battlefield.
Yes, apologies, you’re right…
Britain did in Iraq, wider ENATO didn’t. Trump does not seem to make any attempt at splitting the two.
Though I’d like to show Trump the list of fatalities by nation and ask him why we bothered if that is the sort of Tweet he puts out?
Insensitive is putting it mildly.
Funny isn’t it Denmark along with Estonia suffered the most casualties per capita in Afghanistan!
Yet now we have this muppet sounding off about Greenland and NATO🤬
He’s a cancerous pollip on the anus of humanity.
LOL. I may borrow that Heathrow and Windsor line for use next time I’m in Fort Worth.
Yes, but apart from that…what’ve the Romans ever done for us?!
👍 It is mutually beneficial.
We get access to vast resources we cannot match. They get access to our brains, tech, and bases, which furthers the intelligence knowledge of both.
Pity a loose cannon like Trump muddies the waters somewhat.
Starmer knows this, he’s not about to throw it all away even though the left of his party would like nothing better.
As for withholding certain data, again, I believe that isn’t a new thing at all. It happens amongst all the 5 Eyes.
I get your point and obviously many structures in place and agreements between uk and us. But, for a defence minister, to say the relationship is deep few days after the us led an operation he was probably not aware (or barely) and a major advisor threathen to size Groenland is rich. If the relationship is deep, it looks more and more to a toxic one.
True question: would you know if there is british personnel present in US places with similar access to US facilities and Intel?
Of course there are! Might be out of date as things change all the time, but:
Columbia Annexe. 7170 Riverwood Drive, Maryland. Known as CANX. An interphase between GCHQ and NSA. At one time, under law, we could not spy on our citizens, so we got the US to do it for us. Likewise, in the US, we would return the compliment for them. Unsure, I thin SUKLO is still located here.
Fort Meade. NSA HQ, there are obviously GCHQ liaison people here.
NSA Georgia. UK AH Team, so British military personnel. “Airhandler” is involved in Sigint regards Predator Drones, and feeds into “Ghosthunter” and “Overhead” teams elsewhere. For those unaware, I believe this involves geolocation of terrorists so we can rightly blow them to hell from above.
Tampa, Florida. British Liaison staff at HQ CENTCOM.
Omaha, Nebraska. UK Liaison cell at HQ Strategic Command, this is involved on the Trident side, so see NTOC, CTF345, and all the secret nuclear stuff in that fire chain.
Washington. The BDLS, British Defence Liaison staff.
Eglin, Florida. RAF RN Det at the F35 integrated training centre, and N0 80 Sqn at ACURL.
Dam Neck, Virginia. At the NOPF. As mentioned above, SOSUS and IUSS, RN and RAF Staff there too.
There are “Special Projects” teams elsewhere I believe as well, leave that to our imagination. And there are no doubt others so secret we rightly do not know.
In the UK, Menwith Hill is an obvious example, there are Brits there alongside the NSA and the US forces. Technically a “RAF Station” it is nothing of the sort.
Again, all open source and online info.
Edit, NTOC is NOTC, sorry. Lack of edit function here is a pity.
Many thanks Daniele, much appreciate the Time you took to reply.
Pleasure.
If the US goes rogue, we are in the shit, to put it mildly.
Great answer Daniele!
There is also an interesting article on Navy Lookout that shows a picture of an US Army MH-6 Little Bird helicopter approaching the tanker. There is no way that could fly from either the UK or Iceland to the tanker so the most likely scenario is that it flew off the USCG cutter.
It seems that all the air movements into the UK had little to do with the operation in the end..? Elaborate deception plan or contingency..? Would be interesting to find out, if we ever do.
It also looks as if we played a bigger role than first thought. Refueling the cutter perhaps or providing an additional heli-pad?
Whatever form our help was in I don’t expect it to endear us to the Russian’s as I think they see us as making a good alternative to acting against the US directly. They certainly seem to think of us an active enemy at least according to some commentators.
Cheers CR
Perhaps preparing for a more kinetic Russian response, given the promised submarine escort. That said, it’s not exactly unknown for the USA to do this kind of diversionary tactic.
In preparation for Midnight Hammer, there were similar deployments of B-2s as diversionary assets, and similar things occurred prior to the 2018 strikes on Syria.
I saw a poster here earlier saying over 70 RAF aircraft were in the air, which I find dubious, given our limited assets.
Maybe 70 flights (rather than 70 different aircraft) over the past couple of days, but even that seems like a stretch.
Ah, yes that makes more sense.
I took a look at the Radar history and found nothing to confirm those numbers but he did say “in an hours period” and as normal, there were the usual Typhoons and Hawks (East Coast) I’m not home so I can’t say what was actually up from the USAF. Wyn Baynon said there were others flying in the Valley area which again is pretty normal.
I don’t believe there were 73 RAF Aircraft up at any one point though but obviously transponders and ghosts may have played a part.
PS, I’m me and not Leh just to avoid any confusions !!! 😁🤦♂️
Lmao 🙂
I always take these tracking sites with a pinch of salt anyway. You know they can spoof all that if they want to and not appear.
Yup “Ghosts” I learnt that a few years ago when I moved.
Yeah, there was an article recently about Typhoons appearing in the Taiwan Strait, alongside French warships. Turns out they were PLAAF/PLANAF aircraft and Chinese ‘merchant’ vessels.
Hi leh,
Good call regarding the diversionary nature of the US deployment to the UK. My guess is that they were also the sledge hammer if things went side ways…
Cheers CR
Looking on FlightRadara24 during the interdiction, there were three US Dracos and an RAF A400M heading for Iceland simultaneously. Maybe the operation as planned still hasn’t concluded. Perhaps that is where the tanker is heading and there is more work yet to be done. Pure speculation on my part, mind
Didn’t seem to endear us to Trump either. As quoted from his ‘Truth Social ‘ post : ” “we will always be there for NATO, even if they won’t be there for us”.
The White House seems to have forgotten the Article 5 clause they enacted after 9/11.
MAGA scumbags.
I would suggest that the American militarily didn’t need military assistance, but political assistance/cover for the Afghan operation..
And I would point out that Nato and other allies spent countless billions in blood and treasure in supporting the US in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and beyond.
Before they were then thrown under the bus by that catastrophic ‘agreement ‘ devised by Trump with the Taliban.
Short and selective memories… Or more likely revisionist thinking to match their MAGA agenda. It’s how imperialism works. None of it good news.
Cheers CR
A scenario was put forward by Sky news in their “War Game” podcast, which was very good. Basically Russia made an example of the UK with a limited conventional strike. In the scenario the good ol’ US of A did not rush to the UK’s defence. Do we expect Trump-America to help the UK if this happened for real?
Also, is there/at what point, following on from the threats to Canada (Commonwealth country and great blood brothers) and to Greenland, does the UK have to pull the plug on US military and intelligence support regardless of economics?
“does the UK have to pull the plug on US military and intelligence support ”
If you knew the depth of that, you’d see that no PM will enact that save when war has broken out between us.
Daniele, I think I’ve got a basic sense of the enormity of what I was asking in terms of Trump-America. However, I was just really asking the question: is there any point at which the UK would withdraw support? You have basically answered it.
normally I would be cheering on the US and UK at the boarding of a Russian/Iranian shadow fleet ship, but with Trump-America I have my doubts. In the UK the Press have already indicated that some 5-eyes info is being with-held, and some are asking the question: has Trump and his crew been compromised and/or are deliberately threatening Greenland in order to destroy NATO? If Trump-America is compromised is there not something the UK should do? I must admit I’ve been appalled at the poor defence of Canada by the UK Gov.
Hi Albert.
My apologies, if my post suggested you weren’t aware.
On Trump, I’ve no issues with them taking this vessel.
On Greenland, I’d be outraged. Uncharted waters. I still think we’d muddle through, as what choice do we have? Pulling the plug creates even more damage.
The press have a habit of making things up. Withholding 5 eyes intelligence is fairly tricky because of the way the sharing arrangements work.
Quite right.
I think Trump is morally & mentally compromised, totally unfit for any public office. Maybe Putin has something on him, but it seems hardly necessary considering the towering inadequacy of the imbicile. At least there were relatively reasonsible grown ups keeping him relatively restrained in his first term, but giving him a 2nd was beyond all reason.
But we don’t have to let him drag us down when he inevitably crashes & burns. His polling is pityful in the USA but he’s building all the tools to suppress dissent. He just can’t stop lying blatently.
Disentanglement is theoretically possible, in much the same way that us all moving to the moon is theoretically possible.
I doubt the Russians would go for that – if anything would actually galvanise British defence spending, it’d be a strike on the UK homeland. It’d be limited short-term damage in exchange for a more capable British military in the long term.
…well they have just turned the lights off in a big chunk of Berlin.
Who did ?
…HW, it is not reported in broadcast media in the UK, but the BBC News have it online. 5-days outage in Berlin and a far-left group trying to take responsibility. I don’t know if it was sabotage or not. I’m just highlighting it in response to Leh.
Just read the BBC report they do say it was arson, so sabotage is a definite possibility.
If the German infrastructure is vulnerable I can attest that the UK system was certainly very vulnerable back in the ’90’s and probably still is. I won’t say how for obvious reasons.
Cheers CR
I think th eUK should re-form the Civil Defence Force and include civilian volunteers. Floods, fires, disease, and sabotage. these are all things needed now, and especially in the future.
I have been thinking something similar, a modern Home Guard, but a Civil Defence Force would be a good place to start.
I would hope that the Government / MoD / Home Office have contingency plans, but given the poor state of our planning for a pandemic I have my doubts.
I am becoming increasingly concerned that we are heading into some kind of war scenario. It could be a sub-kinetic, grey area conflict with the possibility of limited but openly violent confrontations which could explode into all out war.
At the very least we should have contingency plans in place for a range of war scenarios and a Civil Defence Force would be a good place to start.
Cheers CR
I read that and just saw the non conspiracy version !
To answer your first question, I guess it depends on whether we have sufficient homage to Trump’s ego. If we have peed him off for some reason then I guess we would be on our own. That’s basically what ‘unreliable’ means.
Having said that I think there is a recognition in Washington that under certain circumstances they still need their allies, but they are entirely willing to exploit the fact that their allies need them more!
So we need to rearm properly and quickly. Some countries, Poland, Baltic States and Germany, for example, who are doing just that but we are lagging behind and need to pull our fingers out. Even if we could wave a magic wand and solve all the issues with the MoD’s procurement and recruitment systems and the HMT penny pitching stupidity, we would still be ham strung by a lack of manufacturing capacity and trained engineers! However, the rebuilding of our shipbuilding capability, at least in part, shows it can be done.
As for Five Eyes we would be the bigger losers obviously. We would have to work pretty hard to rebuild our intelligence cover accepting that it would never be as complete as it currently is.
Both of your questions present any PM / UK Government with a nightmare scenario and huge cost if we are to maintain our independence and freedoms. After decades of kicking cans down the road it seems this Labour Government are the unfortunate saps to have reached the end of the road! If the US does take Greenland against the Greenlanders will we will be left in an impossible position. Choices would be muddle through and hope the next US administration backs off to some degree or go all honorable and break our alliance with the US. I cannot for one moment see us doing the latter. So our best bet is to muddle through while trying to reduce our dependence on the US over time. It will be expensive for sure.
Cheers CR
I think I basically concur with your setting out CR. There is so much good about America, and good people who value their international friends. However, I would add that I just think that a lot of money has to be spent and, where possible, it should spent in the UK. Yes, that means lots of investment in UK companies, and even (say it quietly) in state-owned projects and industries. (e.g. Sheffield Forgemasters). We used to be world-leaders in computing, RADAR, aircraft, jets, heavy armour/MBTs, navigation, shipbuilding, and intelligence gathering. It will be a long-haul, but surely it is worth the UK trying – especially with the new tech like quantum, drones, directed energy, cyber and space? To not have sovereign capabilities with this stuff in the future is going to constrain the UK to being a nation of burger-flippers and coat-holders for Trump-America…or worse.
Agree totally.
One little snippet, the BBC did a piece on last nights news about quantum commuting and were invited into the Google quantum commuter development center and got to stand next to a very weird looking thing and looked like a lot of tubes..! Right at the end of the article the presenter said the UK government is planning to invest ‘billions’ into quantum commuting. According to google AI search there is the National Quantum Technologies Program, which I had never heard of, and last year investment totaled just shy of £800m with £1b+ planned through to 2030. Lets hope the government keeps it’s promises.
Cheers CR
The Legend cutters normally carry MH65 Dolphin for search a rescue, but not for SF assault. I wonder is we helped get the Littlebird to rendezvous with the cutter via the UK. Was there mention of a Tide class?
Ha, I now have visions of “Big Bird” aka Trump from Seseme Street. There Is a striking resemblence !!! 🐤
This is such an exciting start to the New Year. Can’t wait for the next instalment. Nuking Bogotá perhaps?
Is that anywhere near Bradford ?
No, you’re confusing it with Bangladesh; an easy mistake to make. Too many ‘b’ s I expect. Try taking a little water with it.
Oh yes, “Bangladesh” or otherwise know as “the Curry Mile” Birmingham, my mistake.
What’s Going on with Shipping Reports that a USN Expeditionary Support Base involved, which is a converted oil tanker with a big flight deck.
RFA Tiderace? There are videos of marines roping down from MH60s. These are not supported from US Legend Coastguard cutter.
So like with all our cuts the USA still.need the Brits 🤔 🇬🇧
I’m not sure how it will look to the world if they attack Greenland using us as their launchpad. Until today I didn’t think this was a possibility, but it looks pretty likely now.
We have always had America’s back. Let’s hope they don’t make us look culpable for something no-one wants.
Just a friendly geography reminder: the U.S is a bit closer to Greenland than we are…
😁😁😁 Any 11 year old he talks to,(🤔👀👀) could tell him that.
I was sceptical the siezure would actually happen giben Trump snd Pooptins livefest.
But I was wrong. So great news!
Now if only the US could get Venezula to reflag all thejr other tankers that have suddenly turned russian back to whatever they were previously then the US could keep seizing them.
I had no idea that the USCG operated so far from home waters. Is this commonplace? What not use USN?
The USCG has a significant fleet of inshore patrol boats, helicopters and C130 rescue and rescue aircraft. They only have a few so called ‘national security’ cutters – 12 Hamilton class being replaced by 8 Legend class. These ‘national security’ cutters have impressive range and endurance as befits deployment in the Pacific. We deploy RN River 2s a long way from home. A River 2 can lily pad a Merlin and has 2 rhibs; capable of enabling RM boarding of a tanker…..if selected 🙂
Not a nice christmas present for mad Vlad as it was christmas day in Russia yesterday.Ive just read that another tanker has been hit in the black sea.Interesting times we are living in