tanker

Moscow has called France’s detention of the ship, and arrest of the captain, an act of piracy.

France has said it is increasing pressure on Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine by detaining an oil tanker suspected of operating as part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” and putting its captain on trial.

France’s detention of the tanker is part of a new European strategy to block revenue funding Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said at an EU event in Copenhagen on Thursday.

“We want to increase pressure on Russia to convince it to return to the negotiating table,” Macron said. “We have now decided to take a step further by moving towards a policy of obstruction when we have suspicious ships in our waters that are involved in this trafficking.”

The tanker, called the Boracay, was sailing last week off the coast of Denmark and was cited by European naval experts as possibly being involved in drone flights over the country. A series of drone incidents near the country’s airports and military bases over the last week forced the closure of the Copenhagen airport, causing major disruptions.

Macron said he could not rule out a connection between the vessel and the drone incursions, but so far lacked proof. Moscow has denied any involvement.

French Navy commandos raided the Boracay on Saturday off western France.

An investigation led by the French navy concluded that the ship, coming from Russia and heading to India with a “large oil shipment,” was flying no flag, Stéphane Kellenberger, prosecutor of the western port city of Brest, said.

The United Nations has detailed rules governing how ships must fly flags at sea and identify themselves under the flag of the state granting them nationality.

The ship’s captain, a Chinese national, will stand trial in France in February. He faces up to one year in prison and a 150,000 euro ($176,000) fine if convicted.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Europe of stoking “hysteria” and called France’s actions an act of “piracy”.

“This is piracy. I am aware of this case – the tanker was seized in neutral waters without any justification,” Putin said on Thursday at a foreign policy forum in the southern resort city of Sochi, adding that there was no military cargo on the vessel.

“It’s piracy, and how do you deal with pirates?” Putin said. “You destroy them. It doesn’t mean that tomorrow a war will erupt all across the global ocean, but certainly the risk of confrontation will seriously increase.”

Russia has been accused of operating a “shadow fleet” of tankers made up of ageing ships bought used, often by nontransparent entities with addresses in non-sanctioning countries, and sailing under flags from nonsanctioning countries. Their role is to help Russia’s oil exporters elude the $60 per barrel price cap imposed by Ukraine’s allies.

Macron said “30 to 40 percent” of Russia’s war effort is “financed through the revenues of the shadow fleet”.

“It represents more than 30 billion euros. So it’s extremely important to increase the pressure on this shadow fleet, because it will clearly reduce the capacity to finance this war effort for Russia,” he said.

While a joint partnership between Brazilian aerospace company Embraer and L3Harris Technologies to outfit Embraer’s KC-390 Millennium tanker-transport with U.S. systems and a custom refueling boom was formally declared dead late last year, the company is advancing a fresh effort to sell the Millennium to the Air Force.

You can read all about the compelling case for a boom-equipped KC-390 that fits within the Air Force’s emerging battle concept in this past feature.

At the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference this week, Embraer displayed a model of the twin jet medium-lift aircraft in full Air Force livery and touted its American-made parts. With more than half the components built in the U.S., including a flight data recorder from L3Harris, and much of the guts, like its V2500-E5 engine’s avionics made by RTX-owned companies, the aircraft is Buy American Act compliant and capable of serving as as a tactical transport or a tanker in the austere environments where the Air Force expects to concentrate significant aspects of its future combat operations. The KC-390 has loosely similar lifting capabilities as the C-130J Super Hercules.

Embraer is also evaluating site locations in the U.S. for a KC-390 manufacturing facility, the company said. It now operates out of nine U.S. locations, including Jacksonville, Florida, where it conducts final assembly for the A-29 Super Tucano.

The KC-390 marks a decade since its first flight this year and now serves 11 international customers, many of them within NATO, Frederico Lemos, chief commercial officer for Defense and Security, told The War Zone. While Embraer has made public overtures to sell a variant of the aircraft to the U.S. Air Force for several years, it’s now touting an additional selling point: a U.S. demonstration tour completed earlier this year, in which the Millennium participated in a spectrum of defense, disaster response, and space-focused events.

“The aircraft showcased its unmatched versatility and readiness to support the U.S. Department of Defense in addressing critical air refueling challenges,” Embraer said in a release distributed at the tradeshow. “Its performance and cargo capacity also make it ideal for rescue missions, space logistics, and special operations.”

Lemos cited one successful test last July in which U.S. and Portuguese airmen at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, conducted a cold-load training – meaning a loading exercise with the engines off – on a KC-390 using a U.S. Army M142 HIMARS launcher. Embraer saw this as not only a validation of the load capacity of the aircraft but also a mission proof-of-concept.

“They’re able to prepare the airfields, deploy the HIMARS, come back to the airplane and move away as fast as possible,” Lemos said. 

Lemos said the KC-390 is capable of taking off on a strip as short as 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). The company also claims the aircraft can be reconfigured for all nine missions it offers – from aerial resupply and aerial assault to special operations, search-and-rescue, and medevac – within three hours. 

It’s not clear if the recent mission demonstration tour has made the Air Force any more interested in investing in the aircraft. For the tanking mission, the service this year reaffirmed its commitment to keeping its KC-135 in service until at least the 2050s, though Air Mobility Command Commander Gen. John Lamontagne said in a Defense One interview that doing so may require a recapitalization program. The yet-to-be-selected Next-Gen Air Refueling System, or NGAS, is ultimately expected to replace the KC-135.

Still Embraer sees daylight to make its case.

“We see that the tanking needs of the U.S. Air Force are there. There’s an aging fleet that is coming to the end of its service life, and the challenges [of] the mission that we see for the future is different from the past. So you need the combination of capabilities. You need strategic tanking, but you also need tactical tanking, and more than that, you need to have assets that can do multiple missions from areas that you don’t have,” he said. “All the logistics and preparedness in terms of airfields that you used to have. You need to operate from remote locations, small islands, small airfields. And the KC-390 fits in that role …So more missions with less assets that are more affordable and with a lower life-cycle cost throughout its life.”

Embraer also touts KC-390’s readiness for the Air Force with its full operational capability status and its contemporary design, with high customizability and open-architecture construction to meet customers needs.

“You can select the mission mode, so the behavior of the aircraft depends on the type of mission,” Lemos said. “You have a lot of connectivity, compatible with the latest generation of fighters … we have ISR that can be used for reconnaissance but also for laser designation and target identification, to be combined with kinetic effects … or to send information to other fighters or other assets in the zone.”

Lemos wouldn’t describe any feedback he’s getting from the Air Force on its Millennium pitch, but he acknowledged modifications would need to be made.

“What we need to do is to listen, from the Air Force, what specific connectivity they would like to add on top of the 390 to make it more interoperable,” he said.

The boom may also make a return. While current product imagery of the KC-390 show drogues, Lemos said earlier this year, according to a Breaking Defense report, that it would be willing to self-fund a refueling boom for an Air Force tanker variant – effectively a necessity, given the number of Air Force planes requiring one – if the service NGAS assessments made space for the possibility of Millennium adoption.

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Sept. 11 (UPI) — At least three people are dead and 90 are injured following the explosion of a gas tanker in Mexico City, officials said.

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada Molina announced the casualty toll online, listing all 90 people who were injured and the hospitals where they were being treated. Ages of the victims ranged from 6 months to 60 years old.

At least 10 people have been discharged from the hospital, she said.

Earlier, before any fatalities had been reported and when only 57 people were known to be injured, she said 19 were listed in serious condition.

The tanker exploded under Concordia Bridge, resulting in a fire.

“The roadways remain closed to traffic and there are disruptions in public transportation of the area,” she said on X, while posting pictures showing victims being loaded onto police helicopters and the smoking wreckage of the tanker.

President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo of Mexico expressed her “solidarity and support” to the families of the three deceased victims and to those of the injured.

“Likewise, I express my recognition to the emergency services that are supporting in this unfortunate incident,” she said in a statement, adding federal agencies were responding to the explosion.

The missile attack comes amid Houthi pledges to target Israel-linked shipping over its ongoing war in Gaza.

Yemen’s Houthi movement has claimed responsibility for a missile attack on a tanker in the Red Sea, days after Israeli air strikes killed its prime minister and several senior officials.

The group on Monday said it directly hit the Liberian-flagged Scarlet Ray, which is Israeli-owned, according to the maritime security company Ambrey.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency, which monitors shipping in the region, disputed the claim, reporting the missile missed its target on Sunday.

“The crew witnessed a splash in close proximity to their vessel from an unknown projectile and heard a loud bang,” UKMTO said, adding all staff were unharmed and the tanker had resumed its voyage.

The attack is the latest in a string of Houthi operations in the Red Sea. The group sank two tankers in July and has pledged to continue targeting Israel-linked shipping as part of its declared support for Palestinians and opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On Saturday, the Houthis announced that Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb al-Rahawi and other top officials had been assassinated in Israeli strikes on Thursday. A funeral for the prime minister and other slain officials is scheduled on Monday.

Houthi leader Abdel-Malik al-Houthi hailed them as “martyrs of all Yemen” and accused Israel of “savagery” against civilians. “The crime of targeting ministers and civilian officials is added to the criminal record of the Israeli enemy in the region,” he said.

Tensions escalated further on Sunday when Houthi fighters raided United Nations offices and detained at least 11 staff members, accusing them of espionage.

The UN has rejected the allegations and called for their “immediate and unconditional release”. The group is already holding 23 other UN employees, some since 2021.

In May, Oman brokered a ceasefire between the United States and the Houthis, leading Washington to halt its daily bombing campaign in Yemen. However, Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam said the agreement does not cover operations against Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to retaliate, warning the Houthis they will “pay a heavy price” for attacks on Israeli territory and shipping.

The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have launched dozens of drone and missile strikes against Israel and its allies since October, disrupting international trade through the Red Sea.

Estonia redirects maritime traffic to prevent future incidents after Russia’s detention of the Green Admire oil tanker.

Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.

The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.

“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “I have also informed our allies of the event,” he said, referring to other NATO members.

Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.

Vessels leaving Sillamae usually move through Russian waters to avoid Estonia’s shallows, which can be dangerous for larger tankers, the EPB said.

The incident took place after the Estonian navy on Thursday tried to stop an unflagged tanker that was said to be part of a Russian “shadow fleet” of vessels sailing through Estonian waters. Russia responded by sending a fighter jet to escort the tanker, violating Estonia’s airspace.

The “shadow fleet” is meant to help Moscow maintain its crude oil exports to avoid Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.