The crew of the runaway Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera released the first video showing a U.S. Coast Guard Legend class cutter in close pursuit. The video was posted online Tuesday by the Russian RT news outlet as the military buildup in England continues, potentially for a future U.S. boarding of the vessel.
Until recently known as the Bella-1 before it was re-registered and the crew painted a Russian flag on it, the Marinera is part of a so-called shadow fleet. These vessels are transporting oil for Russia, Iran and Venezuela in violation of sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries. The Coast Guard attempted to board the ship, which never made it to port in Venezuela and is empty, on Dec. 20. However, the crew refused to allow it. As we noted yesterday, CBS News reported that the U.S. is drawing up plans to interdict the boat. You can catch up to our most recent coverage of the pursuit for this ship.
The 418-foot-long Legend class cutters often perform interdictions and can accommodate two MH-65 Dolphin helicopters, or one MH-65 or MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and two vertically launched unmanned aerial vehicles. A Coast Guard official told us that the service is phasing out its Insitu ScanEagle drones in favor of Shield AI V-BAT drones.
Regardless of how many aviation assets it carries or how it is armed, a lone cutter in the high seas has not proven adequate to board the Marinera. Concerns about the effort have been exacerbated by Venezuelan officials having discussed “the placement of armed military personnel on tankers — disguising them as civilians for defense purposes — as well as portable Soviet-era air defense systems,” CBS reported. That’s likely why the U.S. is planning a much larger and far more capable and well defended force to do so.
In December, when the U.S. boarded the M/T Skipper, another sanctioned Russian oil tanker, law enforcement and military personnel were fast-roped from a Navy MH-65 Seahawk embarked aboard the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, not too far from Venezuela. You can see that boarding in the following video.