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Tag: Military personnel

  • UK can legally stop shadow fleet tankers, ministers believe

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    The government has identified a legal basis which it believes can be used to allow UK military to board and detain vessels in so-called shadow fleets, BBC News understands.

    Russia, Iran and Venezuela have all been accused of operating ships without a valid national flag to avoid sanctions on oil.

    Last week British armed forces assisted US troops in seizing the Marinera oil tanker, which American officials accused of carrying oil for Venezuela, Russia and Iran, breaking US sanctions.

    To date, no UK military personnel have boarded any vessels, but officials have spent the last few weeks exploring what measures could be used.

    The Sanctions and Money Laundering Act from 2018 can be used to approve the use of military force, ministers believe.

    It is understood there are plans for the armed forces to use these powers, in what is being described inside government as a ramping up of action against the ships.

    It is not known exactly when the first UK military action might occur.

    Two oil tankers subject to US sanctions were reportedly spotted sailing east through the English Channel towards Russia on Thursday.

    The UK has already imposed sanctions on more than 500 alleged shadow vessels, which it believes are helping to fund hostile activity, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Ministers say that action taken by the UK and its allies has forced around 200 ships off the seas, most of which will have been operating without a legitimate flag.

    Ship flagging is the process used to register a vessel to a specific country, which then allows it to travel in international waters and offers it certain protections under law.

    The government believes the new legal mechanism they have identified could be applied to any sanctioned vessels not legitimately flagged.

    Officials say this would have included the Marinera tanker, which was seized last week.

    The Marinera, a Venezuelan-linked ship previously known as the Bella 1, was stopped by the US Coast Guard as it travelled through the North Atlantic ocean between Iceland and Scotland.

    The Ministry of Defence said the US asked the UK for assistance, and that RAF surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy support ship RFA Tideforce took part in the operation.

    Defence Secretary John Healey said the action was “in full compliance with international law”, adding the UK “will not stand by as malign activity increases on the high seas”.

    Healey told MPs on Wednesday that the government was “stepping up action on the shadow fleet, developing further military options and strengthening co-ordination with allies”.

    It is understood that identifying this legal mechanism was one of the further military options that Healey was referring to.

    The US has increased action against shadow fleet vessels, with five tankers seized in recent weeks.

    A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The defence secretary set out in parliament this week that deterring, disrupting and degrading the Russian shadow fleet is a priority for this government”.

    They added: “We will not comment on specific operational planning”.

    Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said on Sunday that the number of insurance checks were being increased, with more than 600 ships stopped while sailing close to the British Isles.

    Vessels not legitimately flagged generally have no insurance, which experts have warned could lead to a crisis if they were involved in an incident like an expensive oil spill.

    But Alexander said it would not be appropriate to say how many alleged shadow vessels were known to have sailed in UK waters.

    She told Sky News: “Providing you with that information only helps one person and that is President Putin.”

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  • How can Europe protect its skies against ‘escalating’ drone menace?

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    Drones flying over airports, commercial sites and other sensitive infrastructure in Europe is a growing phenomenon which EU leaders blame on Russia, and preventing the disruption they cause will prove a tough technical challenge, observers say.

    Detecting the drones, making them non-operational by jamming them, or even shooting them down, are all complex and hazardous tasks. And while Russian involvement is suspected, it is difficult to prove.

    Concerns are growing that such disruptions could be part of Russian hybrid war tactics three-and-a-half years into its invasion of Ukraine, as most European countries double down on their support for Kyiv including by delivering military hardware.

    In early October, drones spotted over the German city of Munich twice shuttered the city’s airport, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying “our suspicion is that Russia is behind most of these drone flights”.

    This followed similar incidents around airports in the Norwegian capital Oslo, Copenhagen and other Danish cities.

    In France, several drones were spotted flying over the military base of Mourmelon-le-Grand in the northeast of the country earlier this week, the French military told AFP.

    The drones were small and not piloted by French military personnel, the regional branch of the army said, describing the incident as “exceptional”.

    – ‘Trying to humiliate us’ –

    European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said the incidents amounted to a “coherent and escalating campaign”.

    “Two incidents are coincidence, but three, five, 10 — this is a deliberate and targeted grey-zone campaign against Europe, and Europe must respond,” she told EU lawmakers on Wednesday.

    French forces earlier this month boarded a tanker off western France that has been linked to the mysterious drone flights.

    Its captain and first mate were detained but later released, and the vessel was able to head towards the Suez Canal.

    “At this stage, it’s just to annoy us, it’s part of the Russians’ displays of hostility. They’re trying to humiliate us,” said a French security source, requesting not to be named.

    The source emphasised that it was difficult to prove Moscow’s involvement.

    They said France has seen increased drone overflights of military installations, industrial sites and other sensitive locations over the past few weeks, but authorities are unsure who is controlling them.

    In some cases, there could be other explanations.

    At Mourmelon, a vast military site, “we could very well have a father who buys a Chinese drone that doesn’t include the ‘no-fly zone’ in its system, who doesn’t read the instructions and goes to the nearby forest for the weekend and ends up in the middle of a prohibited zone”, said Thierry Berthier, scientific director of the European professional federation for security drones, Drones4Sec.

    – ‘Not far from confrontation’ –

    Whatever their origin, countering the drones is not going to be easy.

    There are many sites that need to be protected — not just civilian airports, but also military sites, sensitive industries such as those involved in European support for Ukraine, and power plants.

    Jamming is an effective but potentially fraught measure in populated areas. “You risk jamming a lot of things,” Berthier warned.

    A drone can be shot down or intercepted with another drone, but this is risky. At the end of September, the Danish authorities decided not to shoot them down for the safety of civilians.

    There are also legal constraints.

    In France, “only a government agency can neutralise a drone,” said the security source, meaning that a private company would not be allowed to disable a drone by jamming it.

    In Germany, the government must clear up a legal limbo to allow the police to shoot down threatening drones.

    Lorenzo, a French naval sailor on an exercise in the Mediterranean who did not give his last name in line with French military custom, told AFP it was “very difficult” to shoot down a drone.

    He said this as he stood behind his 12.7-calibre machine gun which has a range of 900 metres (2,950 feet) and fires 500 rounds per minute.

    While most European countries strongly support Ukraine, leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron have consistently stressed they are not a “belligerent” party in the conflict.

    “We are no longer completely in peacetime because we are both in peacetime and not far from confrontation,” Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, chief of staff of the French Navy, said Wednesday, complaining of obstacles preventing the deployment of defence resources.

    “At some point, (we have to ask,) are we defending or not?”

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  • Faced with Russian threat, NATO flexes military muscle in North Sea

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    NATO flexed its muscles in the North Sea this week in a display of military might, as Russia allegedly tested the alliance’s defences on its eastern flank.

    F-18 fighter jets lined up on the world’s largest aircraft carrier, flanked by 20 ships and with some 10,000 military personnel from 13 countries.

    US destroyers and French and Danish frigates escorted the giant USS Gerald R. Ford on the high seas as part of NATO’s Neptune Strike 25-3 exercise.

    F-35 and F-18 jets flew overhead in a diamond formation behind an E-2 Hawkeye, in a demonstration of their capabilities and to test their coordination at a time of high tension with Moscow.

    One day before the exercise, a Russian reconnaissance aircraft flew three times over the German frigate Hamburg at “very low altitude” in the Baltic Sea on September 21, according to the German defence ministry.

    “We consider this behaviour unprofessional and uncooperative,” said a ministry spokesperson.

    The NATO exercise began the same day that, a few hundred kilometres away, “three or four large drones” flew over Copenhagen Airport, disrupting air traffic.

    These “hybrid attacks” could increase, warned Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.

    “We reassure our allies, and with our adversaries or others… we establish a strategic deterrent as a group, as a team,” said US Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, commander of Carrier Strike Group Twelve, in the vast hangar of the carrier.

    Above, F-18s took off with a deafening roar, an AFP journalist on board said.

    – Integration –

    France participated in Neptune Strike with its frigate Bretagne, which can carry out anti-submarine and anti-air warfare missions.

    The exercise “brings together 13 NATO nations across three different seas. It’s a way to integrate all NATO forces and train on high-level exercises,” explained Captain Nicolas Simon, the frigate’s commander.

    “For France, the objective is, of course, to show its solidarity with all NATO nations, but also to demonstrate its full capabilities in conducting air and marine operations,” he added, as the ship sailed alongside the US aircraft carrier.

    Simulated air attacks, ship boarding, and amphibious landings are among the ways in which Neptune Strike showcased the alliance’s power and coordination against a threat the military refused to explicitly name.

    On Tuesday, a “boarding team” from the protection brigade, armed with rifles, was airlifted from the French frigate to a US destroyer to inspect its flag and cargo.

    The aircraft carrier, preceded by a Danish frigate, a French frigate, and two US destroyers, sailed through the North Sea on Wednesday morning before parting ways in a minutely choreographed move.

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  • New Florida Bill Allows Guns To Start Businesses

    New Florida Bill Allows Guns To Start Businesses

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    TALLAHASSEE, FL—In an effort to achieve greater equality among a community deeply woven into the fabric of the state’s culture, a new Florida bill signed into law Friday would allow guns to start businesses. “For too long, pistols and semiautomatic rifles have been excluded from full participation in our state’s economy, and this law seeks to rectify that immediately,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis, arguing that law-abiding 9 mm handguns and AR-15-style weapons have a constitutional right to engage in commerce just as any other valued member of the public would. “Going forward, firearms will be able to open nail salons, pizzerias, massage parlors, or any other establishment they wish in pursuit of their own American dream. Did you know that even though they make up 55% of the U.S. population, there are zero gun CEOs in America?” DeSantis added that he would love see a thriving Little Guntown neighborhood in downtown Miami or Orlando.

    Ron DeSantis Introduces New Son Barron Trump

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