On Tuesday, US Marines from USS Tripoli once again flew from their MH-60 Seahawk helicopters onto the deck of a suspected container ship called Blue Star III, bound for Iran. This means that a total of 39 ships have been turned back, boarded or seized since April 13.
“The blockade has been incredibly effective,” President Donald Trump said on Sunday. Economic pressure is the main point of the blockade, but it has military consequences far beyond the Strait of Hormuz.
“We have seized their sanctioned ships, and we will seize more,” US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said at the Pentagon on Friday, April 24. “Our blockade is growing and becoming global,” Hegseth added.
‘Going global’ sends shockwaves through China. China imports at least 70% of its oil. Of these, 90% travel by sea. Iran alone supplied 14% of China’s imports last year, while Russia added another 18%. Most of that oil was moved by shadow fleet tankers.
TRUMP CALLS MADURO’S DEPARTURE AS ‘SMART’ MOVE AS RUSSIA AND CHINA BEGIN FIGHT
The blockade continues as a US military helicopter hovers over the sanctioned stateless crude oil tanker M/T Tifani during an interdiction on April 21, 2026. (Ministry of War)
For all the talk about growing Chinese naval power, this naval phase of Operation Epic Fury is an incredible boost to deterrence in the Pacific. The tactics and joint force coordination on display are not something China can easily match. The web of air and maritime surveillance, intelligence, financial forensics and sheer daring is something only America can achieve.
This is why China and Russia should be very, very concerned.
Merchant ship Touska
NO RETREAT AT HORMUZ – IRAN SHOULD NOT CONTROL THE WORLD’S ENERGY LIFELINE
The drama began in the early hours of Sunday, April 19, when the Iranian-flagged container ship Merchant Vessel (M/F) Touska attempted to enter the Strait of Hormuz and reach the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Touska was pedal-to-the-metal in merchant ship terms, steaming at 17 knots under cover of darkness. Lying in wait was the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance (DDG 111).
Spruance had already caught another Iranian ship sneaking out of the strait five days earlier, and Touska was clearly visible. At 9:00 a.m., after multiple warnings, Spruance fired nine inert 5-inch shells into the engine room, leaving Touska dead in the water. That’s marksmanship. At 4 p.m., U.S. Marines from the amphibious ship USS Tripoli conducted an airstrike on Touska and took the ship and crew into custody.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
Tifani and Majestic
Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, is a Navy fighter pilot and TOPGUN graduate best known for his intense focus on technology and warfighting. His forces tracked down and captured two Iranian oil tankers last week. Motor Tanker (MT) Tifani is a shadow fleet tanker infamous for carrying oil from Iran to a site off the coast of Malaysia and then loading it onto ships bound for China. US forces boarded MT Tifani, took control of the bridge and seized 1.9 million barrels of oil. Street value: $171 million, at $90 per barrel. The Motor Tanker Majestic X was subsequently boarded and seized in the Indian Ocean. Officially, this is called maritime ban and right of boarding, because MT Majestic X was a stateless ship that was sanctioned in 2024 for transporting Iranian oil.
Both Tifani and Majestic The motor ship Blue Star III was more fortunate; the crew promised the Marines that she was not bound for Iran, and they let her go. With eyes on it, no doubt.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Historically, this year has seen the largest number of captured enemy ships since President Franklin D. Roosevelt commandeered 90 foreign merchant ships idled in U.S. ports in 1941. Remember how the US Southern Command seized seven Venezuelan oil tankers in the Caribbean in January.
As for Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s shadow fleet may also be at risk in the global seas. Vladimir Putin and his cronies acquired a large, unflagged ghost fleet of tankers after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to circumvent sanctions. The shadow fleet can number 770 ships and transport 3.7 million barrels of oil per day. Mainly to China of course. By putting ships on the high seas, Operation Epic Fury shows that Russia’s Shadow Fleet could be next.
CLICK HERE TO REBECCA GRANT
