Friday, August 21, 2026
Media Kit
shadow fleet tanker detained in Germany

Legal Battle for Germany to Sell Oil from Detained Shadow Tanker Drags On

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One of 10 sanctioned Ecuadorian fishing vessels based out of Manta (U.S. Treasury)

U.S. Treasury Sanctions Ecuadorian Fishing Vessels for Aiding Smugglers

Published Aug 20, 2026 8:42 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S government is moving to cripple the operations of Ecuadorian drug trafficking cartels by imposing sanctions on individuals, entities and fishing vessels that are at the heart of a complex drug-running ring in the Pacific. Though it produces little of the drug itself, Ecuador has emerged as a launchpad for shipping cocaine from Colombia and Peru. Two violent cartels that have both been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S., Ecuador's Los Choneros and splinter group Los Lobos,...

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Gone from the inventory: a THAAD test launch at Kwajalein Atoll, 2019 (MDA)

Op-Ed: War With Iran Has Left Western World Exposed to Ballistic Missiles

Published Aug 20, 2026 8:35 PM by The Strategist

In six months of on-again, off-again fighting with Iran, the United States has effectively exhausted its supply of heavy air defence interceptors. These are the only interceptors that have any ability to shoot down the most dangerous enemy munitions: ballistic missiles. Since the US supplies – or supplied – most of the West’s heavy interceptors, the shortage isn’t just an American problem; it’s a global one. The solution is global, too. America’s allies must work together, and fast, to produce...

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Saildrone Hellfire launch

Saildrone Completes Missile Launch Test Aboard its Sail-Powered Surveyor

Published Aug 20, 2026 8:34 PM by The Maritime Executive

California-based USV builder Saildrone says that it successfully test-fired small missiles from its larger Surveyor sail-powered drone platform during the Rim of the Pacific 2026 exercise, adding to the Navy's list of unmanned-vessel live fire tests. Last year, Saildrone secured a $50 million investment from Lockheed Martin and launched a partnership to expand the mission set for its portfolio. Their first public project was to install a twin-pack launcher for Lockheed's Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) on the deck of a...

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SAR imaging of the Omani corridor through the strait of Hormuz showing little activity, 2359 hours Aug 17 (Sentinel-1 / Copernicus)

White House's Hormuz Traffic Claims Diverge From Independent Counts

Published Aug 20, 2026 7:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

As the U.S. advances a message of economic pressure and operational control in the Strait of Hormuz, the gap between the administration's claims for American-aligned tanker traffic and analysts' assessments is widening. 15-20 tankers per night are using a "stealth" American-defended traffic lane on the south side of the waterway, two American officials told Axios' Barak Ravid, a reporter with close relationships in the White House. This traffic now moves roughly 10 million barrels of oil daily, the officials claimed....

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Offshore

The South African lease area covered part of the Orange Basin, a geological region where Shell has had success on the Namibian side of the boundary line, above (Press handout courtesy Odfjell)

Top Court Ends Shell's South African Wild Coast Offshore Lease

Last Friday, oil major Shell lost a long-running court battle over its offshore oil and gas exploration plans for a frontier region off South Africa's "Wild Coast," an unspoiled stretch of coastline that provides habitat for migrating humpback whales. Environmental groups (including Greenpeace) began suing Shell back in 2021 in an attempt to stop seismic surveying off the Wild Coast, asserting that it would be harmful to whales and to commercial fishermen. Shell countered that its plans were compliant with...

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Shipbuilding

NightTrain

Drawing on LASH Heritage, BlackSea Builds Carrier for Floating ISO Boxes

The American autonomous-boat builder Blacksea Technologies has reinvented the Cold War concept of the Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) vessel, reduced its scale and applied it to contested logistics. Its new autonomous-vessel design, NightTrain, retains the core concept of a self-lightering vessel for shallow-water deliveries, but it is built to carry watertight, floating ISO containers in place of 40-tonne barges. The LASH idea was developed in the 1960s as an alternative to containerized freight and breakbulk. A militarized variant, the Cape...

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Environment

Clear offender: a Chinese distant-water fishing vessel caught with illegal drift net gear at a position off Japan, 2008 (USCG file image)

Study: Wealthy Countries Fuel Illegal Fishing in Poor Countries

Consumers in wealthy nations are fueling a rampant illegal fishing trade that has become a multibillion-dollar industry, and the majority of the catch originates in the waters of poor countries, according to a comprehensive study from Canada’s University of British Columbia. Fishing is a socioeconomic lifeline for most coastal communities across the globe, with about 3.5 million fishing vessels plying the world’s oceans, providing livelihoods and food for millions. But the world seems to have resigned itself to being unable...

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Business

Balboa Panama container terminal

CK Hutchison Ups the Ante Starting Second $1.5B Arbitration Against Panama

Hong Kong-based CK Hutchison Holdings has started a second arbitration against the Republic of Panama over the cancellation earlier this year of its subsidiary’s port concession. While the Panama Ports Company is already pursuing an arbitration that it said could amount to more than $2 billion in damages for the contract, the parent company is now seeking damages of more than $1.5 billion for breaches of treaty obligation and international law. The company asserts breaches of an investment protection treaty...

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