Key Points and Summary – In a sharp escalation of maritime pressure on the “Axis of Upheaval,” the Trump administration quietly ordered U.S. special operations forces to board and search a PRC-flagged vessel in the Indian Ocean carrying military production components bound for Iran.
-The team seized sensitive guidance and missile-related hardware before allowing the ship to continue, part of a broader push to disrupt Tehran’s clandestine procurement network.
(Oct. 16, 2025) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius (DDG 117) renders honors to the USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), Oct. 16, 2025. Paul Ignatius is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to support the warfighting effectiveness, lethality and readiness of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, and defend U.S., Allied and partner interests in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Seaman Bradley Wolff)
-Weeks later, U.S. authorities diverted a Russian-crewed oil tanker carrying Venezuelan crude destined for China.
-Backed by fresh Treasury sanctions on Iranian front companies, the strategy targets the China–Iran logistics lifeline at sea as much as in the banking system.
US Forces Raid China Ship Loaded with Military Components Headed to Iran
In a break with past procedure, the Donald Trump Administration has for the first time ordered the seizure of a People’s Republic of China (PRC) ship while still on the high seas.
The operation was authorized because the vessel was loaded with military production-related items headed for Iran.
This incident, which took place last month, was followed weeks later by the recent seizure of a tanker in the Caribbean that had left Venezuela loaded with oil. That ship was headed for the PRC, and its confiscation was part of Washington’s growing intent to strike at the weak points of US adversaries. The administration’s decision to engage in more aggressive actions against nations that belong to the Axis of Upheaval, and to do so in international waters, had never occurred before.
A US special operations team boarded a ship in the Indian Ocean last month. It seized this cargo of military-related items en route to Iran from the PRC.
This new US policy, according to officials who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, is that these interdictions at sea will continue to be carried out to prevent Tehran from reconstituting its arsenal that was depleted mainly in a series of attacks by Israel.
The ship was located several hundred miles off the coast of Sri Lanka when a US special ops unit boarded it. The cargo of military production components and other materiel was confiscated before the vessel was permitted to continue. According to US intelligence officials, Washington had been tracking the shipment. It was aware of all items loaded onto the vessel at the port in the PRC before the vessel departed.
Disrupting Clandestine Supply Networks
Iran has long operated a literal spiderweb of a clandestine, illegal network to procure almost all its military production-related items. Most notably, for decades, this has been the mechanism to acquire spare parts for the many US and European weapon systems left in its arsenal with the collapse of the Iranian monarchy and the installation of an Islamic Republic in 1979.
Last month’s raid on this ship in the Indian Ocean, which has been undisclosed until now, is part of a set of activities designed to dismember this network. More than a month before the vessel was stopped and its cargo searched and partially confiscated, the US Treasury Department sanctioned 21 entities and 17 individuals known to be connected with these Iranian activities.
The announcement by the Treasury stated that the individuals and companies named are involved in supplying the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) of Iran, as well as its ballistic missile and military aircraft production facilities.
“The Iranian regime’s support of terrorist proxies and its pursuit of nuclear weapons threatens the security of the Middle East, the United States, and our allies around the world,” reads the official statement from the Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will deny the regime weapons it would use to further its malign objectives.”
This raid was supposedly the first time in recent years that the US military intercepted cargo that had originated in the PRC and was being shipped to Iran. There is currently no information on the ship’s name, and its ownership or flag could not be verified.
The interception of this ship took place only a few weeks before US law enforcement had boarded a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, seized the boat, and diverted it to a US port city. This ship, named the Skipper, had an almost all-Russian crew and was on a journey that would also have made a port call in Iran, with the oil intended for sale to the PRC.
Iran’s Major Clandestine Shipping Entities
According to the Treasury announcement, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the central sanctioning agency of the US Government, is taking actions against Beh Joule Pars Commercial Engineering Company (Beh Joule Pars). This company is described as an advanced conventional weapons procurement and sales conglomerate operating on behalf of the Tehran government.
The sanctioning activity is being carried out in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department. Since 2017, the DHS office in Chicago has been mapping Iran’s procurement ecosystem and how it operates to procure sensitive technology to circumvent sanctions.
Beh Joule Pars reportedly also operates a network of companies to acquire military and sensitive dual-use items on behalf of Iran’s defense industrial firms. Beh Joule Pars has procured or organized the procurement of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) components for Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organisation and its subordinate entities.
The Accelerometers and gyroscopes are guidance, navigation, and control equipment that Iran is always looking to source to support its ballistic missile and unmanned aerial vehicle programs. MEMS components are electronics that Iran has sought for its ballistic missile program and are a critical element in the guidance systems used in precision, long-range weapons.
“By remaining a permissive jurisdiction for the export of illicit technologies, China is an enabler for Iran’s ballistic missiles program,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, the Iran director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the WSJ. The Foundation is a Washington think tank advocating tighter sanctions on Iran.
PRC-based companies continue to provide dual-use technologies that improve the precision of Iran’s missile systems, such as spectrometers, gyroscopes, and other measurement devices, said Taleblu. “That is much more dangerous than chemical precursors,” and some of the other illegal shipments coming from the PRC to Iran, he said.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.