Special operations “mothership” surfaces at Diego Garcia
Satellite imagery traces the MV Ocean Trader from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean staging ground as the Navy declines to confirm the vessel’s location.
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The MV Ocean Trader, a clandestine forward operating base for US special operations troops, has been spotted at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, according to open-source satellite imagery analyzed by maritime tracking analysts.
Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from May 7 shows a vessel consistent with the 633-foot Ocean Trader anchored inside the atoll at Diego Garcia, the sprawling joint US-UK military installation on a British-controlled island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Also visible in the lagoon is the USNS Pililaau, which, like the Ocean Trader, is a converted roll-on/roll-off ferry used to preposition supplies, personnel, and equipment.
Diego Garcia serves as the primary US power-projection hub in the Indian Ocean, providing access to the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and the broader Indo-Pacific. The Ocean Trader’s arrival there suggests SOCOM may be positioning for operations in one of several active theaters, though the specific mission, if any, remains unknown.
The After-Action Report was the first to report that the ship was spotted in the Caribbean, four months before Delta Force operators flew into downtown Caracas in January and captured Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, who is now awaiting trial for narcotrafficking in New York.
The Ocean Trader sighting comes after a months-long journey that analysts have been quietly tracking. MT Anderson, who first spotted the Ocean Trader in the Caribbean last September, said he last confirmed the vessel’s location off Puerto Rico in November 2025. On April 13, he recorded a potential sighting in the Mediterranean approaching the Suez Canal, a track the Diego Garcia imagery now appears to validate.
“When the Ocean Trader slides into theatre—much like what we saw with previous posturing around Venezuela—more complex operations tend to follow,” Anderson wrote on X.
The Navy declined to confirm the Ocean Trader's location. Jillian Morris, a spokeswoman for Military Sealift Command, which operates the vessel for Special Operations Command, cited operational security and referred questions to the Navy, which also declined to comment, referring operational questions to the relevant combatant commands. A message seeking comment from Special Operations Command was not returned.
First reported by David Axe in War is Boring and assiduously tracked by The War Zone, the Ocean Trader was originally built in 2011 as an auto ferry and converted a decade ago to support special operations while blending in with commercial maritime traffic. The vessel can accommodate nearly 160 military personnel plus a crew of up to 50, with provisions for 45 days at sea and the ability to launch and recover helicopters, drones, and up to four small craft. It also carries Combatant Craft-Assault boats used by Naval Special Warfare’s Special Boat Teams to insert and extract SEALs
