Alan Jones | Journal Of The Republic | February 17, 2024

For years, Western military analysts have feared that Iran has directly acquired or developed defense technology similar or identical to Russia’s Club-K Container Missile System.

Years of speculation regarding Iran and Russia’s Club-K may finally be over.

A video released by Iranian news agency Tasnim appears to show a missile launching from an intermodal container aboard a container ship converted into a naval vessel, according to a February 13, 2024 report from The Maritime Executive.

“The launch vessel is likely the Shahid Mahdavi, a former Panamax container ship repainted in haze gray and converted to military use in 2023,” The Maritime Executive reported. “It is operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a separate branch of the Iranian military and a U.S.-designated terrorist group.”

“‘Nowhere is safe for those powers who seek to threaten our security,’ IRGC commander Hossein Salami said in a statement,” The Maritime Executive noted.

Gulftainer, a United Arab Emirates-based company that operates the container terminal at Florida’s Port Canaveral, entered into a joint venture called Gulftainer Russian Technologies with Russian state-owned weapons and technology conglomerate ROSTEC.

ROSTEC subsidiary ROSOBORONEXPORT exports Russia’s Club-K Container Missile System.

Alan Jones | Journal Of The Republic | July 31, 2023

Enstructure, the company replacing Gulftainer as the operator of Delaware’s Port of Wilmington, acquired Ambassador Services at Florida’s Port Canaveral in 2020.

Enstructure LLC is headquartered in the United States. Gulftainer is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates.

Gulftainer presents a clear and present risk to U.S. national security.

Gulftainer is co-owned by Iraqi oil tycoon Hamid Dhia Jafar and Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah, UAE, according to World Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC) documents. 

Hamid Dhia Jafar is the brother and business partner of rogue Iraqi nuclear physicist Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons mastermind. 

Gulftainer and ROSTEC, a Russian government-owned conglomerate that exports Russia’s Trojan Horse Club-K Container Missile System, formed a half-billion dollar joint venture in 2010 called Gulftainer Russian Technologies. 

ROSTEC exports the Club-K Container Missile System launcher through ROSTEC’s wholly-owned subsidiary ROSOBORONEXPORT.

Russia’s Club-K Container Missile System appears identical to commercial intermodal shipping containers.

The Club-K can “wipe out an aircraft carrier,” according to Reuters.  

Club-K Kalibr cruise missiles can deliver nuclear, EMP, biological, and chemical weapons payloads, as well as conventional weapons payloads.

Russian Kalibr cruise missiles launched by the Club-K Container Missile System can reach supersonic speeds. 

Russian Navy warships launched Kalibr cruise missiles against Ukraine during Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation,” proving Kalibr’s lethality. 

For years, Gulftainer operated inside the wire at two seaports along the East Coast of the United States — Port Canaveral and the Port of Wilmington. 

President Trump imposed sanctions on ROSOBORONEXPORT on the same day Delaware officials approved a deal allowing Gulftainer to operate the Port of Wilmington.

Gulftainer unloaded thousands of intermodal shipping containers that arrived aboard container ships that docked at Port Canaveral and the Port of Wilmington. 

Gulftainer routinely transferred those intermodal containers arriving at U.S. seaports aboard container ships onto semi-trailer chassis. Semi-trucks hauling those intermodal containers then traveled across U.S. highways. Some of those trucks transported the shipping containers to rail yards where yard workers subsequently loaded the intermodal containers onto freight trains.

Enstructure, however, has now replaced Gulftainer as the operator of the Port of Wilmington, including the Port of Wilmington’s container terminal. 

Furthermore, Enstructure has taken over Port Canaveral’s bulk cargo operations at Ambassador Services, near Gulftainer's Canaveral Cargo Terminal.

In July 2023, the board of Diamond State Ports Corporation unanimously decided to replace Gulftainer with Enstructure. Delaware legislative leaders approved the board’s decision.

Almost three years before Delaware officials announced that Delaware had selected Enstructure LLC, “a leading U.S. marine terminal and logistics company,” to replace GT USA Wilmington, LLC, a subsidiary of Gulftainer, as the new operator of Delaware’s Port of Wilmington and its cargo container terminal,  Enstructure LLC acquired Ambassador Services Inc. at Florida’s Port Canaveral, where Gulftainer’s GT USA LLC operates another cargo container terminal.

“The Diamond State Port Corporation is pleased to announce that Enstructure, LLC, has obtained its final approval to become the new operator at the Port of Wilmington,” a July 12, 2023 State of Delaware press release confirmed. “Enstructure is prepared to take the helm at the port in a matter of days.”

“Enstructure, a bulk terminals and logistics company, announced the acquisition of Port Canaveral, Florida-based marine terminal operator Ambassador Services, Inc.,” three years ago, in an August 5, 2020 press release. 

At Port Canaveral, Ambassador Services handles salt, lumber, fruit juice, paper products, vehicles, and U.S. military supplies. 

Ambassador Services also provides stevedoring services to Disney Cruise Line’s Port Canaveral passenger terminal.

However, because Gulftainer continues to operate Port Canaveral’s intermodal cargo container terminal, the UAE-based company tied to Russia and Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program continues to present a grave risk to U.S. national security.  

At Florida’s Port Canaveral, Gulftainer Operates Near The U.S. Navy’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit And The U.S Navy’s Port At Port Canaveral, Which Supports U.S. Navy Ballistic Missile Submarines

The U.S. Navy’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit (NOTU) is a tenant of Canaveral Space Force Station. 

Canaveral Space Force Station is located adjacent to Port Canaveral and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. 

NOTU headquarters are situated only 1.9 miles from Gulftainer’s Canaveral Cargo Terminal.

A U.S. Navy press release issued on April 16, 2021 states:

NOTU provides a key component of the nation’s strategic nuclear deterrence mission, and supports naval activity above, at and below the surface of the sea.

The command has been operating for more than 65 years, supporting strategic deterrence and systems production for the Navy, through both ground-based and missile flight-testing and support.

As a field activity of the Department of Navy’s Strategic Systems Program, every generation of the submarine launched ballistic missile system – Polaris, Poseidon and Trident through the current [Trident] D5LE variant – has been conducted at this facility including the design and development phase, all the way through sustainment and operational support.

NOTU also operates the Navy’s port at Port Canaveral, supporting submarines and surface ships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and foreign navies and assets of the Military Sealift Command.

In alignment with this effort, NOTU’s Strategic Weapons Systems (SWS) Ashore Facility supports testing for current OHIO-class submarines and future engineering needs for systems pertaining to COLOMBIA-class submarines, the latter of which is the Navy’s most important acquisition priority today.  

The Navy’s port at Port Canaveral, operated by NOTU at the Trident Turning Basin, is located approximately 1000 feet from Gulftainer’s Canaveral Cargo Terminal.

The U.S. Navy’s OHIO-class ballistic missile submarines are the most important leg of the U.S. military’s nuclear triad. The nuclear triad is composed of three legs: U.S. Air Force missile silos, U.S. Air Force strategic bombers, and U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarines. 

The U.S. Navy’s newer and stealthier COLUMBIA-class ballistic missile submarines are expected to gradually replace the older OHIO-class submarines and strengthen America's nuclear triad. General Dynamics Electric Boat began construction of the first COLUMBIA-class boomer, the USS District of Columbia (SSBN-826), in 2021.

Gulftainer’s Project Pelican, Barack Obama, And Joe Biden

On July 23, 2014, Gulftainer abruptly announced and signed a 35-year container terminal lease with the Canaveral Port Authority. 

Gulftainer secretly negotiated its Port Canaveral deal under the code-name PROJECT PELICAN. 

Gulftainer’s PROJECT PELICAN Port Canaveral lease deal was quietly approved in 2015 by the Barack Obama Administration’s U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob ‘Jack’ Lew, without a mandated Committee on Foreign Investment In The United States (CFIUS) National Security Threat Analysis. 

Vice President Joe Biden administered the Obama Administration’s U.S. Department of Transportation TIGER Grant program that funded infrastructure improvements at Port Canaveral, setting the table for GULFTAINER’s 2014 PROJECT PELICAN deal.

Gulftainer acquired its Port Canaveral concession in June 2014, during President Barack Obama’s second term, shortly after Russian forces under President Putin invaded and subsequently annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. 

Former President Bill Clinton met with Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar’s nephew Majid Jafar in Dubai in March, 2014.

Dr. Jafar Dhia Jafar’s other nephew, Gulftainer executive Badr Jafar, visited the Obama-Biden White House on March 27, 2014, according to White House visitor logs.

Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in 2014. 

Gulftainer is exiting the Port of Wilmington less than five years into its 50-year concession agreement. Gulftainer subsidiary GT USA Wilmington LLC signed its Port of Wilmington concession agreement with Delaware’s Diamond State Port Corporation. 

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