Ever since we posted the first known picture of the Pentagon's full outfitted special operations mothership—a vessel that is truly designed to hide in plain sight—more information about the shadowy ship's activities has been trickling in. We recently got another fragmented view of it, taken during a port call in Seychelles just two months after it popped up at a dry dock facility in Oman in early January of this year. In the year and a half before its arrival in Oman, it seems to have spent a good amount of time in the Mediterranean and possibly the Baltic Sea as well. But before it left on its maiden voyage in mid-2016, it stopped off in Norfolk, Virginia where it was loaded up with personnel and gear, including what a squad of stealthy special operations fast-boats.

We have wondered what types of craft would fill the now ironically named M/V Ocean Trader's four launch and recovery bays located on the ship's starboard side. The most likely option seemed to be rigid-hull inflatable boats, like the 11 meter Naval Special Warfare RHIB. But it turns out the ship totes around far more advanced vessels in the form of the stealthy Combat Craft-Assault (CCA).

DoD Combat Craft Assault