The Orion class is a series of 8 container ships built for Zodiac Maritime. The first 4 ships are operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and the remaining ships are operated by Ocean Network Express (ONE). The ships were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea. The ships have a maximum theoretical capacity of 14,952 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU).^[1][2][3]

On April 13, 2024, during the Red Sea crisis, the IRGC Navy seized Portuguese-registered and Madeira-flagged MSC Aries.^[12][13] The ship was off the UAE coast and was taken to Iran, which claimed that it had violated maritime laws.^[14]

On April 26, MSV Orion, sister ship to MSC Aries, was struck by a drone, 300 to 400 nautical miles southeast of the Horn of Africa, extending Houthi Red Sea attacks to the Indian Ocean.^[15]