The French defense procurement agency DGA (Direction générale de l’armement) has awarded the Naval Group and Airbus Helicopters consortium a contract to develop a rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator for the French Navy. According to a Naval Group announcement, the contract covers
A squadron of Royal Marines engineers took to the shores of western Scotland recently for an exercise that tested their ability to provide support to an amphibious unit in the field. On paper, the boat group from Plymouth’s 539 Assault Squadron should be able to deploy two hovercraft, eight ORC raid
German Navy’s F124 air-defense frigate FGS Hessen will be joining a US Navy aircraft carrier strike group off the US east coast for joint drills. Hessen is scheduled to depart her homeport of Wilhelmshaven on January 15 and will be joined by a Norwegian frigate which will also be integrating into a
Dutch shipbuilder Damen has delivered the fourth 3307 patrol vessel – Guardian 4 – to Nigerian Homeland Integrated Offshore Services. The vessel will be used for operations in the offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Guinea. Homeland is one of the few government-approved, private maritime security com
RFS 156 ‘Yamal’ sustained damages on its port side. Photo: Twitter/Capt_Navy Russian Navy landing ship Yamal collided with Sierra Leone-flagged container ship M/V Orca 2 in the Aegean Sea on December 30, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement to news agency TASS. No one was injured in the
Russia’s Zelenodolsk Shipbuilding Plant named after Maksim Gorky is set to hold a keel-laying ceremony for the sixth Project 22160 patrol ship in the Republic of Tatarstan on January 13. Project 22160 patrol ships are designed by the JSC Northern Design Bureau (St. Petersburg) for exclusive economic
The Royal Navy has bid farewell to a Commodore who became longest serving naval base commander “since the Napoleonic era.” Commodore Jeremy Rigby spent six years as commander of Naval Base Portsmouth and served for 37 years in the Royal Navy. Handing over the reins to Commodore Jim Higham who will t
Royal Navy frigate HMS Sutherland and her crew started a somewhat out-of-the-ordinary deployment on January 9, getting underway from their homeport at HM Naval Base Devonport. What is special about the Type 23 frigate’s deployment is that Sutherland will be the first Royal Navy vessel to operate in
French shipbuilder Naval Group has selected navigation and positioning systems company iXblue to deliver its Marins systems for the French Navy’s new FTI (Fregate de Taille Intermediaire) medium-size frigates. As a prime contractor on the FTI project, Naval Group signed a contract with iXblue for th
The National Museum of the Royal Navy is starting work on a £5m museum to tell the story of the Royal Navy in Plymouth, the Royal Navy has announced. The museum is a cornerstone of a 12-year plan by museum bosses which will also see a multi-million pound revamp of the Fleet Air Arm’s heritage. [&hel
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) got underway from Naval Station Rota, Spain, on January 8, to start its sixth forward-deployed patrol in Africa and Europe. Ross completed its previous four-month patrol in July 2017. The 2017 patrol saw the destroyer take part
Sweden’s defense contractor Saab announced it will be demonstrating its AUV62-AT anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training system to the US Navy this year. The AUV62-AT is based on an artificial acoustic system that mimics a submarine. The US Navy will evaluate Saab’s AUV62-AT against its own systems th
