US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) got underway from its forward-deployed homeport of Naval Station Rota, Spain, On November 19 to start its eighth patrol in the US 6th Fleet area of operations. Donald Cook deployed two days after sister ship USS Carney (
The Australian government has awarded Sydney-based unmanned systems developer Ocius a $1.7 million contract to explore the viability of an intelligent command and control network of persistent unmanned surface vessels. Awarded as part of the Australian Defence Innovation Hub initiative, the contract
The US Navy’s newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship has arrived at her future homeport of Naval Base San Diego ahead of her commissioning ceremony next year. Tulsa (LCS 16) arrived in San Diego on November 21, after completing the ship’s maiden voyage from the Austal USA shipyard in Mobil
US Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup (DDG 86) returned to its homeport of Naval Station Everett, Wash., November 21. While on deployment Shoup supported the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) and participated in exercise Valiant Shield 2018. OMSI is a secretary of defense initiative
The Royal Navy will deploy multi-role hydrographic survey ship HMS Echo to Ukraine next year in response to what the UK defense secretary identified as Russia’s intensifying threats and aggression. In a meeting with the visiting Ukrainian defense minister General Stepan Poltorak, UK defense secretar
The US Navy should leverage potential private shipyard repair capacity if it wants to reduce delays in attack submarine maintenance periods and cut operating and support cost expenditures, a GAO report has found. The Government Accountability Office’s analysis of navy maintenance data shows that bet
A US Navy carrier strike group centered around the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) arrived in Hong Kong for a scheduled port visit on November 21. The arrival of Ronald Reagan to Hong Kong follows China’s refusal to allow amphibious assault ship USS Wasp to visit the city in September th
The first two Ukrainian Navy Centaur-class assault craft arrived in Odessa on November 19 to start their state trials. The assault boats transited from Kiev, where they were built by shipbuilder Kuznya on Rybalsky, to Odessa under their own power. They were launched in September this year as the fir
The Russian Navy’s second Project 22350 frigate Admiral Kasatonov is ready to start builder’s trials in December this year, Saint Petersburg-based shipbuilder Severnaya Verf has announced. Shipyard workers and the Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate’s crew are completing final preparations for the ship’s
French Navy anti-air warfare destroyer FS Cassard rescued twelve crew members of the Panama-flagged asphalt-bitumen tanker Durban Queen in the Persian Gulf on November 20. FS Cassard was en route to Kuwait and exercise Pearl of the West when it received a distress call from the nearby tanker. Accord
US Navy amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) departed the waters near Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) on November 20 after assisting relief efforts in the aftermath of super typhoon Yutu. Ashland sailors worked with Department of Defense to provide suppo
Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Albion has completed the final port call of a ten-month deployment to Asia-Pacific. Albion departed Gibraltar on November 20 and is expected to arrive at its Plymouth homeport on Friday. After a number of stops in the Asia-Pacific region and Middle East – Indon
The US State Department has approved a possible sale of eight Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block 1B missiles and thirteen SM-3 Block 2A missiles to Japan for an estimated cost of $561 million. In an announcement on November 19, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said the contract also included
Article by: Peter Ong The United States Coast Guard’s only heavy operational Polar-class icebreaker, Polar Star, completed its annual scheduled refit at Mare Island, Vallejo, California, in a maintenance period riddled with challenges. The forty-two year old ship returned from Operation Deep Freeze
