Shipbuilder General Dynamics NASSCO laid the keel for the US Navy’s future USNS Miguel Keith (ESB 5) at a ceremony in San Diego on January 30. A keel laying is the formal recognition of the start of a ship’s construction. It is the joining together of a ship’s modular components and the authenticati
US Navy ships assigned to the Carl Vinson carrier strike group arrived in Guam on January 30 and 31 for the first port call of their Western Pacific deployment. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and guided-missile destroyers USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) and USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) a
Royal Canadian Navy auxiliary oiler replenishment (AOR) vessel Asterix has entered service after completing sea trials and testing. Asterix performed daily replenishment-at-sea (RAS) exercises with the RCN and conducted extensive RCAF CH-148 Cyclone helicopter operations to prove and demonstrate its
Warships from NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) will enter the Black Sea to join their mine countermeasure countermeasure counterparts already operating in the region. After SNMG2 ships from the UK and Turkey enter the Black Sea through the Bosphorus, they are scheduled to join Standing NATO
Royal Canadian Navy coastal defense vessels HMCS Summerside and HMCS Kingston got underway from Halifax on January 26, starting a deployment to West Africa. The two Kingston-class ships will foster relationships with partner navies and take part in exercise Obangame Express 2018, in the Gulf of Guin
The Belgian government on Friday, January 26, decided to give the department of defense its green light for the acquisition of six new mine countermeasure vessels. The order will be placed jointly with the Netherlands Navy which will acquire an identical number of MCM ships. In addition to mine coun
The Canadian government has awarded Raytheon Canada a CAD$704 million contract for the upkeep and upgrades of close-in weapon systems (CIWS) aboard Royal Canadian Navy ships. The in-service support contract will be valid until late 2037, and comprises an initial 10-year service period with three opt
The Australian federal government has unveiled a new defense export strategy aimed at turning Australia into a major defense exporter. The document, unveiled by defense industry minister Christopher Pyne on Monday, sets out the policy and strategy to make Australia one of the top ten global defense
Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Cardigan Bay hosted personnel from the US and Royal Navy for exercise Azraq Serpent 18 (AS18). The five-day exercise started January 14 and was aimed at developing interoperability between the two partners across the medical domain in the US 5th fleet area of operations. T
The US Navy announced it is starting a mission to survey the downed C-2A Greyhound aircraft that crashed into the Philippine Sea en route to aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan on November 22. The navy will carry out the mission with help from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s research vessel R/V Pet
Looking for new technologies to improve the operation of unmanned underwater vehicles, the Royal Navy used the Maritime Enterprise Innovation Scotland Conference (MEISC) to set challenges for developers. During the conference, held at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on January 24, two speci
The US Naval Surface Warfare Center has awarded engineering and IT company Engineering Services Network a $39.5 million contract for deliveries of combat system sequencing systems. Under the contract, ESN will be responsible for development, modification, validation and delivery of Combat Systems Op
After concluding operations with the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Fort Rosalie switched to supporting the US Navy’s Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group. As Fort Rosalie joined the US task group in the Persian Gulf, RFA Fort Rosalie personnel were welcomed aboard their Americ
A US Navy aircraft carrier is likely to visit Vietnam in March, in what would be a first since the Vietnam war ended in 1975. This was announced on Thursday by officials from both countries during a two-day visit of US defense secretary Jim Mattis to Vietnam, according to media reports. No specific
