Construction of a new naval testing facility at the Portsdown Technology Park (PTP) in Portsmouth, UK, is set to begin soon, UK defense technology company Qinetiq announced as it unveiled the facility’s design. Together with the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Qinetiq is investing £23m in
Obangame Express, an exercise sponsored by US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and designed to improve regional cooperation, kicked off on March 21 with an opening ceremony in Libreville, Gabon. The annual exercise aims to enhance maritime domain awareness (MDA), information-sharing practices, and tactical
French defense and technology company Thales worked with the Royal Navy recently to see if upgrades in submarine sonar systems could be applied on towed array sonars used on surface ships such as the Type 23 frigates. Sonar 2076 is the Royal Navy’s major sonar platform on all submarines, while the T
UK-based engineering consultancy BMT and Turkey’s ARES Shipyard have received a new order from the Qatari Coast Guard which includes an additional nine vessels. The order was officially signed during Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) last week. The new order cove
The UK defense ministry has awarded a £160 million (approx. $226.5m) contract to a BAE Systems-led team to resolve the power and propulsion system issues experienced by Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyers. The Power Improvement Project (PIP) will improve the resilience of the Type 45 class by installing
US Navy’s Harpers-Ferry class dock landing ship USS Oak Hill (LSD 51) and the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) wrapped up their 15-day stay in the Black Sea, transiting the Bosphorus to return to the Mediterranean Sea on March 22. During their time in the Black Sea, US Navy sailors and
Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Mounts Bay arrived in Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) waters on March 19 to help the the British overseas territory with a recent increase in the number of migrant arrivals from Haiti. TCI police and border control officials observed a surge in the number of illegal sloops
After concluding exercises and at sea maneuvers with Lithuanian Navy units, ships from NATO’s Standing Maritime Group One (SNMG1) started a series of naval exercises with the Polish Navy in the Baltic Sea. The exercise got underway on Monday and included a number of basic and advanced maritime opera
The Royal Navy has shared the first design photos of its £18 million (approx. 25m) Royal Marines Museum, some two years ahead of its opening in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Directors promise a much more interactive, hi-tech museum which will immerse tourists in the world of the Royal Marines from t
The US Navy’s froward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) got underway from Spain, to start a patrol in the US 6th Fleet area of operations. The destroyer’s seventh patrol started on March 12, as the ship and crew departed Naval Station Rota. Donald Cook wi
The US Navy has shared photos of two of its submarines surfacing in the Arctic Circle on March 10 as part of the multinational maritime Ice Exercise (ICEX) 2018. Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine USS Hartford (SSN 768) and Seawolf-class fast attack submarine, USS Connecticut (SSN 22) broke thr
Subsea design and manufacturing company Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) recently delivered two 1000m Atom Mk1 work class remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems to JFD Ltd, who is in charge of delivering a complete submarine rescue system to the Indian Navy. The Atom systems come with launch and recover
US Navy’s Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) arrived off the coast of Israel on March 6 to take part in exercise Juniper Cobra 2018. Although Iwo Jima and the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) will not participate directly in the ballistic missile defense portion of
Kuwait’s Marine surveillance department has contracted Spanish shipbuilder Freire Shipyard to build a new 42-meter fisheries surveillance patrol vessel. The contract for this patrol vessel came into force in February 2018, Freire announced, and the vessel is scheduled to be delivered in the fourth q
