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
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
France, Italy and the United Kingdom have renewed an in-service support contract with Eurosam related to the upkeep of the land and naval systems in service with the three countries. The contract extension was awarded to Eurosam, a consortium between MBDA and Thales, by the European Organisation for
RFA Tideforce, the final of four Tide-class tankers being built for the UK in South Korea, was named on January 24 in a ceremony at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering shipyard in South Korea. The ceremony was attended by Royal Marine General Gordon Messenger, British ambassador to Republic
Polish shipbuilder Remontowa Shipbuilding SA has laid the keel for the first of six tugs to be built for the Polish Navy under a contract signed in June 2017. The first tug, bearing pennant number 860/1, started construction in November 2017 when the first steel was cut. The tugs will be used for po
The Spanish Navy-operated polar research ship B.I.O. Hespérides has started the second phase of the 31st Spanish Antarctic Campaign after a three and a half-month voyage from her homeport in Cartagena. After making port calls in Mar de Plata and Ushuaia, the ship proceeded towards the Antarctic cont
Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Charlottetown arrived at its Halifax homeport on January 19, wrapping up a six-month deployment with NATO’s Standing Maritime Group One (SNMG1). HMCS Charlottetown joined SNMG1 in August 2017, sailing in the Baltic Sea, Northern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean S
The US Navy’s forward-deployed command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) pulled into Valletta, Malta, on January 19, 2018, for a scheduled port visit. During her time in Valletta, Mount Whitney is providing ship tours and enhancing relationships between the two countries. “The sailors and civilian mar
The Belgian Navy is now in charge of the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1) after taking over from the Latvian Navy in a ceremony on January 15. Commander Peter Ramboer of the Belgian Navy relieved Latvian Commander Gvido Laudups in Zeebrugge, Belgium. Commander Laudups has led t
Norwegian Navy Commodore Petter Kammerhuber handed over command of the Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG1) to his Royal Danish Navy counterpart, Commodore Søren Thinggaard Larsen, in a ceremony on January 15 in Bergen, Norway. SNMG1 has been under Norwegian command since January 2017, under the
Italian defense company Leonardo was selected to lead the first European Defence Fund’s initiative project which will see the integration of unmanned platforms in surveillance and interdiction missions. OCEAN2020, as the project is called, is issued by the European Union under the ‘Preparatory Actio
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
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
The modernized Royal Navy frigate HMS Westminster was deployed on January 5 to keep watch on a Russian Navy task group transiting the English Channel and areas of UK interest, the Royal Navy said. The Portsmouth-based Type 23 frigate remained at sea over the weekend to meet up with the Russian vesse
