The lead ship of the new Royal Fleet Auxiliary tankers has completed her air sea acceptance trials (ASCT) with a Merlin Mk2 helicopter from QinetiQ at Boscombe Down. Completing the ASCT is a major milestone before the RFA Tidespring enters naval service. “Successful completion of these trials will c
RFA Tidespring, the first of four new tankers in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s fleet, paid her first visit to Gibraltar on October 17. Sailing with an embarked Merlin helicopter during pre-commissioning workups, the tanker called in on the Rock for routine logistics support. She is the first of a flee
German Navy’s combat support ship EGV Frankfurt am Main which damaged its stern in March this year is ready to deploy again after undergoing repair works in Kiel. The ship sustained stern damage while reversing into a sea lock at Wilhelmshaven navy base and had to sail for Kiel where it was repaired
US Navy transport dock USS San Diego (LPD 22) pulled into Souda Bay, Greece, on October 15, for a scheduled port visit and a mid-deployment voyage repair maintenance stop. The San Antonio-class ship USS San Diego arrived in Greece together with embarked Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Uni
The French Navy’s new ice-breaking and patrol vessel L’Astrolabe started her first ever mission to Antarctica getting underway from her homeport at Port des Galets, in La Réunion, October 12. L’Astrolabe deployed exactly two months after first arriving to her new homeport from Concarneau, France, wh
Royal Navy’s bomb disposal experts carried out an unusual operation recently after a tanker carrying some 1,000 tonnes of fuel caught a test torpedo with its anchor. The tanker’s anchor had speared the torpedo in Portland, UK, and had dragged it up from the seabed, 15 meters below. Portsmouth-based
The Royal Navy’s second River-class patrol vessel HMS Severn is set to visit her affiliated city of Newport one last time before she decommissions by the end of October. Severn will be berthed at Alexandra Docks with the ship’s crew exercising Freedom of the City, parading through the city centre wi
British defense contractor and shipbuilder BAE Systems is cutting around 375 jobs across its Maritime Services division, the company announced on Tuesday. The cuts in Portsmouth and Solent are part of a wider, company-wide restructuring which will see BAE Systems reduce over 1900 positions. The move
Royal Navy’s amphibious transport dock HMS Albion embarked officer cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College for their first experience at sea. The 18,500 tonne assault ship sent two of her largest landing craft into the River Dart to embark the group of 75 cadets. They will spend the next six weeks
A Dutch and a Royal Navy ship recently completed what was termed by the Royal Navy as “the easiest RAS ever”, as support vessel RFA Mounts Bay took on fuel from Dutch ship HNLMS Karel Doorman in the Caribbean. A difficult – potentially dangerous – manoeuvre it’s typically performed mid-Ocean between
The Italian Navy’s first multipurpose offshore patrol vessel (PPA) received its gensets after they passed factory acceptance tests in July this year. Following the FAT, MAN Diesel & Turbo SE delivered four MAN 12V175D generating sets to Fincantieri’s Muggiano Shipyard, where the seven vessels (Pattu
Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri has started construction of the second Italian Navy multipurpose offshore patrol ship (PPA). The steel-cutting ceremony took place on October 3 at the shipbuilder’s Riva Trigoso, Genova, shipyard. The unit will be delivered in 2022 and is part of the Italian Navy vess
The wreck of what is believed to be the Royal Navy’s WWII submarine HMS Narwhal has recently been found by hydrographers off the coast of Scotland. HMS Narwhal was last seen in late July 1940 when she left her base to lay mines off German-occupied Norway during the Battle of Britain. Sitting upright
Ships from 13 nations are taking part in the French-hosted exercise Brilliant Mariner which kicked off September 29. The exercise is attended by Standing NATO Maritime Groups one and two and the Standing Mine Countermeasure Group 2 in addition to the French Aero-Naval Rapid Reaction Force (FRMARFOR)
