US Military Sealift Command’s fleet replenishment oiler USNS Big Horn (T-AO 198) pulled into Naval Station Norfolk, Dec. 17, completing a 10-month deployment in the US Fifth Fleet and US Sixth Fleet area of responsibility. “Some of the missions USNS Big Horn undertook during this deployment included
After making two narcotics interceptions in late November and early December, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Dragon has now carried out the largest drug haul in the history of the Bahrain-based Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). According to CMF, Dragon seized and destroyed just shy of 10,000 kg of illegal n
The navies of Australia, France and the US concluded a four-day ‘Ship Anti-Submarine Warfare Readiness and Evaluation Measurement’ (SHAREM) 195 exercise in the Arabian Sea on December 18. Participating ships included French navy F70AA-class air defense destroyer FS Cassard (D 614), and Royal Austral
The Royal Saudi Naval Force (RNSF) handed over command of Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) CTF150 to the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) in a change of command ceremony at the CMF headquarters in Bahrain on December 6. Commodore Darren Garnier RCN took command from Commodore Al-Shahrani RSNF. The ceremony w
Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri held a keel laying ceremony for the first Qatari Navy Doha-class corvette at its Muggiano shipyard on Tuesday. The ceremony was attended, among others, by Brig. Mubarak Al Sulaiti, Deputy Chief of the Flotilla, on behalf of the Chief of the Navy, welcomed by Angelo Fu
Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon has seized three tons of hashish in a Persian Gulf operation, the Royal Navy informed. The Portsmouth-based destroyer was on patrol in the Middle East when they came across a suspicious dhow – a type of vessel common to the Middle East – in a notorious drug sm
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
Qatari Emiri Naval Forces recently completed Eastern Sailor 19, an exercise conducted annually with the US Navy and US Coast Guard. Eastern Sailor 19 is an annual, bilateral surface exercise between the US Navy and the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces serving to expand levels of cooperation between the two
The Royal Bahrain Naval Service received its second upgraded Al Manama-class combatant at Royal Bahrain Navy headquarters in Mina Salman on November 15. The RBNS Al Muharraq was delivered by Italian defense contractor Leonardo under a six-vessel upgrade contract signed in 2015. The upgrades include
The US Navy’s expeditionary sea-base platform ship USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3) has embarked an MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter assigned to the “Blackhawks” of Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron (HM) 15 for the first time in the US 5th Fleet area of operations. The training, which concluded Novemb
Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose became the first Royal Navy frigate to forward-deploy to the Persian Gulf as she got underway from Plymouth for a three-year deployment to the Middle East. While the Devonport-based warship will not return home for more than three years, her ship’s company will rotate in
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat got underway from her homeport Fleet Base West at Garden Island on October 28 to start her Middle East deployment. The 190 sailors and officer on board will spend the next nine months conducting maritime security operations as part of the Australian defens
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57) met up with Egyptian Navy’s Descubierta-class corvette ENS El Suez (F-946) for a passing exercise (PASSEX) on October 21. Cmdr. Ian Scaliatine, commanding officer of Mitscher, welcomed El Suez’s leadership aboard Mitscher f
The Pakistan Navy commissioned its new fleet tanker PNS Moawin in a ceremony on October 16. PNS Moawin was commissioned after being launched in August 2016 and starting trials in May this year. The 158-meter tanker was built by Pakistan’s Karachi Shipyard under a design provided by Turkey’s STM. Acc
