All hull sections of the U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class submarine USS Indiana have been joined to form a single, watertight unit meaning that the 16th submarine in the class is now ‘pressure hull complete’. Pressure hull complete is the last major milestone before the submarine’s christening. Constructi
Sea Hunter, the U.S. Navy’s unmanned anti submarine warfare vessel, has recently completed at-sea tests off the coast of San Diego, California. Developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program, the ve
The U.S. Navy has awarded Sheffield Forgemasters, a British heavy engineering firm, a contract worth over 30 million USD for the production of submarine components. The engineering specialist has confirmed orders for a sequence of castings for the US Ohio submarine replacement program. No further in
U.S. Navy’s amphibious dock landing ship USS Whidbey Island (LSD 41), with embarked U.S. Marines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), transited the Suez Canal and entered the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations on August 7. Navigating the 120-mile-long canal is no easy task, requiring hours of
Minehunters from the U.S. and Royal Navy conducted the quarterly mine countermeasures (MCM) exercise Squadex-16 in the Arabian Gulf, July 30 through August 5. Participating naval vessels included U.S. Navy mine countermeasures ships USS Gladiator (MCM 11) and USS Sentry (MCM 3), U.K. landing ship do
METU-16, the Finnish Navy’s annual firing exercise, will be held from August 22 to 26 and August 29 to September 2 in the Archipelago Sea and the Gulf of Finland, the navy has informed. Hämeenmaa-class minelayers, Katanpää-class Mine Hunter Coastal Vessels, Rauma- and Hamina-class fast attack missil
Operation Atalanta welcomed back Dutch frigate HNLMS Tromp to the EU Naval Force off the coast of Somalia on August 6. Tromp’s crew departed their home port of Den Helder in the Netherlands on July 20 to join the mission for a second time as the frigate was part of Operation Atalanta back in 2010. I
Spanish Navy minehunter ESPS Turia has returned to her home port in Cartagena after a three-month deployment to the the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG-2). During her with SNMCMG-2, Turia took part in Spanish and Italian Minex exercises and later in exercises Breeze and Sea Shield
The U.S. Navy’s guided-missile destroyer USS Momsen (DDG 92) arrived in Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines August 8 as part of a U.S. 3rd Fleet Pacific Surface Action Group (PAC SAG). The port call marked Momsen’s midway point as part of the group. Under the operational control of U.S. 3rd Fleet
Royal Australian Navy’s landing helicopter dock HMAS Canberra recently welcomed a United States Marine Corps attack helicopter, the AH-1 SuperCobra. Landing on the flight deck, together with the UH-1 Huey/Venom medium utility helicopter, both aircraft were ‘hot refuelled’ by Canberra’s flight deck t
Pacific Partnership 2016 arrived in Palau, August 4, aboard JS Shimokita (LST 4002), making this the second year Pacific Partnership has visited Palau since the mission began in 2006. While Shimokita is in Palau, USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) and the rest of the Pacific Partnership 2016 team are making missi
German Navy’s Rhön-class tanker FGS Spessart has left the EU Naval Force and Operation Atalanta fighting piracy off the coast of Somalia. The ship spent eighty eight days and sailed over 13,600 nautical miles after leaving Wilhelmshaven navy base on April 18. The EU naval task force is deployed to t
The U.S. Navy announced August 4 that it will transition from the blue aquaflage Navy Working Uniform (NWU) Type I to the green camouflage NWU Type III as the service’s primary shore working uniform beginning October 1, 2016. The NWU Type 1 was not a popular uniform as it was described by Sailors as
The U.S. Navy has not demonstrated sufficient acquisition and design knowledge regarding its next-generation Flight III destroyer procurement approach and opportunities exist to enhance oversight, a study carried out by the U.S. Government Accountability Office study has revealed. If the Navy procur
