U.S. Navy’s amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), and amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42), arrived in White Beach, Okinawa after completing a 9-day certification exercise (CERTEX) in the East China Sea, February 28. The ships embarked the 31st Marine Expeditionary Un
Royal Australian Navy’s Adelaide-class guided-missile frigate HMAS Melbourne returned to her Sydney homeport on February 28 after 203 days of deployment and five narcotics seizures. In the five interceptions, the frigate seized a total of 977 kg of heroin valued at approximately $390 million. Melbou
The Royal Australian Navy is relocating two of its decommissioned ships so that new ships, primarily the 27,500 tonne, 230m long Canberra class amphibious ships, HMA Ships Canberra and Adelaide, have more space. Decommissioned Navy ships Tobruk and Sydney will shortly be moved to the eastern side of
NATO’s Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) has been patrolling in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey since February 12, 2016. The group arrived in the area to participate in national and international efforts to cut the lines of illegal trafficking and illegal migration in the Aegean Sea, a
Norfolk Naval Shipyard completed the engineered refueling overhaul (ERO) on U.S. Navy’s Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine has USS Maryland (SSBN 738) on February 24. EROs are complex, major shipyard availabilities that extend a submarine’s service life. In addition to being refueled, The U.S. N
Representatives of the U.S. Navy and other Pacific Partnership nations gathered in Singapore February 22-26 for a planning conference in preparations for the 2016-mission. Now in its 11th year, Pacific Partnership is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief prepare
A total of 20 ships from NATO member countries are set to take part in the NATO’s, Norway-hosted, exercise Cold Response. The operational phase of the exercise will start on March 3 in Trondheim, Norway. Most of the ships from Norway, Denmark, England, France, Poland, The Netherlands, and Spain have
Australian Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence unveiled the long-awaited 2016 Australian Defence White Paper February 25. The plan is set to increase defence spending by AUS $29.9 billion (approx. US $21.5 billion) over the following ten years. A Defence Industry Policy Statement (DIPS) and a
Chinese People’s Liberation Army (Navy) will be taking part in the U.S. Navy-organized international maritime exercise, Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC), with a yet to be determined number of units. Wu Qian, a Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed this at a regular briefing despite of recently hei
The Royal Australian Navy is contributing to the humanitarian assistance mission to Fiji in the aftermath of Tropical Cyclone Winston with three helicopters. Two MRH-90 helicopters will depart HMAS Albatross to join another MRH-90 from 808 Squadron onboard HMAS Canberra in Brisbane, Australia before
Boarding party teams of the Royal Australian Navy’s Adelaide-class frigate HMAS Darwin recently sharpened their counter-terrorism skills as the ship begins maritime patrols in the Middle East region with Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). During Darwin’s stopover in Bahrain, the Australian sailors cond
The Pacific arm of the Russian Navy fleet is set to participate in this year’s iteration of the Indonesian-organized multilateral exercise Komodo 2016, the navy confirmed. The second Komodo exercise will be held in April 2016, in Padang – West Sumatera, Siberut and Sapura islands, Indonesia. Represe
The Chinese Navy has received a new-generation indigenously-built guided missile frigate, the People’s Liberation Army official news site said yesterday, February 24. The new 140-meter long and 16-meter wide vessel was named Xiangtan, after a city in the Chinese Hunan Province. The report further sa
Norwegian maritime services company Bergen Group Services has been awarded a one-year extension of the contract for the ship technical maintenance of the Norwegian Navy’s Fridtjof Nansen frigates. The company said the contract has an estimated value of NOK 70 (approx. $8.1) million. The project invo
