The US Coast Guard has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division two fixed-price incentive contracts for the construction of additional two National Security Cutters. The contract values for the a 10th and 11th ships in the program are $468.75 million for NSC 10 and $462.1
Italian defense contractor Leonardo announced that its TH-119 IFR training helicopter successfully completed its maiden flight on December 20. The TH-119 is Leonardo’s bid to replace the US Navy’s aging fleet of TH-57 Sea Ranger training helicopters, a variant of the AW119, manufactured in the US. U
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
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
Royal Canadian Navy vessels ranging from coastal defense vessels through frigates to replenishment oilers returned to their Atlantic and Pacific bases from operations in European, South American, and Asia-Pacific waters. Kingston-class coastal defense vessels HMCS Edmonton and Nanaimo returned to Ca
The US Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) has awarded design firm Stantec a $35 million contract for the planning and preliminary design of a multi-mission dry dock and other upgrades at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNSY) in Kittery, Maine. Stantec’s work will include comprehensive prelimin
The “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 147 completed their carrier qualifications December 12 aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), the US Navy has announced. The carrier qualifications are the final required component for Commander Joint Strike Fighter Wing (CJSFW) to issue the squadron its sa
US shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries has launched the 18th Virginia-class submarine Delaware (SSN 791) at its Newport News Shipbuilding division. During a three-day process that began last Wednesday, the 7,800-ton submarine was moved out of a construction facility and into a floating dry doc
The US-based subsidiary of Australian shipbuilder Austal hosted a keel-laying ceremony for the future Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Mobile (LCS 26) in MObile, Alabama on December 14. The ship’s sponsor, Rebecca Byrne, wife of Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., authenticated the keel for the
US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman returned home on December 16, becoming the first US Navy Nimitz-class carrier to complete a deployment under the new dynamic force employment concept. In all, the flattop spent some seven months on operations since first deploying from naval station Norfolk on
The US state department has awarded Austal USA a contract for the construction of an additional two Independence-variant littoral combat ships (LCS) for the US Navy. According to Austal, this brings the total of new LCS orders booked in calendar year 2018 to four ships. For competition reasons the U
Royal Navy Type 23 frigates HMS Westminster and HMS Monmouth returned to their homeports in Portsmouth and Devonport, respectively, on December 14. Westminster returned after an eight-week stint in the North and Baltic Sea where she trained with other NATO and ally ships as part of NATO’s largest ex
Although the US Navy and Marine Corps are working to rebuild the readiness of their forces while growing and modernizing their aging fleet of ships and aircraft, achieving readiness recovery goals will take years. This is due to the fact that both services continue to be challenged to rebuild readin
The US Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) completed a Live Fire With A Purpose (LFWAP) exercise on December 6. Two Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Warfare Tactics Instructors (WTI) led teams aboard Abraham Lincoln through LFWAP. They’ve spent the last month w
