Some 2,500 personnel from the three Forces, led by the Royal Navy, paraded and mustered for the Queen at the first of this summer’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. They marched around the historic Berkshire town before forming up in the grounds of Windsor Castle for a drumhead service which concluded
A wounded Royal Navy medic who saved the lives of four colleagues after they were seriously injured in Afghanistan by a grenade attack in 2011 received a Military Cross this week from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace. Despite shrapnel wounds to his leg and face, Medical Assistant (MA) Liam O’Grad
The Navy’s No.1 helicopter display team, the Black Cats, are ready to perform for the Diamond Jubilee air show season after the head of the Fleet Air Arm approved their display. The two Lynx – instantly recognisable thanks to the distinctive cat emblems painted on their fuselage – will perform at mo
The EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) frigate Corte-Real recently visited Port Victoria in the Seychelles to perform boat-handling training with the local Coast-Guard. This military cooperation is seen as an important way to improve the counter-piracy capabilities of the Seychelles’ Coast-Guard. The Seyche
HMS Westminster smashed the actions of three pirate groups in a fortnight – sending the boats to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The Portsmouth-based warship treated the skiffs to a Viking funeral, blasting them out of the water with her guns and those of her Merlin helicopter. With orange-red flame
Over the past several weeks, guided-missile frigate USS Taylor (FFG 50) and its visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) team, have actively patrolled the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) and provided security assistance to several merchant vessels transiting through the Gulf of A
After four years of spending most of their time over the sands of Afghanistan, the Sea Kings of the Commando Helicopter Force have spent the spring finding their sea legs again. The helicopters – known as the Junglies – have taken part in a succession of training exercises to re-learn the art of fly
Sailors from Tyne were carrying out a routine inspection of the FV Farpesca, a French stern trawler, in the Channel as part of their fishery protection patrol when the skipper asked for help with one of his deck hands who’d suffered a suspected broken arm. The Portsmouth-based patrol ship sent her f
Sailors saluted Prince Charles in the heart of Edinburgh as the three Services paraded through the Scottish capital to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Ship’s companies from Scottish-based submarines, vessels such as HMS Defender that are being built on the Clyde, plus sailors drawn from acros
HMS Ocean took a brief break from her Olympic security training in London to host members of the public as the helicopter carrier opened her gangway. More than 3,500 people took advantage of the free opportunity to tour Britain’s biggest warship while he was moored in the Thames at Greenwich. Amid h
Piracy and armed robbery against ships off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden and the wider Indian Ocean will be high on the agenda when IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) meets at the Organization’s London Headquarters for its 90th session from 16 to 25 May 2012. A High-Level Segment will
Phoenix Express 2012 (PE12), a multi-national exercise between Southern European, North African and U.S. naval forces, officially kicked off at the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operation Training Center (NMIOTC) in Souda Bay, May 7. Phoenix Express is an at-sea maritime exercise designed to improve co
The Royal Navy’s largest ship, HMS Ocean, sailed up the River Thames today to take part in a major military and civilian exercise to ensure the London 2012 Olympic Games are as safe and secure as possible. Royal Marines snipers from 539 Assault Squadron and 43 Commando will be on board the Navy Lynx
April 28, late afternoon, after 24 dense hours and three consecutive replenishments at sea led by EU NAVFOR flag ship Marne, Force Commander Rear Admiral Dupuis received his counterpart from NATO – Operation Ocean Shield. This long sequence started at dusk on April 27 for the command and replenishme
