The 2012 Sea-Air-Space Exposition kicked off at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. with an official opening ceremony and ribbon-cutting April 16. After the ceremony, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert took part in a panel entitled “Service Chief U
The Royal Navy helicopter and commando carrier, HMS Illustrious, has joined one of the largest military exercises in Europe. The exercise, which includes participants from the UK, USA, Germany, Netherlands, France, Norway, Denmark and Canada, will take place between April 16 and 26 and is designed t
The government has OKed the acquisition of six new offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) that will be added to the Coast Guard fleet. The total value of the vessels is about Rs 1,800 crore. The new vessels will be over 100-metres long and equipped with helicopter decks. The will all be constructed by defen
The future USS Somerset (LPD 25) launched April 14 from Huntington Ingalls Industries’ (HII) Avondale Shipyard, marking a key milestone in the ship’s construction process. LPD 25 is the ninth ship of the San Antonio class, and is named in honor of the courage of the passengers of United Airlines Fli
£14m of drugs used to fund terrorist activity will never reach their destination thanks to a major bust by HMS Westminster. The Portsmouth-based warship intercepted a suspicious dhow in the Indian Ocean, seizing over 70 bales containing more than 180kg of pure heroin. The Portsmouth-based frigate po
Three “blue-nosed” Reservists from HMS Sherwood in Nottingham have returned from a major exercise inside the Arctic Circle The biggest war game of the winter, involving 16,000 service men and women from 12 nations, was played out amid the Norwegian fjords and mountains in the harshest of winter weat
The first Dutch F-35 Lightning II test aircraft, the AN-1, rolled off the production line in fully assembled condition at the Lockheed Martin factory in Fort Worth, Texas, on 5 April. In the coming weeks, the aircraft will be given a special coating. Lockheed Martin will then test the aircraft’s sys
Warships from across the globe – including a dozen Royal Navy warships, submarines and auxiliaries – are converging on Scotland for the largest military exercise staged in home waters in many years. Thirty two naval units, plus soldiers and air forces – some 8,000 personnel in all from eight nations
HMS Middleton demonstrated her minehunting prowess during an exercise with the US Navy – finding a grand total of 13 dummy mines in the Gulf. The two Allied navies worked hand-in-hand for ten days – just one important episode in a busy month for Bahrain-based Middleton And despite the trompe-l’œil o
The Maritime Reconnaissance capability of the Eastern Naval Command got a fillip with the commissioning of a new Naval Air Squadrons at INS Parundu, the Naval Air Station at Ramnathapuram in Tamil Nadu. The Naval Air Squadron INAS 344 was commissioned on 11 Apr 12, by Vice Admiral Anil Chopra, AVSM,
HMS Westminster’s pirate-busters trained with their Kenyan counterparts when the Portsmouth warship visited the great port of Mombasa. As well as exercising with local forces, the frigate was used to promote trade between the UK and East Africa and launched an initiative by Anglo-Kenyan authorities
Pirate camps on the Somali coast may now also be tackled from Dutch ships. The Dutch Government approved the expansion of the Atalanta counterpiracy mission and informed the House of Representatives of the decision on 6 April. However, military personnel will not set foot on land for the purposes of
AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company has announced that AgustaWestland North America, Inc. has delivered AW139 aircraft to the Egyptian Air Force via its contract with U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) Contracting Center for Foreign Military Sales. “We’re fully aware of the team it ta
On Wednesday 11 April, in Harlingen the third of four Holland Class Oceangoing Patrol Vessels, “Friesland” built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding for the Royal Netherlands Navy, was transferred to the Defence Materiel Organization of the Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands. After delivery the
