The Royal New Zealand Navy announced that its newest and largest ever ship to be built will be named HMNZS Aotearoa. The Aotearoa will be an ice-going tanker built in South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries. Construction of the new 24,000-tonne vessel will start next year and is expected to be deliv
Indian and Chinese Navy ships prevented pirates from hijacking a merchant vessel in the Gulf of Aden late on April 8. The captain of the Tuvalu-registered bulk carrier MV OS 35 sent a distress call after the pirates attacked and boarded the vessel. The vessel’s crew locked themselves in a strong roo
820 Naval Air Squadron has returned home to RNAS Culdrose following a six-month deployment on HMS Ocean, which took them through Europe and on to the Middle East. During her time away, HMS Ocean steamed over 23,000 miles, visited 11 countries and took part in various International exercises with loc
The wings of the Royal Marines are ready for action with their French counterparts after a month’s training aboard the FS Mistral. Two Merlins from 845 NAS are assigned to the assault ship throughout her six-month deployment to the Indian and Pacific Oceans – the first time the green Merlins have go
On April 4th, 2017, the Sri Lanka Navy sent two Fast Attack Craft (FAC) to assist MSC ‘Daniela’, a containership caught by a fire off Colombo harbor. Upon reaching the ship, about 33 nautical miles off Colombo harbor, P 436 and P 412 craft joined Sri Lankan Port Authority tugs, Rawana and Maha Wewa,
U.S. mine countermeasures, surface and expeditionary assets and counterparts from the Republic of Korea navy wrapped up the mine countermeasures portion of the bilateral exercise Foal Eagle March 29. Foal Eagle is a series of joint and combined field training exercises conducted by Combined Forces C
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter James seized five tons of cocaine on its maiden voyage and patrol as a coast guard ship. The crew of the CGC James returned home to Charleston, South Carolina, on March 31 following a 60-day, multi-mission patrol. During its maiden voyage, James’ crew contributed to the i
The U.S. Department of Defense last week awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth more than £80m (US$102.2m) to deliver the initial training, engineering, maintenance and logistics support for the UK’s F-35 Lightning II fleet over a three year period. Lockheed Martin has sub-contracted work worth £4
Warships from eight nations arrived in Greece for the annual exercise Ariadne which will be taking place from March 31 to April 7. In addition to ships, naval officers from some ten countries will be attending the exercise in the Ionian Sea in the Gulf of Patras. NATO ships from the Standing Mine Co
Spanish shipbuilder Navantia launched the Spanish Navy’s fifth BAM (Buque de Acción Marítima) ship on March 30 at its Cadiz-San Fernando shipyard. Named Audaz, (which translates to bold or audacious) the modular offshore patrol vessel is the fifth of overall nine units the Spanish Navy plans to acqu
Royal Australian Navy’s hydrographic ship HMAS Melville rescued over 400 stranded guests and staff from Daydream Island off Queensland, after tropical cyclone Debbie hit the region. The hydrographic ship was operating near Townsville when the cyclone hit the Whitsunday Islands, and followed the tail
Norway’s plans to replace its ageing fleet of P-3 Orion and DA-20 Jet Falcon maritime patrol aircraft became official on Wednesday with the signing of a contract for the acquisition of the Boeing built P-8A. The contract for five aircraft was signed by the Norwegian defense equipment agency, on beha
The U.S. Coast Guard released a draft request for proposal (RFP) for procurement of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) for the national security cutters (NSCs). Issued on March 28, the draft invites industry sources to comment, ask questions and provide feedback by May 15, 2017. The Coast Guard
The U.S. Navy’s Sterett-Dewey surface action group, composed of destroyers USS Sterett (DDG 104) and USS Dewey (DDG 105), is set to depart San Diego on March 31 to start their Western Pacific deployment. The destroyers are accompanied by command staff of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 31 and the embark
