BAE Systems, the UK-based shipbuilder, was awarded a £13.5m ($20.4m) contract for 60 new Pacific 24 Rigid Inflatable Boats. The announcement was made by the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, the Rt Hon Michael Fallon during his visit to Portsmouth Naval Base on December 14. This Pacific 24 Mark-4
HMS Artful, the third of overall seven submarines the United Kingdom is building, has joined the Royal Navy fleet. Until now the submarine was owned by Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the MOD’s body responsible for procuring and supporting equipment for the armed forces. Defence Minister Phili
Russian Navy’s destroyer ship Smetlivy fired warning shots at a Turkish fishing vessel in the Aegean Sea on December 13. The Russian Ministry of Defence said the destroyer was forced to open warning fire in order to avoid a collision between the two vessels. At the moment of the incident, the destro
Columbian president Juan Manuel Santos Calderón christened two former German navy Type 206 A submarines in Cartagena, Colombia. The submarines have been acquired under the Colombian Navy’s modernization plan. The Type 206 A submarines were upgraded by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems and will replace two
Defence and security company Saab has redelivered one of the Swedish Navy’s Gotland-class submarines to the Swedish defence forces after general overhaul and upgrades. In September 2014, Saab was contracted to perform overhaul and upgrade work on the Swedish Gotland-class submarine, HMS Gotland. The
The aft island, the final section of the UK’s second aircraft carrier took to the sea yesterday, December 10. The control tower of the ship is being transferred to Babcock’s dockyard in Rosyth, Scotland. The 750-tonne section, which will control aircraft operations on HMS Prince of Wales, left BAE S
U.S. Navy’s Weapons division performed a live-fire test of the Standard Missile-3 Block IIA missile, a 21-inch diameter Standard Missile variant cooperatively developed by the United States and Japan for use with the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program, on December 8. This is the second such tes
The Royal Netherlands Navy launched the first modified Walrus class submarine, the Zr. Ms. Zeeleeuw, on December 3. The launch marks a milestone in the Life Extension Program (LEP) of the Walrus class submarines with the first one now ready to be commissioned. Zr.Ms. Zeeleeuw has undergone modificat
The U.S. Navy shared a video of the future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) underway for the first time conducting the first set of at-sea tests and trials in the Atlantic Ocean, December 7. DDG 1000 is the first of a new class of warships in the US Navy. The ship is designed as a multi-mission […]
Two Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) ships, the flagship, FGS Hamburg, and HDMS Absalon, arrived for a port visit to Haifa, Israel on December 7. The crews of the ships will have opportunities to interact with their Israeli counterparts. On conclusion, NATO and Israeli naval forces plan to p
Royal Navy amphibious assault ship, HMS Bulwark, has returned to Plymouth from operations in the Mediterranean after leading a major Royal Navy deployment. The Plymouth-based ship was leading this year’s exercise Cougar comprising exercises with the French Navy off Corsica and then Exercise Trident
UK’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon visited defence companies in Scotland December 7 to highlight the impact last month’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will have on the economy. Over the next decade, the MOD plans to spend around £8 billion on conventional warships for the Royal Navy, all
INDRA NAVY is a bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian and Russian navies that was initiated in 2003. The 8th edition of INDRA NAVY is being conducted in the Bay of Bengal from December 7 – 12, 2015. The primary aim of this exercise is to increase interoperability between the two navies and
The U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) participated in a bilateral passing exercise (PASSEX) with ships from the Romanian, Turkish and Ukrainian Navies, Dec. 6. The PASSEX was conducted in order to improve maritime capabilities between the U.S. and Black Sea n
