In Djibouti on 7 December, RAdm Christian Canova FRAN, Deputy Commander EU NAVFOR, transferred six powerful outboard motors which had been confiscated from Somali pirates to Colonel Abdourahman Aden Cher, Chief of the Djiboutian Navy. The engines were taken from small skiffs which had been stopped b
Lockheed Martin has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing of the U.S. Air Force’s second Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) geosynchronous (GEO-2) satellite. The milestone represents the spacecraft’s most significant achievement to-date on the path to launch. SBIRS satellites deliver vastly
Sisters of Project 949 nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN) Kursk perished in 2000 will be rearmed with cruise missile systems Onyx and Caliber, reported RIA Novosti on Dec 12 referring to a high-ranking representative of Russian defense industry. At present, subs of this type are armed with Grani
Trials of supersonic cruise missile BrahMos held in the Baltic Sea by a frigate built for Indian Navy provide strong evidence that the missile can be used by Russian-built ships, said managing co-director of BrahMos Aerospace Alexander Maksichev. “The missile’s pop-up launches were successfully held
Caspian Flotilla (CF) task units on Dec 12 left basing sites in Astrakhan and Makhachkala heading for central and southern parts of the Caspian Sea. According to plans, the CF task units will conduct anti-terror exercise in Russia’s maritime economic activity zones in the Caspian Sea. In total, up t
NATO warship USS De Wert prevented a suspected pirate dhow from engaging in acts of piracy and forced it back to the Somali coast making further acts of piracy impossible at this time. While engaged in a replenishment at sea, USS De Wert received intelligence reports that a dhow acting suspiciously
A £16m restoration of the warship used by Lord Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar has begun. (bbc) [mappress] Source: bbc, December 12, 2011
Maersk and the U.S. Navy are testing algae-based biofuel on the container ship Maersk Kalmar. The ship is en route from Northern Europe to India. Maersk Kalmar has two key attributes that make it a suitable vessel for biofuel testing. The 300 meter-long container ship has a dedicated auxiliary test
DRS Laurel Technologies has been subcontracted to provide the U.S. Navy with submarine combat and sonar systems. The systems will be designed around commercially available hardware and software. The five-year, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity subcontract from Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Navy
BAE Systems, Rockville, Md., is being awarded a $58,238,299 cost-plus-fixed-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide Systems Engineering Integration support for the TRIDENT II (D5) Strategic Weapon System (SWS) Program and the SSGN Attack Weapon System (AWS) Program and Ohio Replacement Prog
The Navy successfully concluded its final alternative fuel demonstration for the year today with the Dec. 7-9 operational tests of the 50/50 algae-derived, hydro-processed algal oil and petroleum F-76 blend in a landing craft air cushion (LCAC) amphibious transport vehicle. The tests also marked the
Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc., Hurst, Texas, is being awarded an $85,201,239 cost-plus-fixed-fee, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for the software upgrades in support of the H-1 Upgrade Program. This contract includes design, development, studies, and implementatio
The current year has brought a record-breaking income to Somali pirates hijacking ships and crews for ransom, said deputy director of EU NAVFOR – Operation Atalanta in the interview to online Bruxelles2. According to the admiral, pirates have obtained over $135 mln ransoms in 2011, while in the past
More than 600 new light emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures were installed on USS Chafee (DDG 90) during the ship’s recently completed availability, providing the ship with longer-lasting lights that use less electric power than the replaced incandescent and fluorescent light fixtures. The new fi
