The United Kingdom has formally named the Royal Navy’s fourth Astute-class submarine during a ceremony at the BAE Systems shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness. The nuclear submarine was named Audacious. Marking a milestone in the vessel’s journey towards joining the Royal Navy’s fleet, Lady Elizabeth Jones
Two more Hunt-class minesweepers of the Royal Navy have started their mid-life refit in the Portsmouth ship hall. The two 196ft vessels entered the shed just days after refurbished HMS Brocklesby, another minesweeper, completed the overhaul. The shed was built to construct giant sections first of Ty
David Brown Santasalo, a 150 years old gearbox manufacturer, has started work on gearboxes for the Royal Navy’s Type 26 frigates at its newly opened facility in Huddersfield. UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon attended the opening ceremony of the facility on December 9. The establishment of the com
The UK Ministry of Defence has contracted Cohort’s subsidiary SEA to provide across-the-board support to acoustic and sonar underwater systems fitted to the Royal Navy’s surface and sub-surface fleets. Under the two-year contract, SEA will undertake what is known as the MoD underwater systems archit
The UK Ministry of Defence announced Thursday that work on two new offshore patrol vessels for the Royal Navy will get underway with a £278M contract with shipbuilder BAE Systems. The two new vessels were named HMS Tamar and HMS Spey. Preparation works were already underway and Minister for Defence
Swedish Defence Materiel Administration (FMV) has contracted Saab for the development and production of torpedo integration systems (TIS) for the Swedish Navy’s new A26 submarines. According to the company, the order also includes an upgrade of existing systems on the Visby-class corvettes and Gotla
British shipbuilder BAE Systems announced Wednesday that it has awarded further manufacturing equipment contracts for the Type 26 Global Combat Ship. With the contracts awarded to six companies, the total investment to date in the Type 26 supply chain was brought to more than £380m, BAE Systems said
Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Tiderace has been named in a December 1 ceremony at the Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) shipyard in Okpo, South Korea. Tiderace is the second of four naval tankers DSME is building for the UK Ministry of Defence. UK Chief of Materiel, Vice Admiral Simon
Chilean Navy frigates Almirante Cochrane, Almirante Condell and Almirante Lynch are set to undergo an obsolescence upgrade that will be undertaken by Cohort subsidiary Sea. The programme is being carried out in preparation for a major revamp of the Chilean Navy ships’ air warfare systems. The Britis
The Norwegian ministry of defense announced that it plans to replace its ageing fleet of nine maritime reconnaissance aircraft with five Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). Under a project that is expected to cost 9,825 million Norwegian Krone (approx. EUR 1,1 billion) including the
The Norwegian Defence Material Agency (NDMA) has contracted Kongsberg Defence Systems to upgrade the combat management systems of the Royal Norwegian Navy’s Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates. Under the agreement, the defense company will also update the ships’ active sonar systems. Kongsberg said the c
The crew of the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Iron Duke have started a period of training under direction of Flag Officer Sea Training (FOST) after completing a maintenance period. This period marks the end of her busy operational period in the first half of 2016, which saw the ship deploy as par
Thales has joined forces with the South Korean defense contractor LiG Nex1 to overhaul Goalkeeper close-in weapon systems on board the KDX-I class vessels of the Republic of Korea Navy. Thales noted that the overhaul would be carried out by Thales in close cooperation with DMI (the Naval Maintenance
Defense ministers of the UK and Norway have agreed to step up their defense relationship during a November 10 meeting where UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon announced new cooperation on maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) and exercises. After a visit to Norway’s top military headquarters, close to the
