Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Kent has undergone an overhaul and is gearing up for its first deployment since accompanying the navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and the carrier strike group to the Pacific Rim and back.
The French naval air station Lann-Bihoué received the first two ATL2 maritime patrol aircraft upgraded to standard 6 in late October. Carried out by Dassault Aviation, the aircraft upgrades included the installation of a Thales Search Master with active antenna, a new Thales acoustic subsystem to ga
US defense and aerospace giant Boeing has delivered the first of nine Poseidon P-8A maritime patrol aircraft to the UK armed forces. The aircraft, with military registration ZP801, was handed over in a ceremony in Seattle that was attended by Royal Air Force and Royal Navy personnel. An RAF crew wil
Royal Navy base Portsmouth is now ready to welcome the second of two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers after works on a new jetty were successfully completed. HM Naval Base Portsmouth will now be able to berth both Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers side-by-side in a £30 million investment to e
The Italian Navy has hosted another dual-ship decommissioning ceremony as it proceeds with its plans for the downsizing and modernization of an ageing fleet. Maestrale-class frigate ITS Euro and the patrol ship ITS Aviere, which was initially destined for Iraq, bowed out of service in a ceremony at
The fifth and final unit from the second batch of the Royal Navy’s River-class offshore patrol vessels was formally named as work on HMS Spey nears completion. The ceremony was the latest milestone in a seven-year program which will give the Royal Navy a fleet of new patrol ships. As with her sister
HMS Medway (P223), the second of the Royal Navy’s new River-class offshore patrol vessels (OPV), has been officially welcomed into the navy with her commissioning ceremony at Chatham Dockyard on September 19, 2019. The Portsmouth-based OPV sailed to the docks in Kent on the River Medway – the waterw
The 84-meter vessel, Bamberg (BP 82), was christened and commissioned in Rostock.
The Royal Navy has picked Babcock’s Arrowhead 140 proposal as the preferred design for its Type 31 frigates. As confirmed by Babcock, the fleet of five ships will be built at an average production cost of £250 million per ship. The announcement of the preferred design also means that the Royal Navy’
Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll has lent its capabilities to a BAE Systems team trying out their unmanned Pacific 24 sea boat in trials at London’s Docklands. The trials are part of the Royal Navy’s NavyX autonomous hardware accelerator program and will take place over the course of this week. Type 23
Royal Netherlands Navy and Portuguese Navy Karel Doorman-class frigates are getting Thales-developed Vigile D radar electronic support measures as part of their planned upgrades. The solution will be fitted on three Dutch Navy vessels, and two Portuguese Navy frigates. As explained by Thales, Vigile
The UK defense ministry has authorized a new £177 million (approx. $218.4m) deal for the maintenance of some 2,200 boats used across the British military. The Boats In-Service Support (BISS) agreement, negotiated by Defence Equipment and Support, the procurement arm of the MOD, enables spares, repai
German offshore patrol vessels that will be used to patrol the country’s North Sea and Baltic coastlines are set to receive BAE Systems-built 57mm naval guns. The first gun system is scheduled for delivery in 2020. German shipbuilder Fassmer is building three 86-meter OPVs for the German federal pol
A total of four locally-built Indonesian Navy KCR-60 fast-attack craft will be receiving BAE Systems’ Bofors 57 Mk3 naval guns under an initial four-unit contract signed between the UK-based defense contractor and government-owned shipbuilder PT PAL Indonesia. Two of the new 57 Mk3 systems will be f
