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
Following the pirating of an Indian registered cargo dhow off the coast of Somalia on Saturday 1 April 2017, EU NAVFOR once again reiterates the need for vigilance to all ships transiting the piracy high risk area. Vessels are strongly recommended to adhere to self-protection measures laid down in t
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
The former First Sea Lord of the British Royal Navy, retired Admiral Sir George Zambelas, will be joining Liquid Robotics’ global strategic advisory board, the company announced on Wednesday. “As a member of this distinguished board of advisors, Sir George will bring his vast military and maritime d
U.S. Navy’s guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55) and Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 60 departed Naval Station Norfolk on March 27 for a six-month deployment to the Navy’s 5th and 6th fleet areas of operation. The Leyte Gulf crew went through a demanding training cycle in preparat
The First Sea Lord of the United Kingdom, Adm. Sir Philip Jones, hosted his U.S. and French counterparts in London for trilateral maritime talks on cooperation and interoparibility. U.S. Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. John Richardson and French Navy Chief of Naval Staff, Adm. Christophe Prazuc
Over 30 ships and submarines are taking part in the UK-hosted bi-annual exercise Joint Warrior over the course of next two weeks. Around 13,000 soldiers and sailors from 13 nations will hone their warfighting capabilities from March 26 to April 6. Among the participants are ships from Standing NATO
The Royal Norwegian Navy is getting a mine countermeasure capability boost with a new set of autonomous underwater vehicles. Contracted by the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA), Kongsberg Maritime is to deliver four complete Hugin AUV systems for detection, classification and identification o
Royal Navy’s current flagship, HMS Ocean, wrapped up an eventful six-month deployment to the Middle East and returned to HMNB Devonport, Plymouth on March 24. During her deployment, HMS Ocean became the first UK warship to lead the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command’s Task Force (CTF) 50 in the Arabi
The Italian-hosted and NATO-led anti-submarine warfare exercise Dynamic Manta concluded on Friday off the coast of Sicily. Submarines under operational control of NATO Submarine Command (COMSUBNATO) joined surface ships under Standing NATO Maritime Group Two Task Unit Two (SNMG2 TU02) and maritime p
Torpedo launcher systems for the Royal Malaysian Navy’s six Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) have passed factory acceptance trials, British defense company Sea announced. The company said it worked with Kuala Lumpur-based project engineering managers Budi Axis Sdn Bhd to achieve acceptance of the first we
U.S. Navy’s amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) and embarked marines transited the Bosphorus Strait on March 17 to visit Romania and take part in the bilateral amphibious operations exercise Spring Storm 2017. The exercise is taking place in the Black Sea between March 18 and 21. S
When Europe’s tallest active volcano erupted on Thursday, March 16, a pair of Royal Navy helicopters, searching for submarines during a NATO exercise, managed to capture the moment on their infrared cameras. After their successful mission to find and hypothetically destroy a Spanish submarine, which
