The Belgian government on Friday, January 26, decided to give the department of defense its green light for the acquisition of six new mine countermeasure vessels. The order will be placed jointly with the Netherlands Navy which will acquire an identical number of MCM ships. In addition to mine coun
Looking for new technologies to improve the operation of unmanned underwater vehicles, the Royal Navy used the Maritime Enterprise Innovation Scotland Conference (MEISC) to set challenges for developers. During the conference, held at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on January 24, two speci
HMS Forth, the first of five second-batch River-class offshore patrol vessels to be built for the Royal Navy, was officially received by the UK defense ministry on Thursday. Forth will be commissioned into the Royal Navy fleet at her home port of Portsmouth Naval Base later this year. UK defense pro
Sailors assigned to the recently commissioned Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will be using a new type of personnel transfer boats with improved maneuvering characteristics. As the new workboats are powered by two water-jets, unlike the current fleet of small boats operated by the Ro
France, Italy and the United Kingdom have renewed an in-service support contract with Eurosam related to the upkeep of the land and naval systems in service with the three countries. The contract extension was awarded to Eurosam, a consortium between MBDA and Thales, by the European Organisation for
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developer UMS SKELDAR has joined the European Defence Fund’s OCEAN2020 autonomous systems project with its Skeldar V-200 UAV, the company announced on January 22. UMS SKELDAR is joining the naval surveillance technology project alongside its partner Saab. OCEAN2020 is t
The US Navy’s forward-deployed command ship USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) pulled into Valletta, Malta, on January 19, 2018, for a scheduled port visit. During her time in Valletta, Mount Whitney is providing ship tours and enhancing relationships between the two countries. “The sailors and civilian mar
Russia’s defense industry agency Rosoboronexport will work with the country’s largest shipbuilding company in 2018 to boost worldwide export prospects for what the agency termed as small and ultra-small submarines. Rosoboronexport said this focus was in response to a growing interest for these vesse
The Belgian Navy is now in charge of the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1) after taking over from the Latvian Navy in a ceremony on January 15. Commander Peter Ramboer of the Belgian Navy relieved Latvian Commander Gvido Laudups in Zeebrugge, Belgium. Commander Laudups has led t
The Republic of Singapore has started construction of additional two Type 218SG, air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines, the country’s defense ministry announced. According to the defense ministry, the steel cutting ceremony for the third and fourth boats in the class took place on January 12.
A commemorative service to mark the centenary of the sinking of Royal Navy destroyers HMS Opal and HMS Narborough. Wreaths were laid during a ceremony on January 12 in memory of the 188 men who perished when the two destroyers hit rocks off Orkney exactly 100 years ago. HMS Opal and HMS Narborough r
The Cyprus Naval Command commissioned its first ever offshore patrol vessel – Commodore Andreas Ioannides (P61) – in a ceremony on January 15 at the Evangelos Florakis naval base. The 62-meter OPV was built by Israel Shipyards and launched in September 2017. After further outfitting and trials, P61
Italian defense company Leonardo was selected to lead the first European Defence Fund’s initiative project which will see the integration of unmanned platforms in surveillance and interdiction missions. OCEAN2020, as the project is called, is issued by the European Union under the ‘Preparatory Actio
The French defense procurement agency DGA (Direction générale de l’armement) has awarded the Naval Group and Airbus Helicopters consortium a contract to develop a rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) demonstrator for the French Navy. According to a Naval Group announcement, the contract covers
