Three shipbuilding teams have received funds from the UK to continue developing their plans for the construction of Type 31e frigates. On December 10, 2018, the country’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) awarded three contracts for the Competitive Design Phase. The contracts have been awarded to consortia
The second Royal Navy Dreadnought-class ballistic missile submarine will be named HMS Valiant, the UK defense secretary has announced. In addition to naming the submarine, defense secretary Gavin Williamson announced a £400 million funding boost for the Dreadnought program. The planned funding relea
Mine countermeasures ships from the navies of Australia, Japan and the US completed the annual Mine Warfare Exercise 3JA 2018, off the coast of Japan on November 27. US Navy’s USS Chief and Australia’s HMAS Huon and HMAS Gascoyne were joined by a number of JMSDF ships for several days of at sea exer
BAE Systems Australia formally opened a new shipside support tower at its Henderson facility on November 30. The $5 million, multi-level support tower was opened by defense industry minister Steven Ciobo. The structure will initially support the ANZAC Mid Life Capability (AMCAP) upgrade program bein
The first Royal Australian Navy Anzac-class frigate to undergo the Anzac Mid Life Capability Assurance Program (AMCAP) upgrade was undocked at BAE Systems’ Henderson shipyard in Western Australia. HMAS Arunta entered water on November 30, after a 14-month refit period which started in December 2017
Australian shipbuilder Austal has delivered the first Guardian-class patrol boat to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force. The boat will be commissioned HMPNGS Ted Diro on return to PNG and is named after the first Commander of the PNG Defence Force post-independence. It is the first of four boats sche
Australia will deploy a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to Japan next week to conduct maritime surveillance in support of North Korea sanctions, the Australian defense minister has announced. The MPA will support the international effort to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions
Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon has seized three tons of hashish in a Persian Gulf operation, the Royal Navy informed. The Portsmouth-based destroyer was on patrol in the Middle East when they came across a suspicious dhow – a type of vessel common to the Middle East – in a notorious drug sm
Months of rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the Sea of Azov escalated on Sunday when Russian forces first fired upon and subsequently seized three Ukrainian Navy vessels as they were trying to enter the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait. Latest reports say six Ukrainian sailors were i
BAE Systems Australia, the main contractor in the Royal Australian Navy’s Hunter-class frigate acquisition project, announced that it has selected Lockheed Martin Australia and Saab Australia for combat system integration on the frigates. The decision further supports the development of an Australia
The Royal Navy is retaining its three Batch 1 River-class offshore patrol vessels for at least the next two years, UK defense secretary Gavin Williamson announced on November 22. The announcement follows the previous decommissioning of two of the ships in the class, HMS Severn in 2017 and HMS Tyne i
The US Navy should leverage potential private shipyard repair capacity if it wants to reduce delays in attack submarine maintenance periods and cut operating and support cost expenditures, a GAO report has found. The Government Accountability Office’s analysis of navy maintenance data shows that bet
Article by: Peter Ong The United States Coast Guard’s only heavy operational Polar-class icebreaker, Polar Star, completed its annual scheduled refit at Mare Island, Vallejo, California, in a maintenance period riddled with challenges. The forty-two year old ship returned from Operation Deep Freeze
The United States will team up with Australia and Papua New Guinea for the redevelopment of the Pacific Island nation’s Lombrum naval base on Manus island, US vice president Mike Pence announced at the APEC leaders summit. Pence’s announcement comes a month after Australia announced an agreement wit
