Under cover of darkness the first landing craft stealthily departed HMS Bulwark marking the start of exercise Albanian Lion. Over the course of four days hundreds of Royal Marines, supported by Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels as well as elements of the Army, will enter a fictional natio
USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) held a change of command ceremony in the ship’s homeport of San Diego, Aug. 30. During the ceremony, Cmdr. William H. Baxter turned over command of the guided missile destroyer to Cmdr. Randy J. Van Rossum, who has previously served as the ship’s executive officer. The c
Sailors and Marines of the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) arrived in Darwin Aug. 28 to participate in Exercise Koolendong 2013 (KD 13), a bilateral exercise taking place at the Bradshaw Field Training Area (BFTA) in Australia’s Norther
A Royal Navy Officer recently ‘hitched a ride’ across the Red Sea onboard HMAS Newcastle, while trying to make his way home to England. The unsuspecting Brit got a real surprise when he was greeted on the flight deck of the Australian ship by a long term friend and former RN colleague who had latera
The forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) and embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) departed Darwin, Australia Aug. 31. Bonhomme Richard is in Darwin as part of Exercise Koolendong 2013 (KD 13), a bilateral exercise taking place at the Bradshaw Field Training
EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia Operation Atalanta warship ESPS Meteoro recently evacuated a member of the ships crew who had a medical issue. The ship had been conducting counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. The ship broke from counter-piracy operations and clo
U.S. Army, Navy and Marine forces in conjunction with Japan Self-Defense Forces and local Japanese agencies participated in the Shizuoka Prefectural Government (SPG) annual disaster drill Sept. 1. During the drill, U.S. Armed Forces joined first responders from SPG, Japan Self-Defense Forces, Fuji a
The U.S. Navy and Australian Defense Force (ADF) successfully recovered and disposed of the live ordnance emergency-jettisoned by two AV-8B Harrier aircraft on July 16 off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The two inert and two unarmed live rounds were located by Royal Australian Navy minehunter H
For the first time in the history of the Royal Australian Navy’s Recruit School, a recruit division named after a sailor, rather than an officer, graduated today. Eighty recruits were welcomed into the Navy from Shipp Division, named after the late Leading Seaman Noel Ervin Shipp, during a Graduatio
HMAS Newcastle’s third Replenishment at Sea (RAS) activity in the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO) was conducted with the French Command and Replenishment Ship FS Somme. The RAS, which was performed in early July, was the Australian ship’s sixth with a coalition replenishment vessel since comme
A Royal Navy warship has played a game of cat-and-mouse as part of a high-tempo exercise in the Mediterranean with the Hellenic Navy. HMS Montrose and HS Kanaris took turns to hunt each other down in the dead of night using their respective passive detection systems, finding it equally difficult to
More than 30 Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion (NMCB) 3 participated in a friendship exchange at Commander, Fleet Activities Okinawa’s White Beach Naval Facility, Aug. 24. NMCB 3 volunteers joined roughly 60 other participants from the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF), the
In July, HMAS Newcastle completed an intensive counter-terrorism focused operation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with the multi-national Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150). During the focused operation, Newcastle executed 58 boarding actions, three replenishment activities with foreign ships an
Carrier Air Wing 3 flew its first fixed-wing aircraft sorties from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) as part of its regularly scheduled deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) Aug. 27. “For over a year, we have been training hard as a carrier strike group and with o
