Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose became the first Royal Navy frigate to forward-deploy to the Persian Gulf as she got underway from Plymouth for a three-year deployment to the Middle East. While the Devonport-based warship will not return home for more than three years, her ship’s company will rotate in
Spanish sailors assigned to EUNAVFOR’s operation Atalanta captured and destroyed a pirate whaler in an operation off the Somali coast on October 28. The pirate vessel was detected following an attack on Hong Kong-flagged Bulk Carrier KSL Sydney. The attack against the KSL Sydney took place on Octobe
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat got underway from her homeport Fleet Base West at Garden Island on October 28 to start her Middle East deployment. The 190 sailors and officer on board will spend the next nine months conducting maritime security operations as part of the Australian defens
The Peruvian and US Navy have concluded almost three months of diesel-electric submarine operations which saw a Peruvian Navy submarine train and operate with a range of US Navy assets. Exactly 89 days of joint operations with the Peruvian submarine BAP Arica (SS-36) officially concluded in a closin
Missile systems developer MBDA has unveiled a navalized version of the MMP 5th generation ground combat missile at Euronaval. MDBA said the decision to introduce the system follows the operational evaluation campaign carried out at the end of the summer by the French armed forces in Djibouti to conf
The Netherlands became the first UK ally to announce it would send a warship to join the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth on her first operational deployment in 2021. The announcement was made on October 24 during the visit of the King and Queen of the Netherlands to Downing Street. T
US weapon manufacturer Raytheon announced it has delivered a Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) launcher for the Mexican Navy’s long-range off-shore patrol vessel (Patrulla Oceánica de Largo Alcance, or POLA). The RAM Block 2 supersonic, quick reaction, fire-and-forget missile to counter enemy anti-ship
A Turkish Navy Ay-class submarine sank a decommissioned navy vessel in the country’s second known sinking exercise (SINKEX) of 2018. The exercise took place last week in the Black Sea and follows a SINKEX which took place in June when Type 209/1200 submarine TCG Yildiray launched a wire-guided torpe
The US Navy commissioned its first unmanned aircraft system (UAS) test and evaluation squadron during a ceremony at Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s Webster Outlying Field, on October 18. The new unit, Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (UX) 24, flies over 23 fixed and rotary wing UAS including the
HMS Brocklesby and Shoreham, two of the UK’s Persian Gulf-based minehunters, sailed from Bahrain to Doha to give the Qatari Navy an insight into the Royal Navy’s work in the region. Joint training with the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces was conducted both in their base and then out in the gulf. The Qatar
One sailor is missing and two are in critical condition following the crash of a Mexican Navy MI-17 helicopter off the coast of Baja California on October 20. The helicopter was filmed crashing into the sea after the pilot lost control during regular patrol activities. According to the Mexican Navy,
The US Navy will christen two Virginia-class submarines in two separate ceremonies on Saturday, October 20. The first ceremony starts at 10 a.m. EDT at Newport News Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, in Newport News, Virginia, where the future USS Delaware (SSN 791) will be c
US Coast Guard’s 42-year-old icebreaker Polar Star arrived at its Seattle homeport following a six-month maintenance period at Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo, California. The icebreaker received extensive repairs and upgrades to engineering and electronic systems while completing the dry dock avail
F-35 Lightning fighter jets have dropped first test bombs during flight trials on board the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. The inert GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided precision bombs were dropped off the east coast of the USA, marking another significant milestone in the carrier’s tri
