Ships from NATO’s Standing Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) met with Turkish Navy units in the Aegean Sea as they wrapped up 20 days of operations in the Black Sea. Led by the Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan, SNMG2 ships rendezvoused with Turkish fast patrol boats TCG Mızrak and TCG Volkan after
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile-destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) arrived at US Fleet Activities (FLEACT) Yokosuka to join the forward-deployed naval forces (FDNF) in Japan. The arrival of Milius to the 7th Fleet on Tuesday, May 22, adds another upgraded Aegis Baseline 9 destroyer to the wa
Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Newport News Shipbuilding on May 16 hosted a keel authentication ceremony for the US Navy’s 21st Virginia-class submarine, Montana (SSN 794). In keeping with a US Navy tradition, former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, the ship’s sponsor, chalked her initials on
The US Navy has shared a video of its Freedom variant littoral combat ship USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) launching Longbow Hellfire missiles as part of the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM) developmental testing (DT) The live-fire missile exercise took place off the coast of Virginia on May 11 and sa
French Navy’s sole aircraft carrier FS Charles de Gaulle has entered the water again after spending over 14 months in the dry dock as part of her mid-life upgrade. The aircraft carrier was refloated at the Toulon navy base on May 16 after entering the dry dock on February 8, 2017. FS Charles de Gaul
The French Navy frigate La Fayette seized 260 kg of heroin when interdicting a “suspicious dhow” in the Red Sea on May 11. It is her third seizure of narcotics in less than a month, the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) said. In an operation coordinated by Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150), Marine Nati
A keel-laying ceremony at Russia’s Vympel Shipyard on May 15 marked the construction start of the first of four new Project 21980 (Grachonok-class) anti-terror vessels. The vessels are being constructed under a 2017 contract, signed between Vympel and the National Guard of the Russian Federation. Al
The US Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $23.1 million contract for follow-on production of enhanced laser guided training rounds (ELGTRs) to support the service’s Paveway II Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) weapons training. The award exercises the initial option of the contract negotiated in 2017 and exte
The US Navy has awarded a $42.2 million dollar contract to Vigor for repairs and changes to the guided-missile destroyer USS Sampson (DDG 102). Work on the USS Sampson will be done in Seattle and Everett and may include blasting, painting and surface preparation. Under the deal, work on the ship’s f
Ships from NATO’s Standing Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) arrived in Poti, Georgia, on May 14 after concluding their participation in the Romanian-hosted Black Sea exercise Sea Shield 2018. During the four-day port call to Poti, the ships’ crews will join Georgian Border Police for drills aimed at incre
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Halsey (DDG 97) returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam on May 14, concluding a seven-month deployment with the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group (TRCSG). Halsey departed Pearl Harbor October 16 to deploy to the US 5th and 7th Fleet
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Warramunga and her combined engineering support team (WCEST) have recently completed a scheduled maintenance period in Bahrain. It is only the second time an engineering support team has been deployed to the Middle East region and follows the success of last year’s
After arriving from France to US early April, French Rafale jets have now joined the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) for a combined Chesapeake 2018 exercise. The George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group (GHWBCSG) and French Carrier Air Wing (Groupe Aerien Embarque) departed Norfolk May 7
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Warramunga has seized 295 kilograms of heroin from a vessel in the Arabian Sea. Following the detection of a suspect vessel in the Arabian Sea by Warramunga’s Seahawk Romeo helicopter, a boarding party search uncovered a number of packages containing heroin. After
