The Royal Australian Navy’s recently-commissioned destroyer HMAS Hobart recently added an MH-60R Seahawk helicopter to the list of her capabilities, certifying its deck for helicopter handling. The deck handling trial took place at the Oiler Wharf, Garden Island, Sydney, on November 7. At the center
US guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins (DDG 76) got underway from San Diego on November 20 to start a regularly scheduled independent deployment to the US 7th Fleet and 5th Fleet areas of operation. Higgins has a crew of nearly 330 sailors, officers and enlisted, and is a multi-mission ship designe
US Navy’s littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) departed the US 7th Fleet area of responsibility on November 21, after spending nearly 14 months in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. During the rotational deployment, the ship and crew operated with navies of 16 partner nations, participated in 11 multilater
Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset scrambled recently to shadow a Russian naval destroyer as it transited the Moray Firth, returning home from the Mediterranean Sea. It was not the Kulakov’s first visit to UK waters as the destroyer was also shadowed by HMS Somerset from the same position in the Moray
The Polish Navy’s first Kormorant II-class minehunter ORP ‘Kormoran’ has passed all state and builder’s trials and was officially transferred to the navy on November 17. According to a navy announcement, the minehunter is now set to be commissioned in Gdynia on November 28, on the day of the Polish
Royal Australian Navy’s future air warfare destroyer (AWD) Brisbane has started her first phase of sea trials, the alliance in charge of delivering the destroyers announced on Monday. The second of three destroyers to be built will spend the coming weeks on sea trials, marking further progress towar
US Navy destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) rescued three mariners from a sinking vessel off the coast of San Diego, on Saturday, November 18. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) was conducting routine operations when it responded to a distress call from
The crew of the Italian Navy frigate ITS Virginio Fasan has arrested six pirates and seized their vessels after a chase in the Southern Somali Basin over the weekend. The suspected pirates were apprehended after they attacked a 52,000 tonne container ship and a fishing vessel on November 17 and 18.
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) wrapped up its sixth forward-deployed naval forces patrol, returning to Naval Station Rota on November 17. While on patrol, Donald Cook participated in exercises Saxon Warrior 2017, Joint Warrior 2017, Formidable Shield
A team of Royal Navy divers was called upon to destroy a 500lb wartime bomb which was first dredged up and then dropped dangerously close to a major North Sea gas pipeline. The divers embarked aboard minehunter HMS Cattistock racing to the location 50 miles off the coast of Norfolk after a Dutch tra
US Navy destroyer USS Benfold collided with a tug on November 18, becoming the fifth US Navy ship to get involved in a collision in the Pacific this year. The forward-deployed destroyer was participating in a scheduled towing exercise in Sagami Wan, south of Kanagawa Prefecture in Honshu, when the t
Royal Australian Navy’s future replenishment ships will be named ‘Supply’ and ‘Stalwart’, Australian defense minister Marise Payne announced on Friday. The ships will be known as Auxiliary Oiler Replenishment vessels and will replace the current HMA Ships Success and Sirius. Supply will be the secon
The US Navy carrier strike group centered around the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson completed a three-week sustainment training exercise off the coast of Southern California, November 16. Completing the exercise indicates the strike group’s readiness for executing missions across all warfare areas
Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is to be commissioned by the Queen in a ceremony on December 7, the UK defense ministry announced. UK’s new defense secretary Gavin Williams made the announcement as he visited the carrier on Thursday, while at sea, sailing on trials around the s
