US Navy’s Hawaii-homeported destroyer USS Michael Murphy (DDG 112) and embarked US Coast Guard personnel started joint maritime security patrols in the Western Pacific on March 26. The destroyer’s mission is part of the Oceania Maritime Security Initiative (OMSI) which is designed to reduce and elim
Italian-based electronic warfare specialist Elettronica has laid the groundwork for further collaboration with Thales Australia and the Australian systems house Daronmont related to the potential construction of nine new frigates for the Royal Australian Navy. Under the Memoranda of Understanding, t
New Zealand intends to deploy a Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) inshore patrol vessel to Fiji for three months in 2018 to support maritime and fisheries surveillance. The RNZN inshore patrol vessel will be deployed to Fiji between May and August 2018. Later this year, a New Zealand offshore patrol ves
US Navy amphibious transport dock ship USS Green Bay (LPD 20) joined the rest of the Wasp amphibious ready group (ARG) in Okinawa, Japan, arriving at White Beach Naval Facility to onload elements of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). The forward-deployed Green Bay joined the group after just
Ships from the US Navy’s Wasp amphibious ready group made a stop in Okinawa, Japan, on March 15 following two weeks of certifications. Amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) and amphibious dock landing ship USS Ashland (LSD 48) arrived at White Beach, Okinawa, to embark the 31st Marine Expeditiona
After concluding a historic visit to Vietnam on March 9, US Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson started a bilateral exercise with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) helicopter carrier JS Ise. Carl Vinson and JS Ise are joined by US destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108), which is part of th
The Royal Australian Navy concluded exercise Ocean Explorer, its largest fleet training activity for 2018. The exercise concluded on March 11 as ten ships and their embarked aircraft returned to Royal Australian Navy Base HMAS Creswell. “Most importantly it has seen more than 2,000 men and women fro
The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) commissioned its first 25DD destroyer JS Asahi in a ceremony on March 7. The 5,100-ton destroyer was handed over to JMSDF by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Nagasaki Shipyard in Nagasaki on March 7 and the destroyer reached its permanent homeport in Sasebo a
The US Navy’s Military Sealift Command-operated hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) arrived in the US 7th Fleet area of operations on March 10 to serve as a platform for exercise Pacific Partnership 2018 (PP18). PP18 is scheduled to have more than 800 US military personnel stationed worldwide, workin
HMAS Toowoomba has strengthened the Royal Australian Navy’s ties to international navies after hosting personnel from the United Kingdom and New Zealand during Exercise Ocean Explorer 2018. A junior officer from each country worked onboard the frigate during navy’s premier fleet warfighting activity
Shipbuilding company Navantia has selected Adelaide-based Navantia SAGE Automation Group (NSAG) to supply the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) for its Future Frigates bid. The selection follows the transfer of IPMS technology to Australia in support of the Navantia Australia designed Can
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has evacuated an ill government staff member from the Antipodes Islands in its second medical evacuation in three weeks. Offshore patrol vessel HMNZS Wellington, which was on a resupply mission in the Auckland Islands, was retasked on March 3 to evacuate a Depart
Royal New Zealand Navy frigate HMNZS Te Kaha has arrived in Canada where she will undergo combat management system upgrades at Seaspan’s shipyard in Victoria, British Columbia. The 25-day passage to British Columbia was marked by a brief port visit in Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor where Te Kaha and her crew
The wreck of one of the first US Navy aircraft carriers has been located on the floor of the Coral Sea, 500 miles off the eastern coast of Australia. The USS Lexington was discovered 3,000 meters (about two miles) below the surface by the expedition crew of research vessel (R/V) Petrel on March 4 –
