The Arab Republic of Egypt has received the second and last Mistral-class helicopter carrier it acquired from France in October 2015. The change of flag ceremony for the amphibious assault ship which Egypt named Anwar El Sadat took place on September 16 and was attended by the two Chiefs of Staff of
Indian shipbuilding company MDL has launched the nation’s second indigenously built Visakhapatnam-class destroyer INS Mormugao. Weighing 2844 tonnes at launch, the destroyer entered water for the first time during a September 17 ceremony in Mumbai. Also called Project 15B, the ships are an improved
USS Wichita, the U.S. Navy’s 13th littoral combat ship was launched during a September 17 ceremony at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette. Lockheed Martin, the company leading the industry team that builds the Freedom variant of LCS ships has shared a video of LCS 13 hitting the w
The Panamanian Navy is host to this year’s iteration of exercise UNITAS which is attended by the United States, Panama, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and the United Kingdom. The ten-day exercise kicked off September 18 and will includ
Royal Navy frigate HMS Monmouth abandoned the scenario during a Canadian-hosted anti-submarine exercise in order to help a Canadian fisherman in the North Atlantic. The Plymouth-based ship was around 100 miles east of Nova Scotia when she picked up a mayday. The crew of the trawler Double Mischief r
Royal Netherlands Navy offshore patrol ship HNLMS Groningem has seized two tonnes of cocaine after intercepting a small fishing boat in the Caribbean Sea. Five crew members were detained and transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard together with the found contraband. A U.S. maritime reconnaissance plane
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced the names for two new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in a ceremony at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on September 17. DDG 125, will be named Jack H. Lucas in honor of the Marine Corps hero and Medal of Honor recipient while DDG 126 would be named Louis H. Wil
The U.S. Navy is set to christen its newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, USS Wichita (LCS 13), during a ceremony on Saturday, September 17 in Marinette, Wisconsin. “The christening of the future USS Wichita brings this warship one step closer to joining our nation’s growing fleet,” said Ray
The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded Eastern Shipbuilding Group a $110.29 million contract for the production of the lead Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC) and up to eight follow-on cutters. If the Coast Guard opts to build all nine cutters the contract will be worth $2.38 billion. The OPC acquisition will r
Naval units taking part in the Australian-hosted multinational maritime exercise have sailed out of Darwin to begin the sea phase of Exercise Kakadu. The ships separated into three multi-national task groups once outside the harbor and will spend the next eight days undertaking a graduated program o
U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) reached the halfway point of its Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) September 13, pierside at Naval Air Station North Island. PIA is a reoccurring part of a ship’s life cycle, scheduled approximately every 36 months. It’s
Ships assigned to the Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group (BHR ESG), with embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, joined the U.S. military exercise Valiant Shield 2016, on September 15. Valiant Shield is a biennial exercise held between the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force in an effor
German Navy’s F123 frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern joined the European-led operation Sophia by taking over command of deployed German units from the German tender Werra in the Italian port of Augusta, Sicily, September 14. German soldiers and sailors participating in the Mediterranean Sea mission wil
The U.S. Navy has awarded Huntington Ingalls Industries a $19.1 million contract modification to accelerate design work on the U.S. Navy’s amphibious warfare ship replacement, known as LX(R). In the original announcement on June 30, Ingalls was selected to perform the majority of the contract design
