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 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 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
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Newcastle wrapped up a six-month deployment to the Middle East achieving some firsts and marking some lasts along the way. She conducted a range of Combined Maritime Forces operations, including an attachment in support of the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and t
Ships from the US Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) on November 16 started the 2017 edition of their bilateral maritime field training exercise simply dubbed ‘Annual Exercise’. During the ten days of evolutions, Japanese and American forces will increase the defensive readiness and
An AUD $367 million project to upgrade the Royal Australian Navy base HMAS Stirling got underway on November 10 as Australia’s defense minister Marise Payne and Western Australia senator Slade Brockman joined the sod-turning ceremony to mark the ceremonial start of the upgrade. Located on Garden Isl
Royal Australian Navy minehunter HMAS Huon wrapped up a South West Pacific deployment earlier this month with the final of six port visits to Hobart, Tasmania, and her namesake city of Huonville. Having already toured the remote Australian territories of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands, as well as Lug
Ships from the navies of Singapore and Brunei concluded the bilateral naval exercise Pelican on November 13 before heading for the ASEAN International Fleet Review in Thailand. This year’s exercise Pelican took place between November 11 and 13 and was the 36th in its series. It involved the Republic
The UK defense ministry is considering the use of an Australian-developed radar on future Royal Navy ships. The announcement was made by UK under secretary of state for defense procurement, Harriet Baldwin during her visit to Adelaide on Friday. Baldwin said the UK would conduct a capability study t
Philippine Navy’s future frigates currently being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries will be equipped with Terma’s C-Guard decoy launchers. The contract award was announced by the Danish company early November. The decoys selected for the vessels will provide protection against surface and underwater
Ships from the navies of the United States, Australia and South Korea met up off the coast of South Korea for a multilateral maritime interdiction operations (MIO) exercise. US Navy destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) and Royal Australian Navy frigates HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) and HMAS Parramatta joined th
