Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to get underway from HMNB Portsmouth on Saturday for her first-of-class F-35B flight trials. The deployment is dubbed Westlant 18 and will see the carrier spend four months off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States with the aim of deve
The Russian Navy’s Black Sea Fleet corvette Vyshny Volochyok transited the Bosphorus on August 16 to start her first Mediterranean Sea deployment. The Buyan-M class vessel is starting the deployment after entering service in May this year and becoming the first corvette in its class to join the Blac
The Royal Netherlands Navy offshore patrol vessel HNLMS Friesland has seized 406 kilos of cocaine from a vessel in a joint operation with the Sint Maarten coast guard. The drugs were seized on Thursday after a suspect vessel was spotted by Friesland’s NH90 helicopter. According to the Dutch Navy, th
After halting a competition for the construction of five Type 31 frigates late July, the UK defense ministry has now relaunched the process. The program was halted on July 24 due to what the defense ministry identified as inadequate competition prior to awarding competitive design phase (CDP) contra
The UK Royal Navy and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force are scheduled to conduct their first joint amphibious exercise in Japanese waters next week. Taking place on August 23 and 24, the exercise will be spearheaded by Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Albion and the JMSDF tank landing ship
After ceding command over the EU-led counter-piracy operation Atalanta off the Horn of Africa to the Spanish Navy, the Italian Navy has deployed its newest FREMM frigate – ITS Federico Martinengo – to support the mission. The frigate got underway from its homeport in Taranto and joined the operation
Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Sutherland returned to her homeport at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Devonport on August 10, concluding a seven-month deployment to the Asia-Pacific. Sutherland and her crew got underway on January 9, becoming the first Royal Navy vessel to operate in Asia Pacific in rece
After dropping off the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in North Carolina, nearly 1,200 sailors aboard the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) entered their homeport of Mayport, Florida, on August 9. USS Iwo Jima returned from a six-month deployment to the US 5th and US 6t
Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Diamond escorted two Russian warships as they passed through the English Channel on Tuesday. The destroyer sailed from Dover to monitor the Russian destroyer Severomorsk and cruiser Marshal Ustinov as they sailed from their Severomorsk homeport for operations in th
Royal Navy’s amphibious assault ship HMS Albion has wrapped up a five-day visit to Tokio, Japan, becoming the largest RN vessel to visit the country in a quarter of a century. The 20,000-ton ship pulled alongside on August 3 and hosted over 6000 members of the public during an open weekend. During t
Technology company Elbit Systems has received an approximately $85 million contract from the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD) to supply Electronic Warfare (EW) suites for the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 6-class corvettes. As informed, the contract will be performed over a 10-year period. The EW systems t
The Royal Navy has announced that its seventh and final Astute-class submarine HMS Agincourt will be affiliated with the city of Torbay whose residents farewelled the namesake Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Torbay as it bowed out of service a year ago. HMS Agincourt will be affiliated with the Devon
The Leander frigate design was offered for the Royal Navy’s Type 31 frigates
The Portuguese Navy’s newest-commissioned offshore patrol vessel NRP Sines has arrived at her homeport at Lisboa naval base for the first time. Sines and her crew arrived on August 4, and will soon start operational training (Plano de Treino Operacional in Portuguese). Though the ship officially ent
