Qatari Emiri Naval Forces recently completed Eastern Sailor 19, an exercise conducted annually with the US Navy and US Coast Guard. Eastern Sailor 19 is an annual, bilateral surface exercise between the US Navy and the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces serving to expand levels of cooperation between the two
Type 23 frigate HMS Montrose became the first Royal Navy frigate to forward-deploy to the Persian Gulf as she got underway from Plymouth for a three-year deployment to the Middle East. While the Devonport-based warship will not return home for more than three years, her ship’s company will rotate in
Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Ballarat got underway from her homeport Fleet Base West at Garden Island on October 28 to start her Middle East deployment. The 190 sailors and officer on board will spend the next nine months conducting maritime security operations as part of the Australian defens
US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mitscher (DDG 57) met up with Egyptian Navy’s Descubierta-class corvette ENS El Suez (F-946) for a passing exercise (PASSEX) on October 21. Cmdr. Ian Scaliatine, commanding officer of Mitscher, welcomed El Suez’s leadership aboard Mitscher f
Royal Fleet Auxiliary amphibious support ship RFA Lyme Bay has arrived at the port of Duqm in Oman to join the Anglo-Omani exercise Saif Sareea 3. The 16,000-ton ship sailed 5,000 miles from Falmouth to Duqm, where Britain has permanent facilities to support naval operations in the region. The port
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) has become the first US Navy ship to visit Israeli port of Ashdod in nineteen years. USS Ross arrived in Ashdod on October 8, 2018, for a scheduled port visit. As other navy ships usually call the port of Haifa when visiting the country,
Royal Navy amphibious assault ship HMS Albion has arrived in Oman ahead of the start of an exercise that will see the involvement of over 4,000 British personnel. Exercise Saif Sareea (Swift Sword) is the largest combined military exercise for UK forces since 2002 and HMS Albion will be in charge of
French Navy frigate FS Floreal has seized over 7 tons of hashish from two dhows in the Indian Ocean on September 23 and 24. According to Combined Maritime Forces, the drugs are valued at $3.5m, based on street values in Yemen, which was the expected destination for the hashish. This is the most sign
US Navy Cyclone-class coastal patrol ships from the US 5th Fleet’s Combined Task Force (CTF) 55 honed artillery skills during a Griffin Missile System (GMS) fleet firing exercise which took place between September 16 and 18 in the Middle East. Coastal patrol ships USS Firebolt (PC 10), USS Monsoon (
Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon got underway from her Portsmouth homeport on September 17 after a short, unspecified, delay. Dragon is now headed for the Persian Gulf where it is expected to spend several months an operational deployment. The destroyer is scheduled to work alongside coalition and regio
A Russian IL-20 maritime patrol aircraft disappeared from radar over Syria on Monday as Israeli jets carried out an attack on Syria’s Latakia province. Most recent reports say that the defense ministry acknowledged the loss of the aircraft to friendly fire. According to Interfax, the Il-20 was shot
In an effort to ensure maritime security in the Gulf of Aden, the Singapore-led Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 conducted focused operation on behalf of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF). The operation, Vigilant Lion, which ran from August 31 to September 8, involved adjacent forces in CMF, the Europ
An illicit weapons shipment containing 2,521 AK-47 automatic rifles was seized by USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109) on August 28, the US Navy confirmed. As Naval Today earlier reported, the weapons were found aboard an unflagged dhow in the Gulf of Aden. As informed, the full count follows an initial estim
Port Said, the first warship built in Egypt, has been launched in Alexandria. The launching ceremony took place at Alexandria Shipyard on September 6, French shipbuilder Naval Group informed. Today in Alexandria, the launching ceremony of the Port-Said took place. This state of the art #Gowind® 2500
