The ship’s company of HMS Illustrious has hosted the President of Albania, His Excellency Mr Bujar Nishani, as exercise Albanian Lion draws to an end. Albanian Lion was the first major workout for the Royal Navy’s Response Force Task Group (RFTG) as part of Cougar 13 – a long planned deployment that
The fleet replenishment ship ‘Cantabria’ has set sail to participate in a three-week training exercise with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) frigate ‘Stuart’ and the New Zeeland Navy frigate ‘Te Mana’ in east-Australian waters. This time the ‘Cantabria’ embarked an Air Unit made up of two AS350BA ‘Sq
On 4 September 2013, off the coast of Mogadishu, the EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Atalanta hosted the President of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, on board the Dutch EU NAVFOR flagship, HNLMS Johan de Witt. The President, his Ministers and security commanders met with EU Special Envoy to Somalia, Mich
Northrop Grumman Corporation will highlight its capabilities in command, control, communications, computers, intelligence (C4I), border security, unmanned ground systems, cyber security as well as navigation and maritime systems at the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in
A Royal Navy warship on deployment in the Mediterranean has been flexing her hunter-killer technique in an anti-submarine warfare exercise with the Italian Navy. HMS Westminster is working as part of the Navy’s Response Force Task Group which is on an annual deployment to the Med and then the Gulf t
On Wednesday, 28 August 2013, the historical ordnance disposal operation Open Spirit 2013 ended in the east Baltic. During the ten-day operation twelve ships and four EOD teams from eight nations searched the sea bed for underwater explosives. During this time SNMCMG1 covered the area of 24 square n
These dramatic images show Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Wave Knight sailing alongside the US Coastguard cutter Forward 911 and her helicopter while on her North Atlantic deployment. The aircraft came aboard Wave Knight for a flying exercise as USCGC Forward (of Portsmouth, Virginia) made a port stop.
Significant Royal Navy assets supported this year’s Bournemouth Air Festival which took place between Thurs Aug 29 and Sunday, September 1. Among the largest number of ships ever assembled for the event were the Type-23 frigate HMS Northumberland and Mine-hunters HMS Blyth and HMS Brocklesby. In the
On Friday 30 August, Commodore Peter Lenselink and members of his staff visited German frigate FGS Niedersachsen, which is currently part of the EU’s counter piracy task force off the coast of Somalia. During his visit, Commodore Lenselink visited the different departments on board and met members o
The yard sea trials of tugboat “MB-92” (building No 503, project PE-65) the first tugboat from the series of four tugboats of project PE -65, built by Pella Shipyard for the Russian Navy have been successfully completed. Assignment: towing of vessels and floating objects in harbor areas and open sea
Spanish frigate ‘Blas de Lezo’ left the Military Arsenal of Ferrol to begin the second phase of her deployment as command ship of Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG-2). The Spanish Navy warship had previously departed Ferrol on June 4th to integrate into this Standing Escorts Group in the Mediterr
Under cover of darkness the first landing craft stealthily departed HMS Bulwark marking the start of exercise Albanian Lion. Over the course of four days hundreds of Royal Marines, supported by Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels as well as elements of the Army, will enter a fictional natio
Two ships deployed on Cougar 13 have met up mid Mediterranean for a swap of supplies vital to the operation. With over 45,000 tonnes of steel between them; HMS Illustrious and Royal Fleet Auxiliary supply ship, RFA Fort Austin, held a straight course while the exchange took place over a distance of
EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia Operation Atalanta warship ESPS Meteoro recently evacuated a member of the ships crew who had a medical issue. The ship had been conducting counter piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia. The ship broke from counter-piracy operations and clo
