Royal Australian Navy ships deployed as part of the Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2018 (IPE18) program arrived in Vanuatu for their deployment’s first port visit. Before entering Port Vila on Wednesday, oiler HMAS Success completed officer of the watch manoeuvres with the Vanuatu Police Force vessel RVS To
German Navy corvette FGS Erfurt was prevented from taking part in the US Navy-led BALTOPS drill in the Baltic Sea after damaging her propeller in an earlier exercise. Erfurt had been part of the NATO Standing Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) since February this year and was close to the end of her deploymen
Royal Australian and New Zealand Naviy personnel took part in a week long exercise recently honing their skills in responding to piracy activities on commercial shipping surrounding fictitious countries in the Tasman Sea. Exercise Goanna 18 drew on lessons learnt from RAN and RNZN deployments in dom
The Israeli Navy last week concluded a drill aimed at testing its vessels’ ability to respond to an attack on one of the country’s offshore oil and gas platforms. The drill was led by the Haifa-based 3rd (missile boat) flotilla and joined by Sa’ar 4,5 corvette INS Kidon and Sa’ar 5 corvette INS Laha
The Finnish defense ministry has awarded Kongsberg Maritime a contract to deliver its ST2400 variable depth sonar (VDS) for the Hamina-class missile boats. The contract was awarded to Kongsberg as part of the Squadron 2000 mid-life upgrade (MLU) program which will extend the missile boats’ service l
US Navy pilots from Carrier Air Wing One (CVW-1), embarked aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), are training with the Italian Air Force in integrated flight operations taking place from May 28 to June 7. The exercise features F/A-18s from CVW-1’s four fighter squadrons, which integrated with Italian
Royal Navy destroyer and NATO SNMG2 flagship HMS Duncan has rescued two Algerian fishermen who had been stranded at sea for four days. A lookout from the Portsmouth-based Type 45 destroyer noticed the men’s boat by chance in the western Mediterranean – and the warship immediately offered food, fuel
Karel Doorman-class frigate BNS Louise-Marie F931 recently became the first Belgian Navy ship to fire the Harpoon anti-ship missile during live firing drills off Norway. The event, which took place off Tromsø, Norway, from May 28 to 31, was captured on video and shared by the Belgian Navy. Though th
Exercise Malabar, the trilateral naval drill taking place off the coast of Guam, will feature a total of 12 warships – including aircraft and helicopter carriers – and two submarines. The lineup for the maneuvers could have been even more impressive had the Royal Australian Navy been allowed to join
Royal Navy landing ship RFA Lyme Bay on June 1 joined the French helicopter carrier BPC Tonnerre in the French port city of La Rochelle, in the Bay of Biscay, to embark an expeditionary force for the amphibious exercise Catamaran 2018. In addition to the two countries’ navy and marine forces, the ex
RFS Yantar, the Russian Navy’s oceanographic vessel – also referred to as spy ship, underwater reconnaissance ship or seabed research ship – was escorted by several NATO ships as it transited the English Channel into the North Sea. Yantar was first escorted by a French Navy ship in the Bay of Biscay
The humanitarian assistance and disaster relief readiness exercise Pacific Partnership 2018 concluded June 2 as US Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) departed Nha Trang, Vietnam. This mission in Nha Trang included personnel from the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force embarked in JDS Osumi (LS
The Kongsberg-developed Naval Strike Missile is the weapon of choice for the US Navy’s littoral combat ship over-the-horizon (OTH) missile, a Pentagon contract has unsurprisingly revealed. According to a May 31 defense department announcement, US defense contractor Raytheon has been awarded a $14.8
Some 37 ships from 16 states arrived in the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda on May 31 ahead of the start of international exercise BALTOPS 2018, the Lithuanian Navy said. The US Navy says the number of participating countries and ships is higher with a total of 22 nations, 60 aircraft, 42 ships, an
