Royal Navy landing platform dock HMS Albion is scheduled to arrive in Indonesia on April 22, for the ship’s first port call in Southeast Asia as part of her Asia Pacific tasking. Albion will arrive in Jakarta on April 22 for a three day visit during which the ship’s crew will conduct bilateral talks
The UK defense secretary cut the first turf on April 19 for a new facility at RAF Lossiemouth which will house the UK’s new fleet of Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft (MPA). The £132m site will be the future home to the country’s nine-strong, new P-8A Poseidon MPA fleet. The aircraft’s key role will
The UK-hosted multinational, tri-service exercise Joint Warrior is starting next week with warships and personnel already en route to the Scottish Coasts. The exercise will be attended by 16 nations who will take part in a range of maneuvers over a course of two weeks. Before the actual at sea maneu
The Italian Navy decommissioned its third Soldati-class patrol ship ITS Bersagliere in a ceremony at Italian naval base La Spezia on April 17. Bersagliere was decommissioned after 23 years of service in a ceremony attended by Italian Navy Chief Admiral Valter Girardelli and other government and defe
US Navy aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and ships from its carrier strike group entered the US 6th Fleet area of operations April 18 as part of their deployment to Europe and Africa. The carrier strike group arrived in European waters after getting underway from Naval Station Norfolk on April 1
The US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) arrived in Helsinki, Finland, on April 18 for a scheduled port visit. The visit is aimed at enhancing US-Finland relations as the two nations work together to strengthen regional security and stability. It follows a bilat
A Turkish defense company has shared video footage of what it says is an unmanned underwater vehicle capable of carrying enough explosives to destroy surface warships. The underwater drone is called Wattozz and was developed jointly by Albayrak Savunma, which entered the defense business in 2017, an
The Royal Malaysian Navy has awarded Norwegian defense contractor Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace a EUR124 million (approx. USD$153.2m) contract for the delivery of Naval Strike Missile (NSM) systems for its new littoral combat ships. Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd is building the ships based on Nava
Royal Navy’s Hunt-class mine countermeasures vessel HMS Cattistock returned to Portsmouth Naval Base on April 17 after four months of operations with Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1). During her deployment HMS Cattistock took part in a series of multinational exercises and operat
Dutch shipbuilder Damen has contracted Spanish defense technology company Indra to equip the Mexican Navy’s new long-range offshore patrol vessel (POLA) with its RIGEL electronic defense system. The system will allow the vessel, which is currently under construction, to detect the presence of other
The German Navy has launched the process of acquiring a fleet of new minehunters for its Kiel-based 3rd Minesweeping Squadron. A total of eleven vessels are to be acquired, according to Kieler Nachrichten who first reported the news. The project is still in the early phase, according to the German N
French Navy frigate FS La Fayette seized over 400 kilos of heroin from a dhow it intercepted in the Indian Ocean in an operation on April 11. The drugs were intercepted after La Fayette’s Panther helicopter detected a suspicious vessel while on a routine surveillance in the international waters of t
Belgian defense contractor OIP Sensor Systems (OIP) announced it has signed a teaming agreement with Hydroid, a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime, for work on the Belgian defense ministry’s Mine Counter Measures (MCM) Toolbox program. The agreement is part of OIP’s drive to form a collaboration which
Ships from Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group One (SNMCMG1) wrapped up historical ordinance disposal operations (HODOPS) with the French Navy entering Saint Malo, France, for a port visit on April 15. During the HODOPS, SNMCMG1 surveyed more than 90 square kilometers in Dieppe Bight, on the Fr
