The French Navy’s new ice-breaking and patrol vessel L’Astrolabe started her first ever mission to Antarctica getting underway from her homeport at Port des Galets, in La Réunion, October 12. L’Astrolabe deployed exactly two months after first arriving to her new homeport from Concarneau, France, wh
The Cypriot defense ministry and Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Larnaca hosted warships from France, Israel and Greece among others for the fourth consecutive exercise Nemesis 2017. The one-day exercise took place on October 17 in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus, with
Royal Navy’s bomb disposal experts carried out an unusual operation recently after a tanker carrying some 1,000 tonnes of fuel caught a test torpedo with its anchor. The tanker’s anchor had speared the torpedo in Portland, UK, and had dragged it up from the seabed, 15 meters below. Portsmouth-based
Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri today delivered the final two offshore patrol vessels (OPV) to the Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG). The overall four vessels in the class are former Italian Navy Minerva-class corvettes converted by Fincantieri into offshore patrol vessels under a contract from July 2015
The Royal Navy’s second River-class patrol vessel HMS Severn is set to visit her affiliated city of Newport one last time before she decommissions by the end of October. Severn will be berthed at Alexandra Docks with the ship’s crew exercising Freedom of the City, parading through the city centre wi
The lead ship of the Portuguese Navy Viana do Castelo-class offshore patrol vessels joined the European frontier and coast guard agency Frontex arriving at the Italian port of Catania on Monday. NRP Viana do Castelo will be contributing to the control and surveillance of maritime borders in addition
Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigate HMS Northumberland has welcomed her crew back following a major refit at the frigate refit complex in Devonport. Justin Mills, ship project manager, handed over the Type 23 frigate to the new Commander Alexandra Pollard. This is Pollard’s first command having previously
British defense contractor and shipbuilder BAE Systems is cutting around 375 jobs across its Maritime Services division, the company announced on Tuesday. The cuts in Portsmouth and Solent are part of a wider, company-wide restructuring which will see BAE Systems reduce over 1900 positions. The move
Royal Navy’s amphibious transport dock HMS Albion embarked officer cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College for their first experience at sea. The 18,500 tonne assault ship sent two of her largest landing craft into the River Dart to embark the group of 75 cadets. They will spend the next six weeks
Breaking away from its usual duties in the North and Baltic Sea, NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 1 has sailed to the Mediterranean Sea where it will be contributing to the Mediterranean operation Sea Guardian. Led by Norwegian frigate HNoMS Otto Sverdrup and commander Petter Kammerhuber, the SNMG1 wi
In a live-fire integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) scenario organized as part of exercise Formidable Shield 2017 off the coast of Scotland, ally ships worked together to defend against three subsonic anti-ship cruise missiles on October 7. During the collective self-defense scenario, Canadian
The Romanian Navy has deployed its flagship frigate ROS Regele Ferdinand to NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 2 for a month of joint operations and exercises. The former Royal Navy Type 22 departed Constanta, Romania, on October 6 and will integrate into the NATO task group for operation Sea Guardian.
The Russian Navy will soon receive the first batch of the Pantsir-ME naval missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon systems, the weapon manufacturer said recently. Alexander Denisov, general director of the High Precision Complex holding company, which includes Pantsir-ME manufacturer KBP, told jo
A potential strike of tug boat crews could disrupt the movement of Royal Navy vessels in five UK ports, workers union Unite has warned. The tug boat crews are deciding whether to go on strike after their call for a pay rise had been rejected. Voting papers for strike action will start being delivere