French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire on Thursday announced the country is temporarily nationalizing Europe’s only only shipyard capable of building aircraft carriers in a bid to find a better shareholder deal. This means that Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, who earlier signed a heads of agreement
Italian Navy Rear Admiral Fabio Gregori took over command of the EU counter-piracy operation Atalanta from Spanish Navy Rear Admiral Rafael Fernández-Pintado during a ceremony in Djibouti on July 27. EU NAVFOR’s deputy operation commander, Rear-Admiral Alfonso Pérez de Nanclares (Spanish Navy), also
Engineering firm WR Davis became the first Canadian company to be picked by BAE Systems to deliver equipment for the construction of the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 frigates. BAE Systems as the prime contractor on the program awarded a C$12m contract to WR Davis Engineering Ltd for the uptake and downt
U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and ships from its carrier strike group arrived in Portsmouth, UK, today ahead of a major two-week drill. Accompanied by the USS Philippine Sea, USS Donald Cook and Norwegian ship HNoMS Helge Insgstad, the aircraft carrier is on the final leg of its de
Royal Navy’s nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine HMS Astute has returned to the fleet after completing a major capability upgrade and a sea training period. HMS Astute’s sea training process tested all aspects of the equipment and crew, ensuring that she is ready to respond to emergency situatio
A visit by Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan to the Ukrainian port of Odessa on July 24 marked the first UK warship visit to Ukraine in eight years. The Portsmouth-based destroyer led a NATO task group into the Ukrainian port at the start of a three-day visit ahead of exercises with the host nation’s
Hellenic Navy’s 107-year-old battle cruiser Georgios Averof concluded a three-month refit returning to its homeport in Athens where it serves as a museum ship. The battle cruiser returned to Athens on Thursday where it was welcomed by a naval band and a helicopter while other ships sounded their hor
U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) returned to Naval Station Rota, Spain, after completing a four month patrol that began April 3, 2017. At the beginning of the ship’s fifth forward-deployed patrol, Ross and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-miss
Two Russian Navy superlatives, the world’s largest submarine Dmitry Donskoy and the world’s largest surface combatant Piotr Velikiy, arrived in St. Petersburg on Wednesday to attend a grand Russian Navy day ceremony which is taking place on July 30. The 175-meter-long Typhoon class submarine and the
After concluding their drills with the Russian Navy in the Baltic Sea, ships from the Chinese Navy’s task group are scheduled to visit Finland for a regularly scheduled port call. Three Chinese warships, Type 052D destroyer Hefei (DDG-174), Type 054A frigate Yuncheng (571) and Type 903 replenishment
The UK Royal Navy announced an investment of £2 million for the expansion and modernization of Gibraltar’s ‘Windy Hill’ monitoring station. Sitting high above the Strait of Gibraltar, personnel at the monitoring facility keep an eye on 60,000 ships entering or leaving the Mediterranean, or crossing
The Italian Navy’s seventh FREMM frigate Federico Martinengo took to the sea for the first time in the Gulf of La Spezia earlier this month. During the first sea going several systems installed onboard have been set up and tested successfully. Some of them are newly developed equipment such as the n
German Navy’s Frankenthal-class minehunter FGS Sulzbach-Rosenberg will be joining NATO’ Standing Mine Counter Measure Group 1 (SNMCMG1) operating in the Baltic and North Seas, the German Navy has announced. The minehunter is set to depart its home port of Kiel, Germany, on July 28 to spend the follo
Belgian Navy frigate BNS Louise Marie concluded her deployment to the EU-led migrant crisis operation in the Mediterranean Sea setting sail home on July 23. The multi-purpose frigate left operation Sophia after the scheduled 34 days of duties, despite calls for the frigate’s earlier withdrawal due t
