The EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) frigate Corte-Real recently visited Port Victoria in the Seychelles to perform boat-handling training with the local Coast-Guard. This military cooperation is seen as an important way to improve the counter-piracy capabilities of the Seychelles’ Coast-Guard. The Seychelles has an exclusive economic zone of 1.4 million km². This training is [...]
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) returned to its homeport of Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka May 16, after completing sea trials. Sea trials is the testing phase of a U.S. Navy warship designed to measure a vessel’s performance and general seaworthiness. During this five-day evolution, George Washington completed drop tests on both [...]
Upwards of 1½ million people saw HMS St Albans as the Portsmouth warship took part in the world’s largest harbour festival. The frigate sailed up the Elbe to Hamburg to take part in the 823rd ‘birthday’ of the great port. The Type 23 frigate visited the great Hanseatic port as part of strengthening international relations [...]
HMAS Ballarat (Commanger Jonathan Earley) has been making waves in the South China Seas as part of the maritime component for the annual Five Power Defence Arrangement Exercise – Bersama Shield. Exercise Bersama Shield 12 (Ex BS12) saw Ballarat join forces with Malaysian Frigate KD Lekiu and Singaporean Frigate RSS Supreme along with HMAS Collins [...]
As announced by the U.S. Department of Defence, Bulova Technologies Ordnance Systems, L.L.C., Mayo, Fla., is being awarded a $9,835,448 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for MK 80 distress signals and MK 79 distress signal kits. The MK 80 is an illuminated signal used by downed aircrews or personnel in life rafts as a distress signal. The [...]
HMS Westminster smashed the actions of three pirate groups in a fortnight – sending the boats to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. The Portsmouth-based warship treated the skiffs to a Viking funeral, blasting them out of the water with her guns and those of her Merlin helicopter. With orange-red flames billowing up in a [...]
Today the Republic of the Seychelles agreed to accept for prosecution 11 suspected pirates who were captured by EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) frigate HNLMS Van Amstel on Friday 11 May. The 11 suspected pirates had pirated an Iranian dhow with 17 innocent Iranian fishermen onboard at the beginning of May and it is thought [...]
Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc., Monroeville, Pa., is being awarded a $20,013,153 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification to previously awarded contract for Naval Nuclear Propulsion components, the U.S. Department of Defense announced on May 15. Work will be performed in Monroeville, Pa. (96.33 percent), and Schenectady, N.Y. (3.67 percent). No funds will expire at the end of the current [...]
Over the past several weeks, guided-missile frigate USS Taylor (FFG 50) and its visit, board, search, and seizure (VBSS) team, have actively patrolled the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) and provided security assistance to several merchant vessels transiting through the Gulf of Aden region. Taylor, with embarked Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 48 Detachment 9, [...]
The commitment of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia through boosting capacity building in the region has been underlined with the signing of five strategic partnerships with a number of UN agencies and the EU, following a Conference on Capacity Building to Counter Piracy off the Coast of [...]
