The world’s navies and the industries around them had a busy year conducting operations and making technological advances. Some of the memorable events in 2015 were recorded on video and Naval Today is bringing you a list of videos worth watching again.
– NATO, an alliance of countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty, conducted their largest exercise in over a decade with more than 70 ships and submarines, maritime patrol aircraft and 3,000 marines participating in the maritime component of Exercise Trident Juncture 2015. In this video, top navy commanders explain why the navies are an important constituent of every nation’s defense forces.
– The U.S. Navy shared a video of the future USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) underway for the first time conducting the first set of at-sea tests and trials in the Atlantic Ocean, December 7.
DDG 1000 is the first of a new class of warships in the US Navy. The construction of the ship began in February 2009 at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works shipyard. Four years later, the destroyer was launched in October 2013 and then christened in April 2014.
– In September, 2015, BAE Systems revealed the design of what will be the Royal Navy’s future “global combat ship”. The first ships of the Type 26 class are due to enter service in the early 2020s, and Britain envisions at least 12-13 of them. The current Type 26 plan involves five basic frigates, and another eight ships with additional anti-submarine warfare equipment.
Royal Navy’s bomb disposal experts made a video of a WWII mine being detonated off Bembridge, Isle of Wight. According to the Royal Navy, the plume created by the explosion was 300 meters high. The 1,500lb (680kg) German mine was discovered on the seabed in The Solent, the strait separating the Isle of Wight from mainland England.
– In October 2015 , UK’s Aircraft Carrier Alliance captured a momentous occasion in the UK shipbuilding history. Namely, two 26.500 tonne parts of the Royal Navy’s second aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, were joined at the Rosyth Dockyard, UK.
– Another defence contractor, the American shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls Industries, released a video showing the process of moving a 150-meter ship to the dry-dock. The U.S. Navy’s future USS Ralph Johnson was moved to dry dock on December 9, 2015.
– One more video showing how ships are moved in the water is a time-lapse video of the Netherlands Navy’s frigate HNLMS Tromp, which docked in Rotterdam, The Netherlands on December 9, 2015.