Progress on the French Navy’s next generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines has achieved another production milestone with completion of the first section of the second vessel, Duguay-Trouin, at DCNS’s Cherbourg facility. The steel alloy hull section weighing 40 tonnes will…
The immediate future of the Royal Navy’s ice patrol capability has been determined with the leasing of a commercial icebreaker from Norwegian offshore specialists, GC Rieber Shipping. MV Polarbjørn (2001/4,985gt) has been acquired for an interim three-year period, during which…
HMS Cumberland, the 16th ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Cumberland, and her crew were welcomed back to Plymouth this month by over 1,000 delighted families and friends following a successful patrol including evacuating refugees from Libya…
For the first time since World War II, the Royal Navy will not be deploying a warship to the Caribbean. Critics argue that the abandonment of a long-standing overseas mission is a sure sign that defence cuts have gone too…
Canada has been revealed as another potential market for BAE Systems’ Global Combat Ship (GCS). Dubbed the Type 26 in the UK, the frigate-sized ship is also being pitched to Australia, Brazil, Malaysia, New Zealand and Turkey. In common with…
The deployment of FNS Pohjanmaa, to take part in EUNAVFOR’s Operation Atalanta, sets a new precedent for the Finnish Navy. Although Finland has provided staff in Force Headquarters and Operational Headquarters in Northwood for the Somalia operation, it is the…
The hull of the first of the Royal Australian Navy’s two new amphibious ships was launched with a bottle of Canberra regional sparkling wine at Navantia’s Ferrol shipyard in northern Spain on 17 February. The future HMAS Canberra will be…
The UK MoD has invited tenders for the decommissioned Type 42 destroyers Exeter, Nottingham and Southampton via its Disposal Services Agency auction website. This follows the successful sale of the former HMS Invincible by the same method in January. The…
HMS Scott has deployed to the Antarctic a century after her eponym Captain Scott’s final expedition to the area. The deep-water survey ship will once again conduct a survey of uncharted ocean for the UK Hydrographic Office and also provide…
DCNS and Navantia have ended their 15-year-long collaboration on the Scorpène submarine project after an acrimonious fallout over intellectual property. The split comes after an 18-month court battle during which Navantia was accused of siphoning off technology to develop its…