Taiwan's first locally built submarine is seen here before it was officially unveiled by President Tsai Ing-wen at the CSBC Corporation shipbuilding company in Kaohsiung on 28 September 2023. (Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images)

Taiwanese shipbuilder CSBC Corporation has unveiled the country's first indigenously developed submarine, which will be in service with the Republic of China Navy (RoCN).

The boat was unveiled by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on 28 September at CSBC's facilities in Kaohsiung. A ceremony to mark the occasion was broadcast live on online streaming services operated by Taiwanese news outlets.

In her address at the ceremony, President Tsai made some remarks praising the Taiwanese naval industry and the RoCN for achieving the milestone but no further details on the vessel were disclosed other than its name. The vessel will be in service as ROCS Hai Kun once commissioned.

The vessel has an overall length of about 70 m, an overall beam of about 8 m, and will likely displace about 2,700 tonnes at full load.

The third Italian Navy PPA, Raimondo Montecuccoli, was formally handed over at Fincantieri's Muggiano shipyard on 27 September. (Fincantieri)

Fincantieri has delivered the Italian Navy's first multi-purpose offshore patrol ship (Pattugliatore Polivalente d'Altura: PPA) configured for medium-intensity (light plus) operations.

Raimondo Montecuccoli (P 432) was handed over during a formal ceremony held at Fincantieri's shipyard in Muggiano, Trieste, on 27 September.

Laid down in November 2018 and launched in March 2021, Raimondo Montecuccoli is the third of seven PPAs being built by Fincantieri as part of the Italian Navy's fleet renewal plan.

The PPAs are being delivered in three configurations based on a common platform. The variants – ranging from a ‘light' version configured for low-intensity patrol duties up to a ‘full combat' version – are differentiated according to their weapon and sensor outfit. The 143 m-long ships are based on a modular design to enable rapid reconfiguration from low- to high-end if required.

The first two PPAs – Paolo Thaon di Revel (P 430) and Francesco Morosini

Damen sees its Enforcer family of amphibious ship designs providing the basis for a joint UK/Netherlands acquisition programme. (Damen Naval)

Dutch shipbuilding group Damen is pitching its Enforcer amphibious ship family as the basis for a potential joint UK/Netherlands amphibious ship acquisition.

Enforcer is a scaled portfolio of landing platform dock (LPD) designs, ranging from 120 to 180 m in length, designed for the transport and offload of an embarked military force using both surface connecters and helicopters. Damen Naval – the naval shipbuilding division of Damen Shipyards Group – has already commenced preliminary discussions with potential UK industry partners.

The UK and Netherlands governments in late June this year signed a statement of intent (SoI) to explore opportunities to develop a common littoral strike platform to address both UK Royal Navy (RN) and Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) requirements in the early 2030s. The RN has laid out plans for the acquisition of up to six Multi Role Support Ship (MRSS) vessels to replace the two Albion-class LPDs, three Bay-class landing ship dock (auxiliary) – LSD(A) – vessels, and the primary casualty receiving ship RFA Argus