16 February 2022
by Richard Scott
HMS Montrose conducts a Harpoon Block 1C missile firing in May 2013. Harpoon Block 1C will be retired from service at the end of 2023 without immediate replacement. (Royal Navy)
The UK Royal Navy (RN) faces an extended gap in its heavyweight over-the-horizon anti-surface warfare (ASuW) capability after plans for a limited buy of ship-launched anti-ship missile systems was abandoned.
Industry was formally notified by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) earlier this month that the Interim Surface-to-Surface Guided Weapon (I-SSGW) programme had been cancelled. This decision came despite a commitment in the March 2021 Defence Command Paper to procure a replacement for the RN's legacy ship-launched Boeing Harpoon Block 1C missile.
Harpoon Block 1C and its associated GWS 60 ship system are fitted to a number of Type 23 frigates. However, warstock obsolescence means that Harpoon will retired from RN service at the end of 2023.
01 May 2024
by Michael Fabey
The US Navy has begun to improve its current public shipyards, such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, shown here. (US Navy)
A new labour agreement signed on 29 April that seeks to build a rotational workforce of skilled welders could eventually serve as template for a national workforce arrangement for work on naval ships, according to Edward L Bartlett Jr, founder and CEO of Bartlett Maritime Corporation (BMC) – the company that brokered the deal.
The impetus for the rotational welders was a plan to use such a workforce to work on naval ships in Charleston, South Carolina, Bartlett told Janes in an interview on 29 April.
BMC hopes to prove out the concept through the recentlysigned labour deal and similar follow-on agreements. BMC has also proposed to construct and operate component repair facilities in northeast Ohio with an option to build a new public naval shipyard in Charleston.
01 May 2024
by Kate Tringham
RFA Cardigan Bay will support the US military personnel by providing temporary offshore accommodation as they build a new temporary pier to deliver aid directly into Gaza. (UK MoD/Crown Copyright)
The UK Royal Navy's (RN's) Bay-class landing ship dock auxiliary (LSD(A)) vessel Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Cardigan Bay (L 3009) has been deployed to the coast of Gaza where it will provide support to US military building a new temporary floating pier that will facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid into the country directly by sea, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.
Cardigan Bay , which is en route to Gaza from Cyprus, will provide temporary offshore accommodation for personnel working on the offshore pier project, the MoD said.
The initiative will enable cargo ships to deliver pre-screened aid from Cyprus directly to the pier, where it will be loaded onto trucks to transfer across Gaza. It forms part of wider international efforts to expand the delivery of aid into Gaza and will complement efforts to get more aid in via land routes and the Port of Ashdod.
US military vessels, including USNS Benavidez,
30 April 2024
by Kate Tringham
The Belgian Navy's Modernised M (Karel Doorman)-class frigate BNS Louise-Marie (F 931) will join the EU's maritime security mission ‘Aspides' in the Red Sea in the coming week. (Guy Toremans)
The Belgian Navy's Modernised M (Karel Doorman)-class frigate BNS Louise-Marie (F 931) has been declared operationally ready to participate in the European Union's (EU's) maritime security missions in the Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz following a period of extended preparatory training in the Mediterranean, the service has announced.
Louise-Marie was originally scheduled to transit through the Suez Canal to join the EU's ‘Aspides' mission to protect commercial shipping in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden on 12 April. However, on 13 April the Belgian Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the deployment had been postponed ‘indefinitely' to address technical issues that had occurred during training the previous week. During the incident, one of the ship's RIM-7 M/P Sea Sparrow surface-to-air (SAM) missiles failed to launch, remaining stuck in the launch tube, and several other weapon systems also failed to shoot down the practice drone.
The UK Royal Navy (RN) faces an extended gap in its heavyweight over-the-horizon anti-surface warfar...
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