Category: Headlines

Hypersonic weapons: fast to the target

Russia, China and, more recently, North Korea already claim to have hypersonic weapons. Now the US armed forces are also pushing ahead with the development of such missiles. The US armed forces have been endeavouring to develop hypersonic weapons for around 15 years. In 2019, it was decided to accelerate American research and testing in view of the development of hypersonic weapons in Russia and China. According to the Pentagon, the introduction of these missiles, which can reach more than Mach 5, is now on the horizon. The Pentagon's development programmes fall into two categories: hypersonic cruise missiles and stratospheric glide missiles. The cruise missiles achieve their flight speed using a supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet for short. Air is...

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Changing chairs in the navy

Soon to be Inspector Navy: Vice Admiral Jan C. Kaack - As already reported on marineforum.online, Inspector General Eberhard Zorn will hand over command of the German Navy to Vice Admiral Jan Christian Kaack on 11 March 2022. Jan Christian Kaack is currently Commander of the Fleet and Support Forces and Deputy Inspector General of the Navy. He has been in temporary command of the navy since the end of January. Born in Eutin, he gained command experience on fast patrol boats, destroyers, frigates and as an operations and training officer in the French Navy on board the French training ship Jeanne d'Arc. From 2003 to 2004, he was commander of the frigate "Bayern", which recently returned successfully from the Indo-Pacific. Post as officer in charge...

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Update: "Not during our watch!"

As previously reported, the German Navy is stepping up its activities on NATO's northern flank as a result of current developments and for reasons of alliance solidarity. On 28 February, the minehunting boats "Sulzbach-Rosenberg" and "Homburg", the minesweeper "Siegburg" and the tender "Elbe" departed for the Baltic Sea. In addition, the minesweepers "Datteln" and "Fulda" set off on the morning of 1 March. "Our signal is clear: not during our watch!" said the commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Jan C. Kaack. On Saturday, 26 February, the corvette "Erfurt", originally intended for deployment as part of UNIFIL (off Lebanon), was commissioned in the presence of Parliamentary State Secretary...

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Ukraine has sunk its flagship in the harbour

A short message and the sad picture of a half-sunken frigate dated 3 March 2022 are seen as proof that the Ukrainian navy sank its flagship "Hetman Sagaidachny" itself. The Ukrainian defence minister has apparently confirmed this action. The 3,500-tonne Krivak III-class ship was originally built at a shipyard in Kerch on the east coast of the island of Crimea as the last of the eight Krivaks intended for the Soviet coast guard and was put into Ukrainian service in 1993. The 30-year-old frigate was undergoing repairs in one of the three large shipyards in the harbour city of Mykolaiv,...

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Poland: Decision in the Miecznik project

Babcock's Arrowhead 140 was awarded the contract in the Polish frigate procurement programme Projekt Miecznik. This was announced by the Polish Ministry of Defence via twitter on 4 March 2022. The consortium responsible for the construction, led by the holding Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), announced that "strategic cooperation agreements" had been concluded with Babcock and British branches of Thales and MBDA. PGZ added that the signing of the contract "begins the phase of preparation for production under the programme to acquire three multi-purpose frigates for the Polish Navy". Poland initially wants to build just one frigate from 2023. After commissioning in 2028, the concept is to be...

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