Category: Marines from all over the world

Argentina: Maritime surveillance with Norwegian P3 Orion

The Argentinian navy has already been able to significantly expand its maritime surveillance capabilities with the purchase of the four French Adroit OPVs alone. In order to complete this further, Argentina is now purchasing four Lockheed P-3C/Ns that have been decommissioned in Norway for around 60 million euros. The P-3N, which is equipped more for Norwegian SAR tasks, differs from the three P-3C sub-hunting aircraft in terms of the sensors installed - but none of them will be allowed to keep their NATO-compatible data link systems. Argentina hopes to be able to procure such systems elsewhere. The USA agreed to this transfer, just as it agreed to the transfer of 24 Danish F-16 Fighting Falcons for the Argentinian air force...

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Regionally rooted, globally committed!

For the German Navy, too, this means a return to a focus on national and alliance defence. In an interview with marineforum, Vice Admiral Frank Lenski, Commander of the Fleet and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, talks about the resulting willingness to take on responsibility, current problems and the importance of reserve service personnel. Admiral, how do you currently assess the situation on NATO's northern maritime flank - especially with regard to the Baltic Sea? As you know, NATO's northern flank is our operational centre of gravity. It already was, but our presence here has been further strengthened. In the Baltic Sea in particular, we have everything...

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Spain: Armada aims to expand its fleet to 12 frigates

The Armada currently has eleven frigates: Six slightly modified replicas of the American OLIVER H. PERRY frigates of the SANTA MARIA class (F80, 138 metres, 4,000 tonnes) from the 1980s/90s and five frigates of the ALVARO DE BAZÁN class (F100, 146 metres, 6,200 tonnes, German-Dutch-Spanish design, built by Navantia) from 2002 to 2012. As the newbuildings of the BONIFAZ class (F110, similar to the new American CONSTELLATION class) planned to replace the six ships of the SANTA MARIA class have so far only been planned in the amount of five units, an important flagship would be lost in the total number. In order to counter this development, the Spanish Navy has now launched the...

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Spain: Tactical drones from Alpha Unmanned Systems

Not only large companies are benefiting from the significant increase in Spanish defence spending, but also the small drone manufacturer Alpha Unmanned Systems (AUS), based in San Sebastián de los Reyes north of Madrid. It manufactures the Alfa 900 miniature unmanned helicopter, which the Spanish Navy was able to demonstrate to the partner nations during this year's NATO manoeuvres in operational use, both in terms of integrated data exchange and integration into the command and control system. The demonstrator platform was the FUROR (P-46), which as an OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel - Buque de Acción Marítima (BAM)) was ideal for initial trials and integration. All elements...

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Spanish Navy acquires multi-purpose tug OCEAN OSPREY

The OCEAN OSPREY (67 metres, 2,300 tonnes) was purchased by the Spanish Navy's Logistics Command from the shipping company Navaleva SL in mid-September for around 15 million euros in order to be available in future as a multi-purpose logistics vessel and tug for the Armada from the Ferrol Naval Arsenal (north-west Spain). Ten years ago, the Norwegian supply service provider Atlantic commissioned the construction of the ship at a Basque shipyard for 25 million euros. Declining demand for fossil fuels and a generational change in the floating energy park maintenance platforms have caused the value of these ships to fall, but at the same time the need for support units in the armed forces has increased. The new tasks...

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