The Royal Navy had held on to old, decommissioned hulls for reserve purposes for years. This surplus tonnage is now to be rapidly reduced, as it also costs personnel, money, time and berths. The British Ministry of Defence's disposal company has drawn up a five-year plan for this and will begin selling four ships this year...
At the end of August - as the defence ministers of Belgium and the Netherlands announced on their social media channels on the fringes of the EU defence ministers' meeting in Toledo - France finally joined their joint rMCM minesweeper programme. The development was not entirely unexpected: the navies of the three countries have been operating mine warfare units since the 1980s as part of...
The Kingdom of Denmark naturally also includes the Faroe Islands between Norway and Iceland as well as Greenland, which is over 50 times larger in area and part of the American continent (2166 million km2). Denmark has many years of experience in operating military ships in the Arctic Ocean. And because our northern neighbour is very flexible...
Towards the end of September, the Philippine Coast Guard discovered that China had deployed a floating barrier, initially 300 metres long, off Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, 200 kilometres off the coast of Manila, using coast guard inflatable boats and maritime militia forces. This was intended to prevent Philippine fishing vessels from reaching the...
Why only now? After Ukraine's self-built surface drones have repeatedly caused damage to the Russian aggressor's naval forces as far away as Novorossiysk at the other end of the Black Sea, a strategic rethink is now taking place - including in the media: in order to take preventive action against the threat posed by these naval drones, the...
You can do good with a hospital ship - and use it in a targeted manner - as you see fit. And China likes to do good in the South Pacific to those countries that have turned their backs on Taiwan and lend a sympathetic ear to the dragon. But this dragon is not a cuddly toy!
Sea levels are continuing to rise worldwide. Some countries are particularly affected by the consequences. A little-noticed consequence of the global heatwaves this year is the further rise in sea levels with all its consequences for humanity. Even without further global warming, global sea levels will continue to rise. According to a recent...
Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai launched the first guided missile frigate of the Jiangkai III class (Type 054B) at the end of August. With a length of 147 metres and a displacement of around 6000 tonnes, the all-electric successor to the Jiangkai II class (Type 054A) is definitely a new design, which is expected to deliver an impressive performance despite being 50 percent larger.
The STOCKHOLM made history with a collision off the American coast. After more than seven eventful decades at sea, the ship is now about to be scrapped. Today's ASTORIA is one of the last historic ocean liners and the oldest ocean cruise ship in the world. Although the SEA CLOUD from 1931 is older, it...
The US Coast Guard is making progress on the construction of the new heavy icebreaker class. Bollinger Shipyards began cutting the first steel plates for the first Polar Security Cutter (PSC) class unit at Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding in August. The type ship, the POLAR SENTINEL (PSC-1), is the first heavy icebreaker in 50 years to...