Category: Magazine

Germany's nuclear ship

Germany's nuclear ship

Gepostet von | 19 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

The OTTO HAHN was launched 60 years ago. The much-noticed ship was powered by a nuclear reactor. Germany has phased out nuclear power. The issue seems to have been put to bed. A different mood prevailed in the 1950s, when the Federal Republic was still young. The USA and the Soviet Union faced each other as nuclear powers, while at the same time US President Dwight D. Eisenhower had invoked the peaceful use of nuclear power in a famous speech. This zeitgeist also reached Germany, according to cultural scientist Katharina Bothe: "Nuclear energy was to be the technology of the future." CSU politician Franz Josef Strauß headed the newly founded Federal Ministry for Nuclear Affairs, and money flowed into the...

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Long live the king!

Long live the king!

Gepostet von | 18 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

The striking Sea King has been flying for the German Navy since 1974. Over the past five decades, the helicopter has proven its flexibility and reliability - especially when rescuing people at sea. Hurricane-like storms with wind speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour swept in from the Atlantic through the English Channel and piled up waves up to 20 metres high. On the rocky south coast of Cornwall, a house-high surf broke with deafening thunder and roar. The paths and roads in the south-west of the island were largely deserted. All airfields in the south of England had been closed. Even the...

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Spain: New-build F-110 frigate ahead of schedule

Spain: New-build F-110 frigate ahead of schedule

Gepostet von | 17 Sep 2024 | , , | 2

Since April 2019, the state-owned Navantia shipyard has had a contract with the Spanish Navy for the construction of five F-110 multi-purpose frigates - first delivery in 2028, worth around 4.4 billion euros. Special new features of this type of ship are the block production in 33 hull sections introduced for the first time at Navantia and a land-based "digital twin", which each ship will receive in the sense of modern system management. Shipbuilding work on the type ship, the Almirante Bonifaz (F-111), began at Navantia in Ferrol in 2022 and is now allowing a critical look at the schedule. As expected, delays and delivery bottlenecks are usually explained verbosely and flowerily. Not so...

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Regulatory zeal

Regulatory zeal

Gepostet von | 16 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

Over the past few years, the mountain of regulations in the Bundeswehr has continued to swell. It is the soldiers on board the ships and boats who suffer. A submarine driver needs a certain training course in order to maintain his professional usability. On arrival, it is discovered that one of the required company medical certificates is no longer valid. The soldier nevertheless agrees to take part voluntarily, despite the supposed risks involved. However, the person responsible for the course does not want to make himself vulnerable and refers to the applicable regulations. In the end, the soldier loses his fitness to serve because he misses a briefing lasting just a few minutes. Examples like this make it clear that access...

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Senegal: New patrol boats for Dakar at last

Senegal: New patrol boats for Dakar at last

Gepostet von | 13 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

Walo, Niani and Cayor are Senegal's three newly built OPV 58S for Maritime Defence and State Action at Sea missions along its 300 kilometres of coastline. Piriou Group, a privately owned shipyard group based on the south coast of French Brittany, has delivered these three 62-metre multi-purpose vessels to the West African coastal state fully equipped and has once again proven itself to be a competent manufacturer of small but well-equipped guard boats. Just over four years have passed since the contract was signed until all three boats and their trained crews were transferred to Dakar within the last nine months. Equipped with Marte sea target FK, Simbad/Mistral air defence and...

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