Category: Magazine

Russia - its own limpet mines are becoming a problem

Since the beginning of the year, there have been increasing reports of explosions on or in Russian ships in the Mediterranean, but also in the Baltic Sea. According to various sources, these incidents are mostly due to limpet mines, of which there were - and apparently still are - considerable stocks in Soviet times, particularly in countries of the Eastern Bloc. The only surprising thing is that these now appear to be used against the manufacturer. Everything is in the subjunctive, because precise information is understandably scarce. In most cases, the victims had previously stayed in Russian harbours. A prominent example is the "Ursa Major", which sank in December not far from Gibraltar...

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Russia - refloats battleship

This year, the now 40-year-old heavy missile cruiser "Admiral Nakhimov" (battle cruiser), the sister ship of the "Pyotr Velikiy", is to resume its test voyages after a 25-year laytime at the shipyard. This news was published shortly after the commissioning of the second propulsion reactor at Sevmash (Mechanical Engineering Company of the North) in Severodvinsk on the White Sea, behind the Kola Peninsula. Sevmash is the centre for nuclear ship propulsion in Russia. The latest missile and air defence systems, such as launch silos for Kalibr, Onyx and the Tsyklon hypersonic weapon, as well as the Pantsir-M and Fort-M systems, were also installed there. But what sense does this giant ship (Kirov class, 252 metres, 25,000 tonnes) make when newly built corvettes of the...

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Colombia - Four women's frigates with Saab technology

Four frigates are on Colombia's order list. They were ordered from Damen Naval - the ships of the SIGMA 10514 design are to be built in a slightly longer version 10714CO (107 metres, 2,800 tonnes) at Cotecmar in Cartagena on the northern coast of the Caribbean. The programme is called the "Strategic Surface Platform" and plans to hand over the first units to the Colombian Navy by 2030. Damen is supplying the technical components, engineering expertise and accompanying technical support - welding and assembly will take place directly in Cartagena. The modular design of the SIGMA frigates has already been successfully used in projects in Indonesia (Martadinata class, two units) and Mexico (Reformador class, two units).

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A spirit of optimism between the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea

The modern units of the Saudi Navy. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (al-Mamlaka al-ʿarabīya as-saʿūdīya) is an absolute monarchy that occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The country, which has been undergoing a major social upheaval for several years, is one of the richest states in the world. Saudi Arabia, which has a population of just under 37 million, has a predominantly modern armed forces that are among the most powerful in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia is the largest military power on the Arabian Peninsula itself). The armed forces of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (al-Quwwāt al-musallaḥa al-malakiyya as-saʿūdiyya) have five branches, consisting of the army, navy, air force, national guard...

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Iran - Spy ship for the Persian Gulf

After numerous hints and confusion, the Iranian navy officially unveiled its first nationally developed and built reconnaissance ship "Zagros" at the end of January. Here too - as is often the case in the Iranian shipbuilding programme - a tried and tested ship type was simply modified in order to fulfil new tasks: A Mowj-class corvette (95 metres, 1,500 tonnes) was stripped of all armament to make room for extended superstructures with SIGINT equipment and a small hangar for a helicopter - the exact role of which in electronic reconnaissance is not yet certain. It was probably not yet put into service at the time of the presentation because further...

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