The effects of the accident in the Suez Canal can still be felt today. What are the limits for navigating rivers and canals with container giants? The container giant Ever Given attracted worldwide attention when it capsized on 23 March at around 14:40 (UTC) while passing through the Suez Canal, which is only 300 metres...
Comment I would like to say in advance: This commentary is not a criticism of the Bayern's voyage. I have great respect for the crew, who stood their ground during the seven-month voyage over the Christmas and New Year period and despite the uncertainties caused by the pandemic, which meant that the port calls were not educational voyages....
Germany is finally building another new research vessel, the METEOR IV. The contract has been awarded to an unusual shipyard consortium. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has commissioned the Fassmer and Meyer shipyards to build a new research vessel. A press release issued by the ministry on 21 January reveals that the ship will be...
The naval base of Sevastopol on the south-western tip of Crimea has been the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet since the 18th century. This fleet is part of the former Imperial Russian Navy, or the Soviet naval fleet until 1991, and since then the naval forces of the Russian Federation. Although it is the smallest of the four fleets of the Russian...
President Barack Obama's administration had already turned its attention to the Indo-Pacific region. The pivot to Asia continues to influence American policy to this day. In a speech to the Australian Parliament in November 2011, then US President Barack Obama announced the US's pivot towards Asia: a new focus on the Indo-Pacific region.
After reunification in 1990, Germany's navy suddenly had hundreds of boats and ships at its disposal. Many of them were dispensable for political purposes and were sold or utilised worldwide. At the end of the Cold War in 1990, the Bundesmarine was a powerful and operationally ready navy capable of high-intensity combat. The mission of the...
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 - in view of the development of hypersonic weapons in Russia and China - an acceleration...
Dependence on Russia and no way out? A column It was 2018, and since then there has been optimistic talk of future terminals at all maritime conferences. At the VSM conference in 2019, we repeatedly heard that things were getting underway in Brunsbüttel. Then came the National Maritime Conference: even the German Chancellor was reading from the page...
In its new annual report, the Naval Command describes Germany's dependence on safe sea routes. The little-known importance of the maritime industry is also emphasised. In his foreword to the Naval Command's 2021 annual report on Germany's maritime dependency, Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach shows why Germany is not dependent on secure maritime routes.
With its expansionist ambitions, China is turning more and more nations against itself and fuelling fear in the region. This leads to the formation of security co-operations. China's aggressive expansionist policy is increasingly turning the Indo-Pacific region into the theatre of a global political conflict that is primarily maritime in nature. In the South China Sea, from which China has been...
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