The country in the interior of the South American continent - one of two states without direct access to the sea - relies heavily on its navy to secure its borders, as around 60% of its national border lies in the centre of the Paraguay, Parana, Apa and Pilcomayo rivers. However, Paraguay is also considered...

Ten years ago, the Pakistani navy ordered a total of eight diesel-electric submarines as a slightly smaller export version of the Chinese Yuan class from the Wuchang shipyard in Wuhan (type 039B, 78 metres, 3,200 tonnes). Four of the boats will be delivered directly from Wuhan, while a further four are being built in Pakistan at Karachi Shipyards & Engineering...

They are 143 metres long and displace 6,300 tonnes - but are considered multi-purpose patrol vessels and consequently bear a "P" in front of the hull number as their type designation. The first versions of the Italian Thaon di Revel class were built in the "light" configuration FFBNW - Fitted For But Not With, i.e. prepared for the installation of...

At the end of the 1990s, the first three Grigorovich-class frigates were ordered in Russia (project 1135.6, 125 metres, 4,000 tonnes), known as the Talwar class for India. Further batches have since been ordered, so that this class now comprises ten units. At the same time, India developed the three larger frigates of the Shivalik class from this type...

All is not well in the Falkland Islands! The UK's latest National Security Strategy "Security for the British People in a Dangerous World" mentions the archipelago off the southern tip of Argentina in connection with vulnerable sea areas such as the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Taiwan Strait - and by the way...

With British industrial support, the Royal Navy has taken a significant step in the development of autonomous submarines: the prototype submarine XV "Excalibur" operating off Plymouth was controlled from a command centre 16,000 kilometres away in Australia. As an unmanned underwater vehicle of the extra-large class (XLUUV), "Excalibur" is still just an unarmed demonstrator from the British company MSubs,...

Chinese flotilla in the Bering Strait: In mid-August, five Chinese research vessels operated near Alaska for the first time - alerting the US Navy and US Coast Guard. The Bering Strait is barely 70 kilometres wide - between the virtually uninhabited Russian Naukan and the American Wales in Alaska, which has a small airfield and...

At the major arms show DSEI (Defence & Security Equipment International) in London at the beginning of September, Brazil signed the contract to take over the ex-HMS Bulwark (LPD Albion class, 176 metres, 18,500 tonnes) - which had already been announced at the beginning of the year in the form of a bilateral MoU. The amphibious dock landing ship can look back on an eventful...

Since 2022, the Royal Australian Navy and Californian drone manufacturer Anduril have been funding and developing an XL-AUV (Extra-Large Autonomous Undersea Vehicle), which they call the "Ghost Shark". Three prototypes were to be built and trialled within three years - and the timeframe was actually missed! Now, at the beginning of September, Anduril Australia...

In Washington, the strong man on the Orinoco is seen as the mastermind behind the drug cartels Sinaloa (Mexico) and Tren de Agua / Cartel de los Soles (Venezuela) and the bounty was quickly doubled to 50 million dollars. Afterwards, there were plenty of oaths of allegiance to Nicolás Maduro from senior military officers. Of which, however...

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