Category: Marines from all over the world

Senegal: New patrol boats for Dakar at last

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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Technical vulnerability of Russian units - Are the sanctions taking effect?

Ukraine keeps meticulous records of all incidents in the navy of the Russian Federation. In early June, for example, Kiev reported an engine fire on the Udaloy-class submarine destroyer ADMIRAL LEVCHENKO (project 1155, 164 metres, 8,500 tonnes) of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea, even though this ship would never be expected in the Black Sea. Although not yet confirmed by Russia, the damage on board does not appear to be insignificant. However, another aspect is more important: the engines built in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, in the 1980s have not been able to be supplied with original parts and manufacturer expertise since 2014 anyway, but due to the sanctions against Russia...

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"Bulava" nuclear missile completes Russia's strategic triad

On 7 May, the day he took up his fifth term of office in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin handed over the "commissioning certificate" for the new strategic nuclear weapon RSM-56 Bulava - the "mace" - to the navy. A generation of strategic weapons on board various submarines dating back to the early 1980s with logistically complex, different propulsion systems in initially liquid and then solid form (SS-N-18, SS-N-23) had actually necessitated a new development at the turn of the millennium. However, initial design successes, including in Ukrainian armouries, were followed by misfires, which led to a new development based on the vehicle-borne nuclear weapons of the Topol series. This approach also failed...

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Submarines for Indonesia: shopping tour in Paris

This purchase had also been in the pipeline for some time: at the end of March, Jakarta ordered two submarines of the "Scorpène Evolved" type from the Naval Group and its local shipbuilding partner PT PAL. which will be offered exclusively for export. After the somewhat larger boats of the Brazilian Riachuelo class, these would be the first ever models of the newer boat type to actually be built! It is not yet clear which model the island state has chosen, which comes in variants of 60 to 76 metres in length and 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes displacement (submerged). After the first two boats, there is still an option for four more, so that...

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England: Big plans for the Royal Navy

Since 2017, the UK has had a National Shipbuilding Strategy, which Boris Johnson refreshed in 2022, and which was given a further boost by Rishi Sunak, who had resigned as Prime Minister, to coincide with the election campaign ahead of the UK general election. According to this paper - and it first has to prove that it is more than that - the United Kingdom is to become the "most competitive maritime nation" by 2050. Up to 28 new ships are to be built for the Royal Navy in order to halt and reverse the current serious shrinking trend. To this end, 75 billion pounds (85 billion euros) have just been proclaimed, which...

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