Category: Magazine

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

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

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 On arrival, it is discovered that one of the required company medical certificates is no longer valid.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

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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Strengthening maritime co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region and the role of Japan

With an increasingly aggressive China, westernised Japan has an important role to play in the Indo-Pacific. Under its leadership, a collective security alliance could be created in the region. I retired from the Japanese Self-Defence Forces in 2009 after serving as Chief of Staff of the General Staff. Fifteen years have passed since then, and during that time a tsunami caused a major disaster in eastern Japan. There was also a global pandemic caused by Covid-19. Humanity still does not have the wisdom or the ability to control and prevent such major disasters. On the other hand, we believed that...

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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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