Category: Magazine

Russia strengthens Black Sea fleet with Karakurt-class ships

Russia - The 18-boat construction programme of Project 22800, the KARAKURT class (60 m, 800 t), currently stands at 16 units laid down, four of which are in service, two are undergoing trials, five have been launched and five are under construction. Following the commissioning of one of the small missile ships for the Baltic Fleet at the end of 2018, 2019 and 2020, the fourth has now followed: At the Zaliv naval shipyard in Kerch on the island of Crimea, the ZYKLON, the first naval vessel in years, was put into service in mid-July. With ASKOLD (undergoing trials) and AMUR (launched at the end of...

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French Naval Group seeks partnership with Philippines for submarine modernisation

Following the cancellation of the Australian submarine contract, the French Naval Group is turning to new potential customers. This time, the state-owned defence contractor senses an opportunity in the Philippines. The island state has just painstakingly freed itself from America's almost eternal grip. Now, however, with its weak and outdated armed forces, it sees itself exposed as the first island in the face of the aggressive territorial and power claims of the Chinese armed forces and their paramilitary organisations in the South China Sea. However, one can only assert one's own legitimate and internationally recognised territorial claims through a robust maritime presence. Inexplicably, the Philippine navy tends to compensate for its weakness in the surface area by building up...

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The specialists

The Kiel-based shipyard group Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems is celebrating a milestone birthday. Founded 185 years ago as the iron foundry and machine shop "Schweffel und Howaldt", the company can look back on an eventful shipyard history. On 1 October 1838, the merchant Johann Schweffel and the "mechanic" August Ferdinand Howaldt founded the Schweffel & Howaldt machine factory and iron foundry at the port of Kiel. This was also the beginning of Kiel's industrialisation. The young company expanded rapidly with a wide range of products from ploughs, boilers and iron household items to railway carriages. Schweffel & Howaldt did not actually plan to build ships. However, during the time of the Schleswig-Holstein uprising, the company built...

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India and Vietnam against Chinese advance

In order to contain China's advance in the Indo-Pacific zone, India handed over the Kirpan, an FK corvette of the Khukri class (91 m, 1500 tonnes), to the Vietnamese navy. This was preceded by a USD 100 million loan, which Vietnam used to buy twelve high-speed coast guard boats in India, and a mutual agreement on the exchange of personnel and the joint use of military logistics and infrastructure. These are both fundamentally new aspects of Southeast Asian integration in the region. Chinese units are increasingly appearing off Vietnam's coast to back up unlawful territorial claims. In the Indian hinterland, Chinese troops are deployed in the Kashmir region and in the neighbouring countries of Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, large-scale Chinese port construction...

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Paraguay's historic navy and the comeback of the CAÑONERO

Paraguay - The country, which is only accessible via the Rio Paraguay and is cut off from the open sea, has a very small but illustrious navy. The units are all quite old. The headlines are therefore usually only made by the traditional ship of the Paraguayans, the HUMAITÁ, a 70-metre-long, 850-tonne gunboat that has been moored firmly on the banks of the Bahía de Asunción since December. That is why, as the commander of the Paraguayan navy assured us, it cannot really run aground and possibly sink as the navy's pride and joy, despite its heavy list. Whipped up by the storm and...

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