Category: Magazine

Calling challenges by name

Calling challenges by name

Posted by | 23 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

For almost a decade, the Baltic Commanders' Conference has provided a platform for western Baltic Sea neighbours to exchange experiences. The aim is also to jointly implement projects. Kiel-Wik naval base, middle of the last decade. Two flag officers, both former speedboat drivers and therefore at home in the Baltic Sea, one commander of the fleet, the other flotilla commander, stand in the staff building of Flotilla 1 and look out over the berths at the base. There are far too few boats to practise demanding scenarios on their own in addition to their ongoing duties. Too little capacity to organise complex, multi-dimensional training projects. Admittedly, this is not a fundamentally new...

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Innovation driver for naval warfare

Innovation driver for naval warfare

Posted by | 20 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

This year's Baltops manoeuvre took place in the Baltic Sea in June. This was the first time that the German Navy led a naval unit with multinational participation as a Commander Task Force. After two intensive weeks, the 53rd edition of the Baltic Operations manoeuvre, Baltops for short, came to an end on 20 June. This is the most important and largest multinational maritime military exercise in the Baltic Sea region. This year's exercise was a prime example of the close military and security co-operation between Germany and its NATO allies. Under the leadership of the US Naval Forces Europe-Africa and the 6th Fleet of the US Navy, 20 nations demonstrated together with the new NATO members...

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Germany's nuclear ship

Germany's nuclear ship

Posted by | 19 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

The OTTO HAHN was launched 60 years ago. The much-noticed ship was powered by a nuclear reactor. Germany has phased out nuclear power. The issue seems to have been put to bed. A different mood prevailed in the 1950s, when the Federal Republic was still young. The USA and the Soviet Union faced each other as nuclear powers, while at the same time US President Dwight D. Eisenhower had invoked the peaceful use of nuclear power in a famous speech. This zeitgeist also reached Germany, according to cultural scientist Katharina Bothe: "Nuclear energy was to be the technology of the future." CSU politician Franz Josef Strauß headed the newly founded Federal Ministry for Nuclear Affairs, and money flowed into the...

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Long live the king!

Long live the king!

Posted by | 18 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

The striking Sea King has been flying for the German Navy since 1974. Over the past five decades, the helicopter has proven its flexibility and reliability - especially when rescuing people at sea. Hurricane-like storms with wind speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour swept in from the Atlantic through the English Channel and piled up waves up to 20 metres high. On the rocky south coast of Cornwall, a house-high surf broke with deafening thunder and roar. The paths and roads in the south-west of the island were largely deserted. All airfields in the south of England had been closed. Even the...

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

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

Posted by | 17 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

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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