USS Swallow (AM-65) was an Auk-class minesweeper built for the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was the second U.S. Navy ship named after the swallow. Swallow earned two battle stars for World War II service. She was sunk by a kamikaze aircraft off Okinawa on 22 April 1945. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 June 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Swallow_(AM-65)
Australian Army soldiers Lance Corporal Selina Schlimmer and Corporal Ash Werner drive the lead Hawkei light protected mobility vehicle across the Tasman Bridge from Hobart Airport to Derwent Barracks on Friday, 23 February 2024. Photo: Corporal Michael Currie
Four new Australian Army Hawkei light protected mobility vehicles have touched down at Hobart Airport as the first Hawkei vehicles delivered to Tasmania.
A Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III aircraft from RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland delivered the vehicles to Hobart Airport in Tasmania on Friday, 23 February.
The vehicles were welcomed by Australian Army personnel from 12th/40 Battalion, Royal Tasmania Regiment, and other 4th Brigade units. Officials at the event included Commander of 2nd Australian Division Major General David Thomae and Commander of 4th Brigade Brigadier Michelle Campbell.
The vehicles have since travelled across the Tasman Bridge to the Australian Army’s Derwent Barracks in Glenorchy.
The Hawkei protected mobility vehicle – designed and built in Bendigo, Victoria, by Thales Australia, a subsidiary of the French defence company Thales Group – provides survivability, mobility, useability, payload, sustainability, and communications for the Australian Defence Force.
Construction and career
Mistral at the military port of Toulon in 2006
Mistral began sea trials in January 2005, and was commissioned in February 2006. She departed from Toulon for her first long-range journey in March, sailing through the Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, and the Red Sea to Djibouti and India, before returning to France. In July, to ensure the safety of European citizens in the context of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, France set up Opération Baliste. Mistral was the flagship of the fleet unit off Lebanon, escorted by the frigates Jean Bart and Jean de Vienne, and along with another amphibious assault ship, Siroco.
On 16 May 2008, the Burmese United Nations (UN) ambassador accused France of deploying Mistral to the Burmese coast for military purposes. The French UN ambassador denied this, stating that she was instead carrying 1,500 tons of relief supplies.[1]
In March 2011 Mistral was deployed to Libyan waters to help aid the joint NATO effort to repatriate tens of thousands of Egyptian refugees fleeing the violence in Libya.[2]
In January 2013, escorted by Chevalier Paul, Mistral took part in the ill-fated operation to retrieve Denis Allex,[3] a DGSE officer held hostage in Bulo Marer.
On 22 May 2022, Mistral, operating in the Gulf of Guinea in conjunction with the La Fayette-class frigate, Courbet, was involved in the seizure of almost two tons of drugs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Mistral_(L9013)
Ordered under the 1936 Naval Programme, she was laid down at the Vickers-Armstrong shipyard at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937 and launched two years later in 1939. Her commissioning was delayed until 1941 due to the greater need for escort vessels for service in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Her service in 1941 and 1942 included famous actions against the battleship Bismarck, several Arctic convoys, and Operation Pedestal. She was loaned to the United States Navy in 1943 and served in the south west Pacific as part of the Third Fleet. In 1944 Victorious contributed to several attacks on the Tirpitz. The elimination of the German naval threat allowed her redeployment first to the Eastern Fleet at Colombo and then to the Pacific for the final actions of the war against Japan.
After the war, her service was broken by periods in reserve and, between 1950 and 1958, the most complete reconstruction of any Royal Navy carrier. This involved the construction of new superstructure above the hangar deck level, a new angled flight deck,[1] new boilers and the fitting of Type 984 radar and data links and heavy shipboard computers, able to track 50 targets and assess their priority for interrogation and interception. The reduction of Britain’s naval commitment in 1967, the end of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation, and a fire while under refit, prompted her final withdrawal from service, three to five years early, and she was scrapped in 1969.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victorious_(R38)
She was launched 28 September 1901 by Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, sponsored by “Miss R. Hanna” (probably Ruth Hanna McCormick), and commissioned 2 November 1903, with Commander William Henry Hudson Southerland in command.
Service history
The Cleveland cruised with the European Squadron, in West Indies and Cuban waters, along the east coast between Hampton Roads and Boston, and on a midshipmen training cruise until 17 May 1907. She then sailed from New York via Gibraltar, Port Said, Aden, Colombo and Singapore to Cavite, arriving 1 August 1907. After three years on the Asiatic station, the Cleveland returned to Mare Island Navy Yard 1 August 1910. Decommissioned 3 August 1910, she was placed in second reserve 8 April 1912, and returned to full commission 31 August 1912.[4]
The Cleveland alternated patrols in waters off Mexico and Central America with reserve periods at Mare Island Navy Yard between 1912 and 1917, protecting American lives and interests from the turmoil of revolution. On 31 March 1917, she arrived at Hampton Roads, and from 9 April to 22 June, patrolled from Cape Hatteras to Charleston. Assigned to escort convoys to a mid-ocean meeting point, the Cleveland made seven voyages between June 1917 and December 1918.[4] In November 1919, Cleveland returned the body of former Salvadoran president Carlos Meléndez (who had died in New York in August 1919) to La Libertad, El Salvador.[5]
USS Cleveland
Returning to patrols off Central and South America, the Cleveland was assigned to the Pacific Fleet once more from 16 February 1920, returning to Caribbean waters from time to time. She was reclassified CL-21 on 8 August 1921. During her continued service in the Caribbean and along the South American coasts, the Cleveland made courtesy calls, supported diplomatic activities, gave disaster relief, and represented American interests in troubled areas. She was decommissioned at Boston 1 November 1929, and sold for scrapping 7 March 1930 in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty limiting naval armament.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cleveland_(C-19)
January 18, 2024, by Fatima Bahtić
Austal has revealed that USNS Cody (EPF-14) has been delivered to the US Navy.
Constructed at Austal USA’s Mobile Alabama shipyard, EPF-14 is the first ‘Flight II’ Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) ship that features enhanced medical facilities and naval medicine afloat capabilities that will provide critical combat care in austere and contested operating environments.
Austal Limited Chief Executive Officer Paddy Gregg said the ‘Flight II’ EPF’s provide a Role 2E medical capability that allows surgeons to perform medical procedures in an onboard operating suite, underway.
“Cody is the US Navy’s first EPF to include enhanced medical facilities that enable a broader range of surgical procedures to be undertaken at sea, with 2 operating rooms and an onboard pharmacy, blood bank and laboratory to support missions,” Gregg said.
“The Flight II variants also have the added capability to support V-22 Osprey flight operations and launch and recover 11 metre RHIB’s.”
Austal USA and the Navy’s Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) program team completed acceptance trials of EPF 14 in the Gulf of Mexico in December 2023. The vessel was christened in February 2023.
Built by ‘Vickers-Armstrong’, Barrow & launched on 29th July 1945 as LST 3044. Named HMS Narvik in 1947. She was flagship of the British Task Force for the Atomic Bomb tests in Monte Bello Islands in May 1956.
She became a ‘Submarine Support Ship’ at Chatham & then, in 1960, became a Depot Ship to the 108th Minesweeping Squadron in Malta.
In 1965 she moved to Faslane to become an accommodation ship as the new Clyde Naval Base was being built. She was berthed inside MAIDSTONE during 1966-68.
Broken up probably in 1970’s
