Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan leaves Portsmouth after undergoing refit
Alex Candlin 11th May 2024 at 6:36pm
Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan has left her home port of Portsmouth following a refit period.
The Royal Navy confirmed the 152-metre vessel was leaving HMNB Portsmouth to carry out “routine post-maintenance activity”.
HMS Duncan returned home to Portsmouth in December, becoming the final Royal Navy warship to return to the UK in time for Christmas.
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The ship and her company had been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean for six months, leading a Nato task group in the region in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
There are six Daring-class Type 45s in the Royal Navy fleet – HMS Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Dragon, Defender and Duncan.
They are the Royal Navy’s air defence specialists, and in recent months have proven their worth in the Red Sea.
HMS Diamond, deployed to the region to protect merchant shipping, has shot down a number of Houthi drones and a missile using her Sea Viper missile system and guns.
RFA’s new underwater surveillance vessel snapped as she ties up alongside HMS Belfast
Alex Walters 13th May 2024 at 10:08am
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RFA Proteus, the first of a new generation of survey and surveillance ships, has arrived in London ahead of the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference.
Photographer Amy Savage managed to take some striking images of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel on the River Thames.
RFA Proteus, who was formally dedicated last year, started life as an oil rig support vessel and now serves as a testbed for technology to be used beneath the waves.
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RFA Proteus, named after the god of rivers and water in Greek mythology, is also used as a launchpad for remotely operated vehicles as well as some specialist capabilities similar to those of the oil and gas industry.
She carries a crew of 26 officers and sailors from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, as well as 60 Royal Navy personnel responsible for the undersea surveillance and survey and warfare systems.
The RFA vessel also comes with a flight deck, a 1,000 square metre cargo deck and a heavy-duty crane for lifting and lowering operations.
This year’s First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference is being organised and hosted by the Council on Geostrategy at Lancaster House.
It said: “This year’s conference will focus on a particularly important and long-term topic – the future of the Royal Navy, specifically its vision for 2040.
“The conference will aim not only to articulate, but also to deliver this vision by fostering a dialogue between the private and public sectors and by bringing together officers, officials, parliamentarians, industry, media and academia.”
The Council on Geostrategy is delighted to be hosting the First Sea Lord’s Sea Power Conference 2024!
In this video @StarychSam, our Director of Strategy, is at Lancaster House giving an overview of the conference 🇬🇧
Find out more @RoyalNavy#SPC2024 👉 https://t.co/g64ecG1Ro1pic.twitter.com/Z2ZUyenMPW— Council on Geostrategy (@ConGeostrategy) April 25, 2024
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Watch: The Download – all the top stories from across the military world
14th May 2024 at 2:50pm
Defence Secretary says six Multi Role Support Ships are to be built for Royal Marines operations, new US weapons arrive on Ukraine’s frontline and King Charles hands role over to Prince William – all this and more on The Download.
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HMS Spey teams up with South Korean ships and aircraft to patrol Korean Peninsula
14th May 2024 at 3:17pm
The Royal Navy and its South Korean counterpart have been carrying out patrols around the Korean Peninsula in a first-of-its-kind joint operation.
The operation follows the signing of the Downing Street Accord by the UK and Republic of Korea in November 2023 during the state visit by President Yoon Suk-Yeoul.
HMS Spey patrolled alongside the South Korean military as one of two British Offshore Patrol Vessels deployed in the Indo-Pacific as part of the UK’s permanent maritime presence in the region.
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“As well as cooperating on this important mission, I was thrilled that, alongside the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, we were able to develop greater interoperability and people-to-people links,” said Lieutenant Commander Kris White, the Executive Officer of HMS Spey.
“From the Korean War to today’s defence and security challenges, it was clear how like-minded we are, especially on the importance of maritime security and the free flow of trade.”
The Downing Street Accord is committed to bringing the UK and South Korea closer together, and enforces UN Security Council resolutions intended to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme.
Sea patrols aim to stop smugglers from helping North Korea develop nuclear weapons by enforcing international sanctions.
Apart from defence and security, the UK is on a mission to foster closer ties with South Korea in a wide range of fields, including trade and business, clean energy and climate.
The accord is in line with similar agreements with Singapore and Japan, as the UK seeks to consolidate its influence in the Indo-Pacific.
RN Commandos to get new amphibious warships with lessons learned from Ukraine
HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark will not be scrapped or mothballed before their planned out-of-service dates of 2033-2034
14th May 2024 at 11:22am
Up to six new amphibious warships for the Royal Marines are to be built in the UK, drawing on the lessons learned from the Ukraine war and the Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said the first three vessels would definitely be built for Royal Marines, with the other three planned to be constructed.
The vessels are known as Multi Role Support Ships (MRSS) – specialist warships that are designed to rapidly deliver the Commando Force onto coastlines around the world to conduct special operations.
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Speaking at the annual Sea Power Conference in central London, the Defence Secretary also announced that existing amphibious warfare ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark will not be scrapped or mothballed before their planned out-of-service dates of 2033-2034.
He told Forces News he was “very confident about… crossover times”.
“Not least because we’re going to keep the existing ships in place for our Royal Marines in the meantime,” he said.
“But the good thing about the multi-role design, just as with the Type-26… is they’re designed to be somewhat more modular in design, enabling them to be used in many different use cases.”
Additionally, the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key, said if the UK can “move quickly and confidently into contested waters” and is “prepared to do so”, that will become part of the “deterrence messaging” to potential enemies.
“That requires all the unique skill sets that we find in the Royal Marines Commandos today and building into the future as part of their transformation,” he said.
“But it also requires a means of getting them to work and, when they’re finished doing their work, picking them up and taking them on to the next jobs.”
According to Mr Shapps, the three confirmed MRSS vessels are among 28 warships and submarines that are either planned or currently being built.
He said: “This is a new golden age for British shipbuilding.
“The new vessels for the Royal Marines will help our brave commandos fight the conflicts of the future.
“This is all possible because this government has committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of the decade, as part of our plans to deliver a more secure future for you and your family.”
Russia’s Black Sea fleet has proved vulnerable to attacks from Ukrainian missiles and drones.
And in the Red Sea, Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen have used weapons to target merchant vessels and international warships protecting the vital trade routes.
In response, the MRSS vessels are designed to carry a broad range of unmanned drones along with vehicles, aircraft and insertion craft.
They will also be able to act as primary casualty receiving ships, providing urgent medical care.
Under the plans, Type 26 and Type 31 frigates will be built in Scotland, Astute and Dreadnought submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, and Fleet Solid Support ships in Belfast and Devon.
In line with the National Shipbuilding Strategy, there will be up to six MRSS built overall, which will replace current capabilities in the early 2030s.
This includes the two Landing Platform Docks, three Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliaries) and the Aviation Support Ship RFA Argus.
US Navy christens USNS Robert E. Simanek, fifth ship in ESB program
May 10, 2024, by Fatima Bahtić
General Dynamics NASSCO has held a naming ceremony for USNS Robert E. Simanek (ESB 7), the fifth ship for the U.S. Navy’s Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) program.
As informed, the ceremony took place on May 4, 2024. The ship is named for Private First Class Robert Ernest Simanek, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for shielding fellow Marines from a grenade at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the Korean War. The Medal of Honor was presented to him by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in a White House ceremony in 1953.
The ESB ship class is a highly flexible platform designed to support multiple maritime-based missions. ESB ships are mobile sea-based assets and are a part of the critical access infrastructure that supports the deployment of forces, equipment, supplies, and warfighting capability.
These 238-meter ships are configured with a 52,000 square-foot flight deck to support MH-53, MH-60, MV-22 tilt-rotor, and H1 aircraft operations.
The USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8), the sixth ship in the ESB program, is scheduled to be christened in 2025.
The first four ships in the ESB program – USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3), USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4), USS Miguel Keith (ESB 5), and USS John L. Canley (ESB 6) – have been delivered to the U.S. Navy.
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The U.S. Military Sealift Command Expeditionary Mobile Base USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3) at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia (USA).
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) was a Nevada-class battleship built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation for the United States Navy, notable for being the first American class of oil-burning dreadnoughts.
USS Oklahoma wearing experimental camouflage, circa 1917
Commissioned in 1916, the ship served in World War I as a part of Battleship Division Six, protecting Allied convoys on their way across the Atlantic. After the war, she served in both the United States Battle Fleet and Scouting Fleet. Oklahoma was modernized between 1927 and 1929. In 1936, she rescued American citizens and refugees from the Spanish Civil War. On returning to the West Coast in August of the same year, Oklahoma spent the rest of her service in the Pacific.
On 7 December 1941, during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, several torpedoes from torpedo bombers hit the Oklahoma‘s hull and the ship capsized. A total of 429 crew died; survivors jumped off the ship 50 feet (15 m) into burning oil on water or crawled across mooring lines that connected Oklahoma and Maryland. Some sailors inside escaped when rescuers drilled holes and opened hatches to rescue them. The ship was salvaged in 1943. Unlike most of the other battleships that were recovered following Pearl Harbor, Oklahoma was too damaged to return to duty. Her wreck was eventually stripped of her remaining armament and superstructure before being sold for scrap in 1946. The hulk sank in a storm while being towed from Oahu, Hawaii, to a breakers yard in San Francisco Bay in 1947
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Oklahoma_(BB-37)