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EXCLUSIVE: A former senior government adviser who enjoyed privileged access to top-secret information about the navy’s future submarine project has taken a high paid job with one of three foreign contenders for the $20 billion plus contract. Sean Costello was chief-of-staff to former Defence Minister David Johnston and left his $250,000-a-year government job in January this year. He began work in April — just four months later — as Chief Executive Officer with French Government shipbuilder DCNS Australia. The firm is engaged in a “competitive evaluation process” for the Navy’s future submarine contract alongside Germany’s Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems (TKMS)...

In the North Sea, off the coast of Norway, Nato has been conducting its largest ever anti-submarine warfare exercise. It is seen as a response to the growing threat from Russian submarines which have stepped up their own patrols in these very same waters. It has also highlighted a gaping hole in Britain's own defences. For now though it is the hunt for U33, not Red October. The German U-boat is acting as the unseen enemy below the waves. 'Important training' U33's commander Kai Nicklesdorf and his 28 crew, who live in cramped conditions, are trying to avoid detection by...

Stockholm (AFP) - A Swedish peace group said Tuesday it has lowered a sonar device into the Baltic Sea off Stockholm to deter Russian submarines, emitting the message "This Way if You Are Gay". The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society's (SPAS) cheeky device emits the message in Morse code and is designed to scare off subs from Russia, which does not share Sweden's acceptance of homosexuality. The so-called Singing Sailor also features a flashing pink neon outline of a seaman clad only in white underpants and a boater's hat, gyrating his hips above the text "Welcome to Sweden -- Gay...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday it has successfully test-fired a newly developed ballistic missile from a submarine in what would be the latest display of the country's advancing military capability. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un personally attended the test launching of what he described as a "world-level strategic weapon," the official Korean Central News Agency said. The report did not reveal the exact timing and location of the launch. Kim praised the test launch as an "eye-opening success" and declared that the North Korea now has a weapon capable of "striking and wiping out in...

Japan will agree this month to give Australia classified submarine data, an unprecedented step signaling Tokyo’s intent to join competitive bidding to sell Canberra a fleet of stealth subs, said two Japanese officials familiar with the plan. The “competitive assessment” will see Germany’s ThyssenKrupp and France’s state-controlled naval contractor DCNS separately competing with a Japanese government-led bid for such contractors as Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. Japan had been the front-runner in the planned sale of around 12 vessels, for as much as $40 billion, to replace Australia’s ageing Collins class submarines, sources have said, until...

The Finnish Navy acted appropriately and extremely resolutely in driving away a possible submarine from the territorial waters of Finland early on Tuesday morning, President Sauli Niinistö lauded on Wednesday after announcing the opening of the new parliamentary session. “The Navy, and captains in general, have been granted considerable powers, and I think they were used appropriately here,” Niinistö said. He underscored that all intrusions by military vessels are serious but admitted that the incident was not particularly surprising in light of growing instability in the Baltic Sea Region. “Such traffic has increased on the Baltic Sea. Whatever was under...

The Royal Navy has just one nuclear powered submarine in operation after the rest of the fleet has been left out of action due to defects and damage. Four of the Royal Navy's new multi-billion hunter and killer submarines are still in dock at Barrow-in-Furness because of defects that have delayed their production - 15 years after the new ships were first ordered. Only two of the boats have actively joined the fleet, and one has already had to return to the dock and can only be used for training after more than 50 defects were found. Just the HMS...

China's recent deployment of a nuclear submarine for an antipiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden may have caused unease among its neighbours, but naval experts say the Type 091 vessel is unlikely to pose any real threat because of the noise it generates. The experts say the international community should instead keep an eye on China's quieter, more advanced diesel-driven submarines. CCTV's military channel last Sunday reported that a nuclear submarine from the People's Liberation Army Navy had completed a two-month escort mission in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden, and returned to its base in Qingdao...

The submarine battle that erupted across the Baltic Sea was about business. The Swedish government, upset with German ownership of Sweden’s biggest shipyard, last summer compelled ThyssenKrupp AG to sell its Kockums operation to Sweden’s Saab AB. The move, which ThyssenKrupp calls “unfair,” cost the German industrial group a billion-dollar submarine contract and hundreds of skilled engineers. And Sweden’s maneuver established defense contractor Saab as a new rival in the global submarine market. ThyssenKrupp, the world’s top nonnuclear-sub maker, already feels heat from newly active producers in Japan and South Korea, and from old rivals in France and Russia. “It...

HELSINKI – The Finnish military says it has dropped depth charges onto a suspected submarine in the sea outside Helsinki after twice detecting the presence of a foreign object in the area.

HONG KONG: Vietnam is arming its expanding submarine fleet with land attack missiles that could be capable of reaching Chinese coastal cities, a choice of weapon likely to be seen as provocative by China in the ongoing South China Sea dispute. The independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently updated data on its website to show Vietnam's acquisition of the Russian-made land attack variant of the Klub missile for its state-of-the-art Kilo attack submarines. SIPRI arms researcher Siemon Wezeman said the entry was based on an earlier but little-noticed filing Vietnam made last year to the United Nations' register...

Finland’s navy dropped depth charges this morning as a warning to a suspected submarine in waters near Helsinki, raising tensions with neighbouring Russia. The navy said that it had detected an underwater target on Monday and again today and fired warning charges the size of grenades. Carl Haglund, the defence minister, did not say whether Russian involvement was suspected.

Vows by China and Pakistan to deepen security and defence ties will reinforce Beijing's ambitions to increase its arms exports, which could create unease among some countries in the region, especially India, security experts say. President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to Pakistan last week and met Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, with the sides agreeing to boost their partnership to "all-weather levels". The two nations also decided to step up dialogue between their armed forces, and expand cooperation in defence technology and production. Three weeks before Xi departed for the trip, Sharif approved a US$5 billion deal to...

Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23. The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack...

One of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War’s destructive potential is the intercontinental ballistic missile. But during the 1950s, the U.S. Force developed a strategic cruise missile known as the Snark. The Snark was highly unusual at the time. Almost forgotten today, the flying branch developed the missile as a nuclear-armed “pilotless bomber” that would herald a new era of robotic warfare.

Germany has approved the delivery of the fifth of six promised submarines to Israel – amid claims that the sub will be outfitted with nuclear weapons. Is this part of Israel's answer to the US nuclear agreement with Iran? The German Federal Security Council, which monitors Germany's export of military goods, has given the green light for the delivery of another submarine to Israel. The news has renewed claims that Israel will fit the sub with one or more nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The six submarines ordered by Israel several years ago have been and are being built by the German...

A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in the northern province of Arkhangelsk ... The blaze started in the early afternoon local time when insulation between the craft’s inner and outer hull caught fire during welding. The submarine was the Oscar class K-266 Orel (Eagle), a similar vessel to the Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, claiming the lives of 118 men. A spokesman for the shipyard told Interfax there were no casualties and all crew and workers left the craft in time.

BEIJING: China would soon commission three indigenously-built advance nuclear-powered attack submarines having a vertical launcher capable of delivering its latest supersonic anti-ship missiles, state media reported today. China Central Television (CCTV) showed a satellite picture earlier this week of three submarines anchored at an unidentified port, and reported that the vessels were China's most advanced Type-093G nuclear-powered attack submarines, just completed by a Chinese shipyard and awaiting delivery. With a teardrop hull, the submarine is longer than its predecessor, the Type-093, and has a vertical launching system, China Daily reported. RELATED Ubisoft Announces New Assassin's Creed Games Set in India,...

To keep track of increasingly stealthy Russian, Chinese, and Iranian submarines, the U.S. is building a robotic ghost ship - an unmanned, autonomous patrol ship - to follow them around the high seas.

Pakistan government has approved the purchase of eight submarines from China, as per an “in principle” decision conveyed during a hearing of the Pakistan National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence. Pakistan has been negotiating the purchase of six submarines – now increased to eight — from China since 2011. Pakistan Navy currently operates five French submarines: three Agosta 90B submarines purchased in the 1990s and two Agosta 70 submarines of late 1970s vintage. It also has three MG110 miniature submarines. After the recent accidents, the number of active duty submarines in Indian Navy is now down to 13 diesel-electric submarines...