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Manila to send World War II warship into disputed area 04:47 AM Jun 18, 2011 MANILA - With tensions rising over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the Philippines said yesterday it will send its biggest warship, a World War II vessel, to the area after China deployed one of its largest civilian maritime patrol ships. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III also said his government will continue to seek dialogue but insisted his country will not be bullied by China. "We will not be pushed around because we are a tiny state compared with theirs," Mr Aquino said. "We...

Changing Needs Influence Warship Design May 9, 2011 By Bill Sweetman, Andy Nativi, Francis Tusa, David Eshel Washington, Genoa, London, Tel Aviv Warship design in much of the world may be entering a new era, with requirements driven less by peer-on-peer sea battles and more by lessons of the past decade, combined with economic constraints. Brazil, Canada, Israel and the U.K. are among the nations looking at new surface combatant programs. The first three represent markets for EuropeÂ’s shipbuilders (and possibly South Korea) while the U.K. is trying to break back into the global warship business. Success will involve anticipating...

Russia floats out 3rd stealth corvette St. Petersburg's Severnaya Verf shipyard floated out a new corvette for the Russian Navy featuring stealth technology on Friday. The Boiky is the third Steregushchy class (Project 20380) corvette designed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau. The first Project 20380 corvette, the Steregushchy, was put into service with Russia's Baltic Fleet in October 2008, and the second ship in the series, the Soobrazitelny, is expected to join the Russian Navy in 2011. The Project 20380 corvette can be deployed to destroy enemy surface ships, submarines and aircraft, and to provide artillery support for...

Saudis ask U.S. for price quotes for warships Saturday April 09, 2011 By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON, April 8 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has asked the United States for prices for surface warships with integrated air and missile defenses, helicopters, patrol craft and shore infrastructure, the U.S. Navy said on Friday. The Navy is preparing a rough cost estimate that would be delivered possibly as soon as May, Navy spokeswoman Captain Cate Mueller told Reuters. Saudi Arabia is the biggest U.S. arms buyer and is expected to remain so despite political upheaval in the Middle East. The request for medium surface...

Missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov may reinforce Russian Pacific Fleet in 2013 -Navy Missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov © RIA Novosti. Sergei Kompaniychenko The Russian missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov may reinforce Russia's Pacific Fleet in 2013 after repairs, a high-placed official of the Russian Navy said on Sunday. "In two years, the cruiser may be transferred from Severomorsk to Vladivostok to reinforce the grouping of the Pacific Fleet's surface ships," the admiral said, adding that the Navy's main headquarters was considering this possibility, although a final decision had not yet been made. The Marshal Ustinov, a Slava-class missile cruiser, was launched in...

Vietnamese Navy Receives First Stealth Frigate Posted by M Pyadushkin at 3/18/2011 8:47 AM CDT On March 5 the Vietnamese Navy officially took into service the first Gepard class frigate. The ship named after the first Vietnamese emperor Dinh Tien Hoang is built in Russia by Zelenodolsk shipbuilding plant under the contract for two ships of the class inked in December 2010. The second frigate built for Vietnam has been in sea trials since August 2010. Credit - Zelenodolsk plant Vietnam became the first foreign customer for the Gepard class (Russian project Gepard 3.9), an export version of Russian project...

Libyan Turmoil Prompts Chinese Naval Firsts. China has sent one of its most modern warships to protect vessels extracting thousands of its citizens from Libya, in the Asian power’s first naval operation in the Mediterranean Sea and its first deployment of military hardware in a civilian evacuation mission. The Chinese navy diverted the Xuzhou, a 4,000 ton missile frigate, from anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia and dispatched it to the Libyan coast on Thursday, according to a statement on the Chinese Defense Ministry’s web site. The Chinese government has also sent civilian ships and aircraft to evacuate about...

First domestically produced warship to be exhibited at defense fair 10 February 2011, Thursday / ERKAN ACAR, İSTANBUL Turkey’s first domestically produced warship, the Heybeliada, will be exhibited at Turkey’s 10th biennial International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF 2011), which will be held on May 10-13. Previous IDEFs, which are organized by TÜYAP Fair and Exhibition Organization Inc., were held in Ankara, preventing the exhibition of naval defense products. IDEF 2009 was held in İstanbul and this year the fair will be held in İstanbul’s coastal Büyükçekmece district, allowing for the exhibition of such products. This year’s fair will mark the...

Brazil and UK ready to sign huge defence contract, say media reports Brazil with a defence market described as “one of the fastest growing in the world” will be signing a defence agreement with the UK which should open the way for a deal worth “billions of dollars”, according to reports in the Brazilian and UK media. If the agreement finally goes through a first deal could involve £ 2.9 billion which includes the purchase of six patrol vessels (£ 60 to £ 80 million) and five or six frigates Type 26 with a unit cost of £ 300 to...

Brazil Re-evaluates Purchase of Warships and Aircraft Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is re-evaluating a six billion dollar plan to purchase eleven warships, as part of her plan to slash government spending, the Folha de Sao Pablo reported. Rousseff is also looking in to the plan her predecessor and mentor Lula da Silva had to buy at least 36 fighter planes, because she is concerned that the expense would use up government funds, when money should be spent elsewhere. The plan included the purchase of eleven patrol ships, to guard oil reserves off the coast of Brazil, some of which is...

LCS was designated by the Navy as a Level I survivability combatant ship, but neither design is expected to achieve the degree of shock hardening as required by the CDD [Capabilities Development Document]. Shock hardening (ability to sustain a level of operations following an underwater explosive attack) is required for all mission critical systems, as required by a Level 1 survivability requirement. Only a few selected subsystems will be shock hardened, supporting only mobility to evacuate a threat area following a design-level shock event. Accordingly, the full, traditional rigor of Navy-mandated ship shock trials is not achievable, due to the...

Delhi seeks Indian Ocean supremacy with warship research AFP (1 hour ago) Today NEW DELHI: India launched a new naval research centre for warships on Tuesday, part of efforts by the South Asian giant to build its sea defences and counter the perceived threat of China in the Indian Ocean. Defence Minister A.K. Antony laid the foundation stone for the National Institute for Research and Development in Shipbuilding (NIRDESH) in the southern state of Kerala, which will be built at a cost of six billion rupees (133 million dollars). The facility, which will be up and running in two years,...

Navy aims to please all by splitting ship work Politico © December 30, 2010 By Philip Ewing The U.S. Navy on Wednesday announced what its top officials hope will be a Solomonic answer to a thorny problem: How do you execute a major, multi-billion dollar weapons program in today’s climate of deadlock, while at the same time pleasing as many interests as possible in the defense industry and on the Hill? The Navy has tried to do it by halving work on a series of new warships, called littoral combat ships, between two competing vendors, preempting what officials feared might...

WA company to build US navy warships By David Weber Updated Thu Dec 23, 2010 United States president Barack Obama has signed off on a deal for a West Australian company to build 10 warships for the US navy. Austal will construct the warships at its yard in Alabama in a contract worth more than $4 billion. The Perth-based company has designed a 127-metre multi-purpose vessel called the Littoral Combat ship. Austal chief operating officer Andrew Bellamy says the aluminium trimaran has been developed for action close to shore where larger ships cannot operate effectively. "Effectively it was invented in...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is saying that the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on North Korea was not terrorism, and not enough by itself to put the Pyongyang back on a U.S. terror blacklist. The State Department said Monday that the March sinking of the frigate Cheonan was a "provocative action" and a violation of the truce that ended the Korean war. But it added that the sinking by a reported North Korean torpedo strike was the act of one state's military against another.

Russia launches second stealth warship for India PTI, Jun 24, 2010, 04.54pm IST MOSCOW: Russia launched the second of three stealth frigates for the Indian Navy under USD 1.6 billion deal inked in July 2006. The launching ceremony of the missile frigate Tarkash (Quiver) in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, was attended by senior Russian and Indian naval officials, state-owned Yantar shipyard said in a release. The first of three Project 11356 (modified Krivak III) frigates, named the Teg (Sword), was launched in last November. The third frigate, Trikand (Bow) is due to be delivered in 2011-12. The new frigates,...

A Russian warship will pay a rare visit to San Francisco later this month. The guided missile cruiser Varyag left Vladivostok on June 4 bound for San Francisco and will arrive on June 20 for a five-day stay. The cruiser sailed in company with the Russian navy tanker Boris Butoma and the salvage tug Fotiy Krylov. It was not clear whether these two ships will accompany the Varyag to San Francisco. The Russian ships are commanded by Rear Adm. Vladimir Kasatonov, and the purpose of the visit, which may include other California ports, is to promote U.S.-Russian military cooperation, according...

Warship: Veteran of 2 wars rusts away PHILADELPHIA - The old warship has been part of Philadelphia's waterfront for 50 years and left lasting impressions on thousands of visitors who heard gripping stories of its role in the Spanish-American War. Now the Olympia – named for Washington state’s capital and the last surviving vessel from that 1898 conflict – could face an ignoble end as an artificial reef off Cape May, N.J., if a new benefactor cannot be found. The Independence Seaport Museum and the Navy have already checked with officials of New Jersey’s Artificial Reef Program on the possibility...

Stealth? 6000-tonne visibility - India’s latest warship begins duty with strengths & vulnerabilities SUJAN DUTTA On board the INS Shivalik, Mumbai, April 29: In the bridge of India’s latest warship that sets new standards, Captain M.D. Suresh knows just how vulnerable his vessel, the INS Shivalik, is. The smell of fresh paint pervades the warship with the chapati-maker and dosa-maker that will make life more comfortable for Shivalik’s crew. From today, the INS Shivalik is on 24-hour standby to go to war (if called for). It is mounted with equipment and components that are to be standard figments in all...

India Navy to get 16 stealth frigates in 10 years 21 Apr 2010, 1917 hrs IST,IANS NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy is to get 16 stealth frigates in the next 10 years, with 10 being built indigenously, three imported from Russia and another three on order, an officer said on Wednesday. The first indigenously-built stealth ship, INS Shivalik, will be commissioned on April 29. The 6,000-tonne ship was built at Mumbai's Mazagaon Docks Limited under Project 17. Two more such vessels - INS Satpura and Sahyadri - are under construction and are likely to be commissioned in the next one...