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PACIFIC OCEAN (Aug. 15, 2021) U.S. joint forces conduct coordinated multi-domain, multi-platform, long-range maritime strikes on the decommissioned guided-missile frigate Ingraham in the Hawaiian Islands Operating Area as part of Large Scale Exercise (LSE) 21. During the sinking exercise, USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) launched F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to test the Joint Standoff Weapon; F-35C Joint Strike Fighters employed laser-guided weapons; P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft tested the Harpoon weapon system, and the fast-attack submarine USS Chicago (SSN 721) fired a UGM-84 anti-ship Harpoon missile and a MK 48 Advanced Capability torpedo. The U.S. Marine Corps launched Naval...

Perched on a pontoon above the chilly water of Dundee's Victoria Dock, surveyors are inspecting every section of one of the world's oldest ships. HMS Unicorn has been a feature of the city since 1873, half a century after she was built at Chatham Dockyard in Kent. The former training ship has weathered many storms, including almost being scrapped in the 1960s.

The video was uploaded to a Russian site showing the failed launch. In the video, the missile is seen launching from the ship, but within moments spins out of control before pointing dangerously back towards the vessel. Fortunately for the crew, the missile appears to break up-mid and falls in multiple pieces down into the sea, yards away from the frigate. But a few seconds after the missile vanishes below the water, some large flashes are shown beneath the surface, and the water is shown bubbling from the heat. It is unclear what could have happened had the missile fallen...

As the U.S. Navy gets closer to issuing the final request for proposals for its future frigate competition, or FFG(X), one particularly notable design, BAE System's Type 26, has largely been absent from the discussion. It seems particularly curious given that the British-designed ship is well on its way to becoming one of the most popular warships in its class among some of America's closest allies, with 32 examples in various configurations on order for the U.K. Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy. BAE did propose a variant of the Type 26 to the Navy...

Italy's Fincantieri Marine Group's entrant into the FFG(X) is one of the most promising in the field of five contenders as it is based on the successful and modern Fregata Europea Multi-Missione (FREMM)—or European Multi-Mission Frigate in English—that will serve a number of multi-national users, already including NATO allies France and Italy. While we know what the existing ships look like in their various configurations, which includes anti-submarine, general purpose, and air defense variants with various other customizations based on the user's demands, we haven't really seen what a U.S. version would look like in tangible form, that is until...

ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104) in Norfolk. USNI photo. ABOARD SPANISH ARMADA FRIGATE ESPS MENDEZ NUNEZ, IN NORFOLK, Va. – Spanish shipbuilding firm Navantia is showcasing the utility of its F-100 frigate design to the U.S. Navy ahead of the Spanish Armada deploying one with the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group this spring. ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104) will be an integrated part of the CSG as it steams during the spring and summer, on a course expected to pass through the Middle East and eventually on to San Diego, Calif., the new homeport for USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72). Mendez Nunez will...

The new Project 22350 Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates, which keel-laying is being discussed by Russian authorities, the defense ministry and United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), are to be equipped with other eight cruise missiles Caliber, an informed insider told Mil.Press Today. Project 22350 serial frigates carry 16 Caliber missiles, thus, the upgraded version will receive 24 cruise missiles of that type. The point is not a modification 22350M, but redesigning of the basic project 22350, emphasized the interviewee. Vertical launch system of Caliber cruise missiles mounted on Admiral Gorshkov frigate Nikita Grigoriev, Mil.Press Today He failed to specify what version of the...

China recently started construction of an export version of one of its advanced warships and will deliver it to Pakistan as part of a major arms deal, according to China State Shipbuilding Corp, a large State-owned defense contractor. It said the ship is a version of the Chinese Navy's most advanced guided missile frigate, without specifying its type. In late December it said the ship is under construction at its Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai, noting it will be equipped with modern detection and weapon systems and will be capable of anti-ship, anti-submarine and air-defense operations. According to the Pakistani Navy,...

Canada has chosen a BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin-led team as the “preferred bidder” for a potential contract worth more than $45 billion to build new frigates for the Royal Canadian Navy. The two major defense contractors had pitched a proposal centered on BAE’s Type 26 Global Combat Ship design, which it is already building for the United Kingdom and Australia. On Oct. 19, 2018, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), the Canadian government’s internal services and administration arm, and Irving Shipbuilding, a Canadian firm that would actually build the ships, announced the decision in separate statements. BAE and Lockheed...

Top: Artist’s concept of Royal Australian Navy Hunter-class guided-missile frigate. Bottom: (left to right) U.K. Royal Navy Arrowhead Type 31e design, Austal USA FFG(X) design and Lockheed Martin FFG(X) design CAPITOL HILL – The U.S. Navy is in talks with Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom in the hopes that all four navies will design and field frigates with common combat systems – or at least interoperable ones – the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for ships told USNI News. Jay Stefany said the four navies have quadrilateral talks every six months, and a recent focus of those talks...

In yet another sign that Russia’s ambitious naval rearmament program is facing difficulties, the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, Alexei Rakhmanov, announced that the delivery of the second Admiral Gorshkov-class (Project 22350) guided missile frigate, Admiral Kasatonov, will be delayed by around eight months. “The second warship of this series, the Admiral Kasatonov, was due to have been delivered this year but considering that the ceremony of hoisting the flag aboard the [Admiral] Gorshkov has been postponed, we simply won’t be physically able to prepare the next ship,” Rakhmanov told TASS news agency last week. “The delay with the...

June 21, 2018 explosion of an SM-2 Block IIIA over the German frigate FGS Sachsen (F 219) New video and photos released this week show the extent of the damage on a German frigate following an apparent missile explosion last week during a training event off the coast of Norway. FGS Sachsen (F 219) was operating with FGS Lübeck (F 214) near the Arctic Circle when it attempted to fire a Standard Missile (SM) 2 Block IIIA as part of the exercise, the service said in a release. The footage, presumably shot from Lübeck, shows an explosion after just departing...

CANBERRA, Australia—BAE Systems has won a $26 billion contest to build nine anti-submarine frigates for Australia’s navy, as the U.S. ally seeks to bolster its navy against an Asian arms race and more assertive China. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will announce Friday that a variation of the British arms maker’s Type 26 frigate has been chosen over competitors from Italy’s Fincantieri and Spain’s Navantia SA. The frigates will be built in Australia by local state-owned ASC Shipbuilding, which will become a BAE subsidiary for the duration. They will begin entering service in the late 2020s. “BAE’s Global Combat Ship...

Fincantieri The US Navy announced in February that five types of warships would compete for a bid to supply the branch with 20 next-generation guided-missile frigates. And last week, we got to tour one of those five frigates: Fincantieri's FREMM Alpino, a ship outfitted with anti-submarine systems. "The world has changed certainly in the last two years when you take look at what Russia is doing and what China is doing," retired Admiral Rick Hunt, who now works for Fincantieri, told Business Insider on the ship's bridge. "And frankly, I think that means we got to up the game of...

ISLAMABAD: Contract for the acquisition of 2 x warships for Pakistan Navy was signed with M/s China Shipbuilding Trading Company Ltd (CSTC), at Ministry of Defence Production, Rawalpindi. Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Operations), Rear Admiral Faisal Rasul Lodhi was also present on the occasion. With the conclusion of this contract, Pakistan Navy will now have a total of 4 x Type 054 A ships in its fleet by 2021. The induction of these ships will substantially enhance Pakistan Navy’s warfighting capabilities while effectively contributing towards Maritime Security Operations in the region. Type-054 A is an extremely potent and state...

BALTIMORE HARBOR: The U.S. Navy is in the market for a new frigate, and the ship of the future might be sitting pierside in Manhattan. The Italian frigate ITS Alpino steamed out of Baltimore harbor Wednesday evening to spend a few days in New York and Boston, the final leg of an East Coast tour that also saw it conduct training operations with the USS Gonzalez off the Virginia coast. For Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri — and its Marinette, Wisc.-based subsidiary, Fincantieri Marine Group, — the tour is a prime opportunity to show off the capabilities of the ship that is...

The Italian Navy has sent a Fremm frigate, ITS Alpino, on a two-month cruise of North America intended to promote the ship’s design as a leading candidate in the US Navy’s FF(X) future frigate competition. (IT Navy photo) Today, the Italian Navy’s European multi-mission frigate (FREMM) ITS Alpino sailed from the Mar Grande naval base in Taranto for a naval campaign that will take it to North America for the next two months. ITS Alpino is the fifth FREMM ship delivered to the Italian Navy on 30 September 2016, the fourth in the "anti-submarine" version and fitted out with state-of-the-art...

“I said to the governor of Wisconsin that getting Fincantieri to invest in our states was the best thing we ever did as governors,” says Jennifer Granholm, who was a two-term governor of Michigan until she left office in 2011. Her story, and that of Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri in America, which now builds the US Navy’s littoral combat ships and has been “down selected” (as the military puts it) to the final shortlist to build the navy’s new frigates, is acutely relevant to one of the most important decisions the Turnbull government will make. In the coming month or six...

Navy Recognition is pleased to welcome guest writer D-Mitch, operations research analyst and creator of the famous navalanalyses.com (if you don't know his blog yet, you should definitely check it out as it really is top quality!). D-Mitch looks at the potential return of "inverted bow warships" in the Aegean sea as the Hellenic Navy is reportedly looking closely at the Belh@arra frigate by French shipbuilder Naval Group. He also gives us his take on the design and features of this next generation frigate. By D-Mitch, operations research analyst and creator of navalanalyses.com Today, the Greek Navy (Hellenic Navy) is...

The Navy has moved forward with funding five potential designs that could fulfill its future guided missile frigate FFG(X) requirement. At least 20 of these vessels will be built, and as we have discussed in detail before, the project is among the Navy's most important initiatives. Fielding a highly capable surface combatant that can pick up many missions currently being conducted by over-tasked and far more expensive destroyers will be essential to providing a more flexible and sustainable fleet in the decades to come. The $15M contracts were awarded to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Fincantieri Marine, Huntington Ingalls, Austal...