The French Minister of Armed Forces, Florence Parly, was visiting the Thales site of Limours this week, which specializes in military radars. The first SeaFire radar array for the future FDI frigates of the French Navy (Marine Nationale) was presented to her.
On April 8, 2019, Chinese engineering company Qingdao Wuchuan Heavy Industry (part of the state-owned shipbuilding corporation China Shipbuilding Industry Corp-CSIC) announced the sea (and land) trials of the “Marine lizard”, the world’s first amphibious unmanned surface vessels (USV).
On April 8, 2019, the Polish Ministry of National Defense signed an offset package worth 395.882751 million zlotys (about $ 104 million) with Italian company Leonardo. This agreement precedes a procurement contract for four Leonardo Helicopters AW101 Merlin for the Polish Navy.
Indonesia on Friday signed a US$1.02 billion contract for the procurement of three 1,400-ton submarines (DSME 1400 type) from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME).
Indonesian state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL launched the first diesel-electric submarine built in Indonesia on April 11, 2019 in Surabaya. The Alugoro (405) is the third of the Nagapasa-class submarine (also known as the DSME 1400 design or Improved Chang Bogo-class) for the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL).
The U.S. State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Japan of up to fifty-six (56) Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IB missiles for an estimated cost of $1.150 billion.
The first Leonardo Merlin HM.2 helicopter fitted with the Crowsnest kit conducted its first flight in late March 2019 at the Leonardo Helicopters (formerly AgustaWestland) site of Yeovil. The Crowsnest kit transforms the Merlin HM.2 of the Royal Navy into an Advanced Early Warning (AEW) helicopter.
The U.S. Navy exercised an option for five aerial refueling retrofit kits for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye aircraft. The value of the contract modification awarded to Northrop Grumman is $9.7 million.
The Spanish Council of Ministers approved the EUR 4.3 billion funding for the construction of five new F-110 frigates for the Spanish Navy on March 29. The new frigates will be built by Spanish shipbuilder Navantia.
In early March, the French Navy (Marine Nationale) FREMM frigate Auvergne joined the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) FREMM frigate Alpino off Catania (Sicily) for an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) training.
