French President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday that French Navy (Marine Nationale) Mistral-class LHDs Mistral and Dixmude will be deployed to Reunion Island and the Caribbean in support of the Coronavirus relief efforts. These new deployments will take place as part of the new operation “Résilience”.
Open sources reported in July 2018 that it had been decided to take a break in the creation of a prospective destroyer (heavy nuclear missile cruiser) of project 23560. A publication in February 2020 in FlotProm online media outlet did not add anything new. However the headline Leader Destroyer Listed as Outsider and some statements (project stopped because of lack of funds, prospective nuclear cruiser is not even discussed, it is a distant future) caused concern of specialists. Expert Alexander Shishkin writes about project 23560 prospects in his blog.
“City of Elgin”, the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) second submarine-hunting Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA), has touched down in the UK on March 13, 2020. The first aircraft “Pride of Moray” reached the UK for the first time in February.
An Israeli Navy (Ḥeil HaYam HaYisraeli) new SA’AR-6 class corvette, likely first ship in class INS Magen, started her initial sea trials on March 10, 2020. Several ship spotters images from the Kiel area in Germany show the vessel underway under her own power.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) commissioned its 11th Soryu-class diesel-electric attack submarine (SSK) in Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture on March 5, 2020. JS Ōryū (SS-511) joins the JMSDF’s Submarine Flotilla 1, based in Kure. It is the first-in-class boat to feature lithium-ion batteries.
An Indian Navy P-8I Neptune Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) visited Reunion Island to train with the French Air Force and Navy based on the island, known as “FAZSOI”.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) plans to deploy a Hyper-Velocity Gliding Projectile (HVGP) in fiscal year 2026 as a new weapon to repel enemies that invade Japan’s remote islands, from a safe distance. This HVGP could even target large surface ships such as aircraft carriers.
On 3 March 2020, the frigate NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN was handed over by the ARGE F125
consortium to the Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-
Service Support (BAAINBw).
The German Navy’s new Gecko rescue boats are ready for delivery, the Bundewher project team reported last month. Training on the Zodiac Milpro’s Sea Rib Aluminum-based boats has already started.
The French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) on January 16 awarded Nexter and its co-contractor Naval Group a contract for the modernization of the Narwhal 20B 20mm remote weapon stations (RWS) fitted aboard all French Navy (Marine Nationale) surface vessels.
