May 2020 news

Naval Forces, Defense Industry, Navy Technology, Maritime Security


The Russian Navy tested new Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUV). An exercise to overcome a minefield was held in the Mediterranean Sea. The Dmitry Rogachev corvette of project 22160 and the Ivan Antonov minesweeper of project 12700 engaged Diamant and Alexandrite-ISPUM UUV to find mines that were destroyed by artillery fire. Experts believe the warships with the craft are irreplaceable in the troubled area, the Izvestia daily writes.

On Monday, 18 May 2020, the Royal Australian Navy has commissioned on sea its newest Air Warfare Destroyer HMAS Sydney (V). It is the first commissioning of an Australian warship at sea since the Second World War. This ship is equipped with advanced combat systems, providing the ship with layered offensive and defensive capabilities to counter conventional and asymmetric threats.

The first steel plate of the hull of the first of the four new Bâtiments Ravitailleurs de Force (BRF) - replenishment vessels - of the French Navy has been cut today during a ceremony held in the machining workshop of Chantiers de l’Atlantique, in presence of Florence Parly, Minister of the Armed Forces, and Admiral Prazuck, Chief of French Navy. This ceremony marked symbolically the start of the construction of the first vessel of the FLOTLOG program.

This report provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN) aircraft carrier program. The Navy’s proposed FY2021 budget requests $2,714.2 million in procurement funding for the program. Congress’s decisions on the CVN-78 program could substantially affect Navy capabilities and funding requirements and the shipbuilding industrial base.

U.S. Sailors aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) are simulating being at sea while moored at Naval Base Guam. During the simulation, or “fast cruise,” the crew will simulate normal underway conditions while testing the critical systems required to sustain the ship during its upcoming underway operations.

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