The first of the Royal Navy's (RN’s) Type 45 destroyers, HMS Daring, has set sail on operational duty fitted with Thales UK's new fully digital radar electronic support measures (RESM) system. The platform, the first of the Daring class, has been fitted with new digital antennas supplied by Thales as part of the UAT MOD 2 update programme.

DCNS has signed a four-year contract with the French Navy's Fleet Support Service (SSF) to provide through-life support for Horizon-class destroyers Forbin and Chevalier Paul.

French Shipbuilder DCNS, a major player in the European and world markets for value-added naval defence systems, will be present at PACIFIC 2012 International Maritime Exposition. As a naval prime contractor, shipbuilder and systems integrator, DCNS combines resources and expertise spanning the naval defence value chain and entire system lifecycles. DCNS delivers innovative solutions from integrated warships to strategic systems, equipment, services and new energy solutions.

According to a media report the U.S. military plans to send a floating base for commando teams to the Middle East, where relations with Iran are tense and other nations are in the midst of political upheaval.

According to Chinese newspaper "Huantsyu shibao", Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai (part of the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Corporation, a state owned corporation) held a launch for the fourth Type 071 class LPD. The launch was timed to happen on the Chinese New Year (January 23rd).

Welcome to the deck of one of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, due in service by the end of the decade. Well, not quite the real carrier, which is under construction at Rosyth. This is BAE Systems' simulator at Warton, the only one in the world where the F-35 aircraft meets the future pride of the 2020 Royal Navy.

Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 1 combined forces with Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAW) 120 to bring a joint detachment to Naval Air Station Jacksonville Jan. 16, to help meet its schedule for the E-2D Hawkeye Initial Operational Test and Evaluation.

U.S. Navy sailors from Assault Craft Unit Four (ACU4) are working with the crew of the French amphibious vessel (LHD) Mistral (L9013) this week to certify her well deck operations ahead of Bold Alligator 2012, a multi-national amphibious exercise in the USA involving the navies of the US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Fincantieri shipyard at Muggiano recently launched the “Ganthoot”, the first of two stealth patrol vessels included in the “Falaj 2” program in progress for the United Arab Emirates Navy who ordered them in 2010. The ship, whose name comes from a geographical area in the Emirates in the neighbourhood of Abu Dhabi, will be delivered in the last half of 2012.

The U.S. Navy completed developmental and operational testing (DT/OT) of the newest variant of the Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) laser-guided Maverick missile. This brings U.S. Sailors and Marines one step closer to conducting airborne precision engagements of rapidly moving targets in urban environments.

The first Mistral class amphibious assault ship for Russia will be laid down at the start of February in a French shipyard, a military industry official told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Iranian researchers have built a "smart remote-control submarine" (or UUV unmanned underwater vehicle) with the subsurface speed of 10 meters per second, according to the semi-official Iranian news agency ISNA.

The company collaborates with Tecnam, Selex Galileo, FLIR Systems and Airborne Technologies in this project. The objective is to offer a solution with the best operation/surveillance capacity cost ratio. It will be ready to enter service in 2012 and will have the capacity to guard maritime areas located from 50 to 200 miles offshored.

British and French ships joined a US carrier group in a six-strong flotilla of warships which passed through the sensitive Strait of Hormuz, Britain's Ministry of Defence said Sunday.

A Pacific Fleet task force led by the Admiral Panteleyev destroyer docked at the Indonesian port of Surabaya on Thursday, the fleet’s spokesman said.

In recent weeks, DCNS teams continued tests of Aquitaine (FREMM) Frigate's combat system. Among the operations, DCNS engineers have completed the loading of naval cruise missiles model (MBDA's Scalp Naval). Ultimately, the implementation of these missiles will give the FREMM class unprecedented ability for a European frigate to neutralize a target located several hundred kilometers in land.

A Russian aircraft carrier which is being refurbished for the Indian Navy will begin sea trials in May for the first time in two decades and is to be handed over to India by December 2012, a shipyard official said on Tuesday.

The cost to repair and modernize the Yekaterinburg, a Russian nuclear submarine damaged by fire late last December, could total 900 million rubles ($30 million), a representative of United Shipbuilding Corporation said on Monday.

Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi announced that the country plans to unveil a home-made Maritime Patrol Aircraft within the next few weeks.

BPC Dixmude, the third Mistral-class force projection and command vessel for the French Navy, has been delivered to the French defence procurement agency (DGA) three months ahead of the initial contract schedule. The DGA took formal delivery of the ship on 3 January 2012. This success is the result of outstanding cooperation between industry partners DCNS and STX France. The design, construction and testing of the vessel was conducted in close partnership with DGA and French Navy teams.

On January 10, 2012, Austal’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard completed the launch of the second 127-metre Independence-Variant Littoral Combat Ship, “Coronado” (LCS 4).

The successor to the trusty Lynx, which has served the Navy and the Army admirably since the 1970s, will spend the next month flying on and off HMS Iron Duke in the English Channel as part of its most extensive trials yet.

Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) has been awarded a $60.3 million U.S. Navy contract to develop and integrate the total ship electronics systems for LPD 26, the 10th ship of the Navy's LPD 17 class of expeditionary warfare ships.

A second US aircraft carrier has arrived in the Gulf region, the Pentagon said , calling the move “routine” and denying any link to mounting tensions with Iran. Backed by a cruiser, destroyer and with almost 80 planes and helicopters on board, the USS Carl Vinson carrier strike group “arrived in the US 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR)” on January 9,” a Fifth Fleet statement said.

On January 9, 2012, the crew of the first Fast Amphibious Landing Craft (EDA-R) has completed its phase of operational readiness. Mistral and EDA-R No. 1 set sail for the US East Coast to participate in Bold Alligator exercise, a major step in the Franco-American cooperation in the field of amphibious operations.