NAVAL NEWS JANUARY 2021

Navy Forces Naval Maritime Defense Security Industry


According to a press release published on January 8, 2021, the ballistic nuclear submarine of Triomphant-class (SSBN) Le Terrible of the French Navy has arrived in dock 8 of the Brest naval base to continue its Full Cycle Docking (FCD), otherwise known as a major refit. This will be the first FCD for Le Terrible and will involve 14 months of industrial activities to modernise the ship and restore its operational potential for the coming 10 years.

According to a Tweet published on January 7, 2020, by Mahmoud Gamal, the second Gowind-2500 El Fateh-class class corvette ENS Port Said 976 has officially joined the Egyptian navy. The corvette was built in 2018 by the Egyptian military-owned Alexandria shipyard in cooperation with the French Company DCNS, now Naval Group, under a technology transfer contract.

British Defence Minister Jeremy Quin announced on January 6 that a £550 million contract for new surface-attack missiles will secure hundreds of UK jobs and provide unrivalled lethality for the UK’s F-35B Lightning II jet. Known as Spear3, the next-generation missile can travel long distances at high-subsonic speed and over the next decade will become the F-35’s primary air-to-ground weapon.

On January 5, the U.S. Departement of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, was awarded a $731,132,618 cost-plus-fixed-fee and cost-only contract for engineering and technical services for Aegis in-service combat systems engineering, ship integration and test engineering, computer program maintenance, integrated logistics support and planning and in-country support for multiple international partners employing Aegis.

French Admiral Vandier, chief of staff of the French Navy, tweeted on January 5 that PHA (Porte-Hélicoptères Amphibie, Amphibious Helicopter Carrier) « Tonnerre » can now operate the Schiebel Camcopter S-100 tactical drone system. This success is the result of cooperation between the crew, CEPA / 10S, DGA and manufacturers. It makes it possible to continue the rise in the use of drones by the French Navy.

According to a press release published on January 5, 2020, BAE Systems received a $4 million contract from the U.S. Navy to conduct a quick-turnaround demonstration of a new radio frequency countermeasure (RFCM) system for the P-8A Poseidon. The pod-mounted RFCM system is a leading-edge, lightweight, high-power system that will add a new self-protection capability to this next-generation U.S. Navy aircraft.

According to a statement published by the Indian Ministry of Defense (MoD) on December 30, 2020, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) along with the Indian Navy conducted the successful maiden test trial of ‘SAHAYAK-NG’ India’s first indigenously designed and developed Air Dropped Container from IL 38SD aircraft (Indian Navy) off the coast of Goa.

EDA’s Steering Board recently approved the launch of a specific EDA ad hoc project which will contribute to the implementation of a Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) project aimed at developing a European Patrol Corvette. Italy, which leads a group of four PESCO participating countries involved in EPC (together with France, Spain and Greece), had requested the Agency’s support for moving this ambitious project forward.

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