Amphibious Landing News

North Korea has tested a new nuclear-capable underwater attack drone, state media reported on Friday, as leader Kim Jong Un warned joint military drills by South Korea and the U.S. should stop.During the test, the new North Korean drone cruised underwater at a depth of 80 to 150 metres (260-500 feet) for over 59 hours and detonated a non-nuclear payload in waters off its east coast on Thursday, North Korean state news agency KCNA said.Analysts say North Korea is showing off its increasingly diverse nuclear threats to Washington and Seoul…

Photos released by the U.S. Navy on Tuesday show sailors collecting the remnants of a suspected Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by an Air Force fighter over the weekend off the coast of South Carolina.The U.S. military began collecting the debris after the high-altitude surveillance balloon was shot down by an F-22 fighter over the weekend at the orders of President Joe Biden. The balloon fell about six miles off the coast of Myrtle Beach, S.C., into about 50 feet of water.China has claimed that the balloon was a wayward “civilian unmanned airship” primarily conducting weather research.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a large naval base on Saturday 135 km from the border with Libya, flanked by close ally Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Libya's unity president,Egypt says the July 3 base will help it protect strategic and economic interests as well as helping guard against irregular migration as it boosts its naval presence on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.At the inauguration, two Mistral helicopter carriers…

It took time for China's naval shipyards to hit their straps. For about a decade from the turn of this century, they experimented with new designs, in some cases launching just a couple of each new type of warship for evaluation.The yards absorbed foreign technology, imported some key components and developed local know-how. Quality ruled over quantity. Then they started mass production. New hulls cascaded into the water, mainly from the big shipyards at Shanghai, Dalian, Guangzhou and Wuhan.These yards have been building the full spectrum of warships and support vessels…

The captain of the World War Two-style tourist "duck boat" that sank on a Missouri lake during a storm in July killing 17 people was charged on Thursday with misconduct, negligence and inattention to duty by a federal grand jury, prosecutors said.Kenneth Scott McKee, 51, of Verona, Missouri, was charged in a 17-count indictment, one count for each of the passengers who died when the vessel sank on July 19.McKee was captain of the vessel operated by Ripley Entertainment Inc, which ran duck boat tours in Branson…

The families of four of the 17 people killed when a World War Two-style tourist "duck boat" sank on a Missouri lake during a storm this month have sued the tour operator, saying it recklessly allowed the vessel out in dangerous weather.On Sunday, relatives of Ervin Coleman, 76, and 2-year-old Maxwell Ly, his great-nephew, both of Indianapolis, sued tour operator Ripley Entertainment Inc, which operates under the name Ride the Ducks, and vessel manufacturer Amphibious Vehicle Manufacturing LLC…

The U.S. Coast Guard was preparing on Monday to recover the "duck boat" that sank beneath storm-whipped waves in a Missouri lake last week, drowning 17 people in one of the deadliest tourist accidents in the United States in years.After raising the World War Two-style amphibious landing craft from Table Rock Lake outside the popular vacation town of Branson, the Coast Guard said, it will hand boat over to federal investigators.Thirty-one people were aboard the Ride the Ducks boat last Thursday when a sudden…

At least 13 people including children drowned after a tourist "duck boat" sank during a storm on a lake in Missouri, and authorities were set to resume a search on Friday for other missing victims, Missouri Governor Michael Parson said.The sinking of vehicle, inspired by the amphibious landing craft used during D-Day in World War Two, marked one of the deadliest incidents at a U.S. tourist destination in recent history. Divers were still searching Table Rock Lake, a large reservoir outside the town of Branson, for missing passengers.Video of the incident showed the hull of the vessel submerging into choppy waters."Just a terrible, horrific tragic accident has occurred," Parson told CNN on Friday, noting that 13 people had been confirmed dead.

At first glance from above it looks like any clean and neatly planned small town, complete with sports grounds, neat roads and large civic buildings. But the town is on Subi reef in the Spratlys archipelago of the hotly contested South China Sea and, regional security experts believe, could soon be home to China's first troops based in the maritime heart of Southeast Asia. Private sector data analysis reviewed by Reuters shows Subi, some 1,200 km (750 miles) from China's coast, is now home to nearly 400 individual buildings – far more than other Chinese islands.

1850 - The brig USS Perry, commanded by Lt. Andrew H. Foote, captures American slaver Martha off Ambriz (near the city of Luanda), Angola, Africa. 1918 - After Allied troops take Hill 142 at Chateau-Thierry, France, during World War I, 12 enemy soldiers crawl in a position to counter attack with five light machine guns. Realizing his company might withdraw if fired upon, Marine Gunnery Sgt. Maj. Ernest A. Janson, quickly rushes and bayonets two enemy leaders, forcing the rest of the enemy attackers to withdraw.

Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), christened the amphibious transport dock Portland (LPD 27) on May 21 in front of approximately 1,000 guests. U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Christopher Owens, director of the U.S. Navy’s expeditionary warfare division, was the keynote speaker. “Marines love these ships,” he said. “They are perhaps the most versatile ships in the fleet. Portland is the 11th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock, named for the largest city in the state of Oregon.

Turkey has launched the building phase of its amphibious landing platform dock (LPD) warship for the Turkish Naval Forces with a ceremony on April 30, says Hurriyet. Last year, the Turkish government announced it signed a nearly $ 1 billion deal with a local shipyard to produce the country's first LPD. Turkey's procurement agency, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), said SSM and Sedef, a Turkish shipyard, agreed to pen the deal after contract negotiations. Turkish companies, including Aselsan and Havelsan, will produce and install several parts of the ship’s components, including armaments, electronics and communications systems. A Spanish company, Navantia, will help in designing the ship.

1822 - Crew from the schooner Enterprise capture and burn seven small pirate vessels off Cape Antonio, Cuba. 1862 - The ironclad CSS Virginia destroys the wooden ships USS Cumberland and USS Congress in Hampton Roads, Virginia. 1943 - PBY-5 Catalinas from VP-53 sink German submarine U 156 east-northeast of Trinidad. 1945 - Phyllis Daley becomes the first African-American ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps and serves at the Naval Dispensary at Boston, Mass. 1945 - Navy patrol bombers hit a Japanese convoy, sinking cargo vessel No. 21 Yusen Maru in Formosa Strait. 1950 - Operation Portrex begins.

Earlier this year, an old refrigerator ship called the Georgiy Agafonov, built to transport fruit and vegetables for the Soviet Union, was quietly gathering rust in the Ukrainian port of Izmail where the Danube flows into the Black Sea. Its owners, a Ukrainian state company, assumed it would never sail again. When a Turkish company offered to buy it for $300,000, they watched as the hulk was towed away, presumably for scrap. Nine months later the ship is back at sea, renamed Kazan-60, reflagged as part of Russia's naval auxiliary fleet, and repurposed as an unlikely part of Moscow's biggest military operation outside the old Soviet boundaries since the Cold War.

Japan has joined U.S.-led maritime humanitarian exercises off the Philippines for the first time, as concerns mount among the three allies about China's growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea. A Japanese navy replenishment ship was in Subic Bay, a former U.S. naval base, to refuel a U.S. Navy floating hospital en route to Vietnam for the seven-nation humanitarian mission. It was the first time a Japanese navy ship has taken part in the humanitarian assistance and disaster relief drills although a flotilla of Japanese training vessels, including a submarine, makes annual port calls in Manila. Rear Admiral Charles Williams, commander of U.S.

The second stage of Russia-China "Joint Sea 2015" maritime exercises are taking place on June 8-11 in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorsky Territory, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry’s Eastern Military District press service. The joint exercise will include troop landing practices and reconnaissance missions. "As part of the upcoming joint Russian-Chinese naval drills, Joint Sea 2015 [II] at the firing range at Cape Klerk the airborne and amphibious landing will be practiced," Pacific Fleet’s spokesman Captain 1st Rank Roman Martov said. On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that officers from the Russian Eastern Military District…

Forces from 17 NATO and non-member partner countries will carry out joint maritime exercises in the Baltic region over the next two weeks. “Seventeen NATO and partner nations will participate in the 43rd iteration of the multinational maritime exercise BALTOPS 2015 in Poland, Sweden, Germany, and throughout the Baltic Sea, June 5-20,” the US Navy said in a statement. The annual BALTOPS exercise will focus on interoperability among maritime forces on tasks such as air defense, maritime interdiction and anti-submarine warfare, according to the Navy. Participants are expected to bring 49 ships, 61 aircraft and one submarine. The U.S. will lead the exercise on the ground, but NATO is responsible for organization.

Abu Dhabi Ship Building Company will deliver three Baynunah warships to the United Arab Emirates Navy by 2016 and is in discussions with other buyers to sell more, its chief executive said on Monday. "There are discussions with some of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries as well as other international ones. Hopefully there will be something in the future," Khaled al-Mazrouei said on the sidelines of the Naval Defence Conference. The fall in oil prices has put pressure on government spending across the Gulf region.

USS Peleliu (LHA 5) returned to Naval Base San Diego Dec. 24 from a six-month deployment to the Western Pacific. Upon return, the ship will make preparations to decommission in March after 34 years of service, 17 deployments and more than a million miles transited, and as the last remaining Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship. During the ship's deployment Peleliu, its crew, Commander, Amphibious Squadron Three, Special Purpose Marine Task Force Three and Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 21 participated in Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2014 as part of U.S. 3rd Fleet. Upon assignment to 7th Fleet, the ship embarked Commander, Amphibious Force Seventh Fleet…

Tampa Yacht Manufacturing LLC offers ‘Battle Ready’ products with superior strength, high performance and extended life cycle. Each of TYM’s vessels is designed and engineered to be mission specific. Included in its portfolio are craft in the 9 to 11 meter length, engineered to provide economical and highly effective harbor and near shore defense and law enforcement solutions. TYM also offers several mid-size craft from 12 to 15 meters, designed to be aggressive, robust high performance craft engineered for interception, interdiction and take-down of high speed craft.

More than 800 Australian Navy, Army and Air Force personnel are on their way home after taking part in RIMPAC, the world’s largest naval exercise, which concluded in Hawaii today. Australia sent the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ship HMAS Success and Submarine HMAS Sheean, a rifle company from 5th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment and three Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) AP-3C Orion aircraft to the exercise to conduct military training with defense forces from 21 other Pacific Rim nations.

The Mexican Navy selected VSTEP to supply a Class A NAUTIS Full Mission Bridge (FMB) Simulator and 24 NAUTIS desktop trainer stations for the Naval Academy in Veracruz. The simulators will be installed at the new simulator training wing of the Heroica Escuela Naval Militar set to open in Q4 2014. The Heroica Escuela Naval Militar is the school where future officers are trained for the General Corps of the Mexican Navy. In line with the expansion of the school’s training facilities, a new simulator wing is currently under construction.

Ship construction programs move ahead, but it’s not smooth sailing. Navies and Coast Guards everywhere face budgetary pressure, even in the U.S. which has the largest Navy in the world. The balance between desire for capacity and capability and pressure for affordability has never been more acute with the precarious budgetary issues presented by declining defense budgets, sequestration, continuing resolutions and government shutdowns. Even so, there are ongoing major construction efforts to include large nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines…