Category: Magazine

Long live the king!

Long live the king!

Gepostet von | 18 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

The striking Sea King has been flying for the German Navy since 1974. Over the past five decades, the helicopter has proven its flexibility and reliability - especially when rescuing people at sea. Hurricane-like storms with wind speeds of up to 160 kilometres per hour swept in from the Atlantic through the English Channel and piled up waves up to 20 metres high. On the rocky south coast of Cornwall, a house-high surf broke with deafening thunder and roar. The paths and roads in the south-west of the island were largely deserted. All airfields in the south of England had been closed. Even the...

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Spain: New-build F-110 frigate ahead of schedule

Spain: New-build F-110 frigate ahead of schedule

Gepostet von | 17 Sep 2024 | , , | 2

Since April 2019, the state-owned Navantia shipyard has had a contract with the Spanish Navy for the construction of five F-110 multi-purpose frigates - first delivery in 2028, worth around 4.4 billion euros. Special new features of this type of ship are the block production in 33 hull sections introduced for the first time at Navantia and a land-based "digital twin", which each ship will receive in the sense of modern system management. Shipbuilding work on the type ship, the Almirante Bonifaz (F-111), began at Navantia in Ferrol in 2022 and is now allowing a critical look at the schedule. As expected, delays and delivery bottlenecks are usually explained verbosely and flowerily. Not so...

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Regulatory zeal

Regulatory zeal

Gepostet von | 16 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

Die vergangenen Jahre haben den Berg von Regelungen in der Bundeswehr immer weiter anschwellen lassen. Leidtragende sind die Soldaten an Bord der Schiffe und Boote. Ein U-Boot-Fahrer benötigt einen bestimmten Lehrgang, um seine fachliche Verwendbarkeit zu erhalten. Bei Anreise wird festgestellt, dass eine der erforderlichen betriebsärztlichen Vorsorgen nicht mehr gültig ist. Der Soldat erklärt sich trotzdem mit einer freiwilligen, vermeintlich risikobehafteten Teilnahme einverstanden. Der Lehrgangsverantwortliche möchte sich jedoch nicht angreifbar machen und verweist auf geltende Bestimmungen. Im Endeffekt verliert der Soldat also seine Tauglichkeit, weil ihm ein nur wenige Minuten dauerndes Aufklärungsgespräch fehlt. Beispiele wie dieses machen deutlich,[ds_preview] welch...

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Senegal: New patrol boats for Dakar at last

Senegal: New patrol boats for Dakar at last

Gepostet von | 13 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

Walo, Niani and Cayor are Senegal's three newly built OPV 58S for Maritime Defence and State Action at Sea missions along its 300 kilometres of coastline. Piriou Group, a privately owned shipyard group based on the south coast of French Brittany, has delivered these three 62-metre multi-purpose vessels to the West African coastal state fully equipped and has once again proven itself to be a competent manufacturer of small but well-equipped guard boats. Just over four years have passed since the contract was signed until all three boats and their trained crews were transferred to Dakar within the last nine months. Equipped with Marte sea target FK, Simbad/Mistral air defence and...

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Strengthening maritime co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region and the role of Japan

Strengthening maritime co-operation in the Indo-Pacific region and the role of Japan

Gepostet von | 13 Sep 2024 | , , | 0

With an increasingly aggressive China, westernised Japan has an important role to play in the Indo-Pacific. Under its leadership, a collective security alliance could be created in the region. I retired from the Japanese Self-Defence Forces in 2009 after serving as Chief of Staff of the General Staff. Fifteen years have passed since then, and during that time a tsunami caused a major disaster in eastern Japan. There was also a global pandemic caused by Covid-19. Humanity still does not have the wisdom or the ability to control and prevent such major disasters. On the other hand, we believed that...

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