General Naval Topics

[Brian James]

Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1) pictured off Geiranger, Norway, preparing for Exercise 'Cold Response 22'....Ships: KNM Hinnøy, LNVS Virsaitis, FGS Bad Bevensen, ENS Sakala, HMS Grimsby, BNS Lobelia M921, HNLMS Schiedam

[Pelican]

PM drives up regional investment with 30-year strategy to secure shipbuilding future

The Prime Minister will visit a Merseyside dockyard today as he announces a £4 billion injection into the UK’s regional shipbuilding industry.

See - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-d ... ing-future

Policy paper
Refresh to the National Shipbuilding Strategy
A refreshed strategy for a globally successful, innovative and sustainable shipbuilding enterprise.
See - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... g-strategy

P.S. BREAKING NEWS ~ A shipyard in Turkey has won a contract to build new Scottish ferries. Scottish government-owned Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has today named 'Cemre Marin Endustri' as the preferred bidder.
Source - https://twitter.com/geoallison/status/1 ... 8238738437

P.P.S. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/turkish ... wH6ShR3nP8

[Pelican]

Royal Navy personnel celebrate Freedom of Portsmouth
11 March 2022
Personnel from Portsmouth Naval Base paraded through the city, exercising their right to do so ‘with fixed bayonets and colours flying’ as they celebrated the Freedom of the City.

Despite an association between the city and Navy going back well over 500 years – long before the name Royal was added – the Senior Service has only enjoyed Portsmouth’s highest honour since the mid-1960s… and has rarely exercised the privilege.

Continues, including photos, at - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... mo-freedom

[ivorthediver]

PM drives up regional investment with 30-year strategy to secure shipbuilding future

The Prime Minister will visit a Merseyside dockyard today as he announces a £4 billion injection into the UK’s regional shipbuilding industry.

See - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-d ... ing-future

Policy paper
Refresh to the National Shipbuilding Strategy
A refreshed strategy for a globally successful, innovative and sustainable shipbuilding enterprise.
See - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... g-strategy

P.S. BREAKING NEWS ~ A shipyard in Turkey has won a contract to build new Scottish ferries. Scottish government-owned Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has today named 'Cemre Marin Endustri' as the preferred bidder.
Source - https://twitter.com/geoallison/status/1 ... 8238738437

P.P.S. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/turkish ... wH6ShR3nP8

So does that mean Serco and their Damon ship stock now become RN property ....? if at what cost David ?

[Pelican]

PM drives up regional investment with 30-year strategy to secure shipbuilding future

The Prime Minister will visit a Merseyside dockyard today as he announces a £4 billion injection into the UK’s regional shipbuilding industry.

See - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-d ... ing-future

Policy paper
Refresh to the National Shipbuilding Strategy
A refreshed strategy for a globally successful, innovative and sustainable shipbuilding enterprise.
See - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... g-strategy

P.S. BREAKING NEWS ~ A shipyard in Turkey has won a contract to build new Scottish ferries. Scottish government-owned Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) has today named 'Cemre Marin Endustri' as the preferred bidder.
Source - https://twitter.com/geoallison/status/1 ... 8238738437

P.P.S. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/turkish ... wH6ShR3nP8

So does that mean Serco and their Damon ship stock now become RN property ....? if at what cost David ?

I don't know Ivor but the following are interesting?

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/co ... 24150.html

https://www.serco.com/uk/media-and-news ... ntract-win

https://www.navylookout.com/contracts-a ... mpetition/

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/gove ... 4-06-2021/

And no doubt the list continues?

[Pelican]

Royal Navy sailor fined £300 for smoking on deck of warship

Leading Seaman Lee Harvey narrowly avoided being sent to prison
LS Harvey was fined £300 and his previous suspended sentence, imposed in August last year, was extended from 12 to 18 months.
See - https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/uk ... 00-6811263

[Pelican]

Royal Navy chef ratings crowned cookery champions

See - https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-l ... nt-caterer

[Pelican]

The need for new international treaties on undersea cables

The events of recent days in Ukraine have been a wake-up call for all of us.
We’ve enjoyed thirty years in a Europe where the idea of nation-states going to war with each other has seemed almost unimaginable. It is a dream shattered into tiny pieces on the streets of Kyiv and Kharkiv. It is time to reappraise the threats which face us, not just in terms of identifying those nations which are a danger to us, but also where our greatest vulnerabilities lie.

The author, Emma Lewell-Buck, is the Member of Parliament for South Shields and has been a member of the Defence Committee from March 2020. This article is the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the UK Defence Journal. If you would like to submit your own article on this topic or any other, please see our submission guidelines.

In the early hours of 5 August 1914, a cable ship carried out the first hostile act by British forces only a few hours after war on Germany was declared. The vessel cut five German overseas underwater cables, which passed from Emden through the English Channel to Vigo, Tenerife, the Azores and the USA.

At a stroke, Germany was cut off from the world beyond Europe. Left with no alternative means of contacting their global embassies, the Germans sent signals which were intercepted and read by British codebreakers. Cable cutting continued to be used as a weapon on all sides through both world wars.

Continues at - https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/the-nee ... oXe0EJd8L8

[Pelican]

The National Shipbuilding Strategy and the future of the Royal Navy


The much-delayed National Shipbuilding Strategy ‘refresh’ document was finally published on 10th March. Here we examine the plan in the context of the future Royal Navy fleet.

Grand plans
The headlines of the program comprise 150 vessels to be built over the next 30 years, a ‘£4 billion investment’ and a National Shipbuilding Office (NSO) to oversee government interests in the sector. There are also efforts to encourage the development of ‘green ship’ technology with a Shipping Office for Reducing Emissions (SHORE), financial support for exports and the establishment of a shipbuilding skills task force.

There is plenty to be critical of, but overall this is a very positive step, a coherent attempt to plan and coordinate workloads while regenerating UK shipbuilding and marine industries. Besides the obvious economic benefits, a revived commercial shipbuilding industry would clearly be good for the Royal Navy, in the long term, it would drive down costs and reduce delivery times. Following the original UK Shipbuilding Strategy written by John Parker and published in September 2017, there has been an acknowledgment that much more needed to be done. The new document makes a stronger commitment to a regular stream of work and broadens the scope to include the complete maritime enterprise and industrial supply chain.

The 2017 report had many shortcomings but it can be argued that there has been some modest progress. Notably, the Type 31 frigates are now under construction (although not at the blistering and unachievable pace originally envisaged in 2017) and the “Type 31e” design has been exported to Indonesia and Poland, on top of the Type 26 design exported to Australia and Canada. Babcock has built a new frigate factory in Rosyth. BAE Systems are looking to expand their covered building facility in Govan. Mainly based on forecast future workload, Harland & Wolff have saved the Appledore shipyard and have big plans for reviving ship construction in Belfast. Cammell Laird completed the RRS Sir David Attenborough, (although with considerable difficulty and have struggled with the Type 45 PIP work) but are probably well placed for the National Flagship competition and would appear to have a bright future.

Demand signal
It would be a mistake to confuse the new strategy document with a fully dependable forecast of the Royal Navy’s future ORBAT but it does provide some insight. The published plan appears to be deliberately vague about timescales, accurate in most cases only to about two years. Although roughly in line with the promises of the Integrated Review, this is primarily a document aimed at industry showing potential opportunities for the future. The chart below is an attempt to make some sense of the forecast for naval construction contained within the NSbS.

Continues, but note the links to the four articles at the foot of the article in addition to those within it. See - https://www.navylookout.com/the-nationa ... oyal-navy/

[Pelican]

Navy Lookout partners with Shephard Media


Navy Lookout has formed a joint venture with Shephard Media in a move that will see the two organisations work together to bring the best independent naval news to global defence decision-makers.

Combining the resources of the two organisations will enable news to be delivered faster, whilst features and analysis can be broader in scope without losing any of the trusted thoughtfulness readers have come to expect. Until now, we have been funded by Google ads and users donations but the new partnership will provide more sustainable advertising-based support. Navy Lookout will remain free to access, with the brand and style unchanged but our coverage, focused primarily on the Royal Navy, will continue to develop and expand. The platform will retain the same robust forum for readers to debate and learn about the key issues facing the RN.

“Shephard Media has been covering the naval domain for over 40 years and the new powerhouse partnership with Navy Lookout enhances our offering to audiences and advertisers alike. It’s another way Shephard is providing the gold standard in defence problem-solving solutions” Darren Lake, CEO of Shephard Media

About Shephard Media
Shephard Media provides marketing solutions, business information and news to the defence sector that gives their clients business advantage and an understanding of the defence market. Shephard News, trusted for over 40 years, is relied on by the world’s most important defence decision-makers, whilst Defence Insight remains the best source of integrated defence market intelligence. Shephard Studio builds on the legacy of Shephard’s digital-first innovation and collaborates with defence companies to create bespoke content, distributed across the Shephard Advertising Network, read by 1.9m defence decision-makers every year.

About Navy Lookout
Established in 2007*, navylookout.com and its supporting social media presence provide news and analysis of operations, procurement and the future shape of the Royal Navy. Information is presented in a way that is accessible to both the public and defence professionals. The site is read by serving naval personnel, politicians, journalists and industry leaders. Website traffic has experienced consistent year-on-year increase and the social media platforms now have a following totalling over 300,000.

*Save the Royal Navy was rebranded as Navy Lookout in January 2021