On Thursday, June 13, the US Navy released a footage claiming that Iran was the one responsible for the attacks against the two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. US Officials commented that the limpet mine used on a Japanese-owned oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz looks similar with other Iranian mines.
The US Navy published photos from sailors practising their firefighting skills and techniques by battling a simulated fire. All sailors are trained in fire fighting and damage control efforts, as many are the fire incidents taking place onboard vessels.
As tensions between the US and Iran continue to rise, a US Navy carrier strike group and amphibious ready group exercised together in the Arabian Sea over the weekend in a somewhat rare training event. According to the US Navy, this joint exercise comes amid ‘credible threat indicators’ from Iran.
The US will send a hospital ship to assist in the refugee crisis resulting from instability in Venezuela. Namely, at the annual Washington Conference on the Americas at the State Department, Vice President Mike Pence announced the Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort will deploy to the US Southern Command area of operations next month.
The UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and UK-based aerospace technology supplier GKN have developed a system based on Le Mans motor-sport technologies, aiming to demonstrate an energy storage option for the Royal Navy’s most advanced ships.
Through an Integrated Program Office, the US Coast Guard and US Navy awarded VT Halter Marine Inc., of Pascagoula, Mississippi, a fixed price incentive contract for the Detail Design and Construction of the USCG’s lead Polar Security Cutter.
NASA’s Langley Research Center released a video last week showing four large drones releasing over 100 smaller drones known as ‘Cicadas’, at the Beaver Dam Airpark in Virginia. Cicada, developed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, stands for “Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft.”
A court in Mississippi issued an arrest warrant for the heavy lift ship ‘Hawk’ that was involved in an allision and damage of a newbuild US warship at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, in late March. On 29 March, Hawk was arriving from Qingdao with a new floating drydock onboard.
Building better training simulators for sailors on surface ships is a key initiative that the US Navy is carrying out. This comes as the Navy implements recommendations following the deadly USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions, according to Adm. William Moran, vice chief of naval operations. Mr. Moran also stated his disappointment about the simulators that were used by the surface force, in comparison to what he was used to as a naval aviator.
About 22 months after it was involved in a heavy collision off Japan, the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald took another step toward returning to the fleet as a fully ready ship, as it successfully launched and moored pier-side at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) – Ingalls Shipbuilding shipyard, on 16 April.
