December 2020 news

Naval Forces, Defense Industry, Navy Technology, Maritime Security


According to information published by the Republic of Korea armed forces Facebook account on December 25, 2020, the South Korean Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) was awarded a $500 million contract to Hanwha Systems to begin the development of Combat Management System (CMS) and Multi-Function Radar (MFR) for KDDX South Korean Destroyer program by 2029.

According to information published by the Russian press agency TASS on December 24, 2020, the Project 12700 Alexandrite-class minesweeper Yakov Balyayev for Russian Navy has completed its shipbuilder's sea and state trials, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press office said. During the trials, the ship’s systems and mechanisms proved their inherent capabilities.

 

According to a press release published on December 21, 2020, Italian company Leonardo has recently proven the newly-expanded capabilities of its ULISSES acoustic anti-submarine warfare (ASW) system in a demonstration off the coast of Italy. During the demo, Leonardo showed how the Firefly, AQS-18, dipping sonar from L3Harris Technologies worked in concert with the ULISSES processor to automatically locate simulated enemy submarines and alert the crew to their presence.

According to a press release published on December 23, 2020, The Qatar Emiri Air Force’s NH90 helicopter program marked a major milestone last week with first flights performed in Italy and France. The first NH90 NATO frigate helicopter (NFH), assembled at Leonardo’s Venice Tessera facility, and the first tactical troop transport (TTH) over-land aircraft, assembled at Airbus Helicopters’ Marignane site, took to the air on 15th and 18th of December respectively.

According to information published by the Daily Sabah website on December 22, 2020, Turkey will produce Ada-class corvettes for Ukraine. The Ada-class is a ship developed for the MILGEM project, a Turkish program to develop corvettes and frigates that can be deployed in a range of missions, including reconnaissance, surveillance, early warning, anti-submarine warfare, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air warfare, and amphibious operations.

According to information published by the U.S Navy on December 21, 2020, The Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF), Royal Saudi Naval Force (RSNF), U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) and U.S. Air Forces Central (AFCENT) conducted robust combined joint Air Operations in support of Maritime Surface Warfare (AOMSW) exercise in the Arabian Gulf on December 17-18, 2020. The guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill (DDG 81) also participated in the bilateral joint and combined AOMSW.

According to information published by the Russian press agency on December 21, 2020, the Russian Navy naval aviation of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy (VMF) has received a repaired and upgraded Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-31BM (NATO reporting name: Foxhound-B) interceptor, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD).

According to information published by the InfoDefensa website on December 22, 2020, the Spanish General Directorate of Armament and Material has signed a contract with the Spanish Company Jalvasub Engineering to launch the first phase of development for a new local-made fuel-cell for Air-independent propulsion (AIP) under the name of "Medusa 300" for the future S-80 submarines for the Spanish Navy.

According to a press release published on December 21, 2020, Bollinger Shipyards LLC has delivered the USCGC ROBERT GOLDMAN to the U.S. Coast Guard in Key West, Florida. This is the 165th vessel Bollinger has delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard over a 35-year period and the 42nd Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter (“FRC”) delivered under the current program.

According to information released by the U.S. Department of Defense on December 22, 2020, U.S. Navy USS San Diego (LPD 22) and USS Somerset (LPD 25) conduct maritime operation off the coast of Somalia under Joint Task Force – Quartz in support of Operation Octave Quartz (OOQ) December 22, 2020. The mission of OOQ is to reposition U.S. DOD personnel from Somalia to other locations in East Africa.

The Russian Defense Ministry plans to upgrade the Admiral Vinogradov big antisubmarine warfare ship of project 1155. It has been decided to arm it with Kalibr and Uran missiles and later with hypersonic Tsirkon. The Admiral Vinogradov will have the air defense reinforced. It is to operate in the Pacific fleet, the Izvestia daily writes.

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