US Navy selects 25 companies for up to $1.9 billion nuclear submarine contract
The multi-award contract will support the scheduled repair and maintenance of nuclear-powered attack submarines at the US Navy’s primary public shipyards.
Italy has begun building its eighth FREMM frigate under the FREMM joint initiative programme. The first steel cutting ceremony of the eighth Italian FREMM frigate took place at the Fincantieri shipyard in Riva Trigoso on 25 February 2015.
This new FREMM frigate will be a general purpose vessel and delivered to the Italian Navy in early 2019. The FREMM joint initiative includes a total of ten frigates for the navy, eight of which have been confirmed with options for two more.
The first FREMM frigate, Bergamini, is currently fully operational by the navy. The second frigate is the anti-submarine warfare configuration Fasan, which is due to finish warranty works by the end of April 2015 and enter full operations. The Margottini, an anti-submarine warfare follow-on ship, will begin its warranty works period soon. The Carabiniere is a second follow-on, due to be delivered by April. The third follow-up ship is the Alpino, which was launched in December 2014. Rizzo, a follow-on ship in general purpose configuration, will launch in February 2016.
The FREMM programme also calls for 11 for the French Navy and one for the Royal Moroccan Navy.
FREMM frigates are heavily armed warships being built under DCNS prime contractorship to carry state-of-the-art weapons and systems including the Herakles multifunction radar, MdCN cruise missiles, Aster anti-air missiles, Exocet MM40 anti-ship missiles and MU90 torpedoes.
The multi-award contract will support the scheduled repair and maintenance of nuclear-powered attack submarines at the US Navy’s primary public shipyards.
Hot on the heels of Norway selecting BAE Systems to build five Type 26 anti-submarine frigates, the UK government is reportedly in ‘advanced talks’ on new warship orders for two more Scandinavian countries.
The Israeli defence technology company has taken the wraps off two autonomous vessels ahead of DSEI as it sets its sights on scalability and cost reduction.
The US Navy and US Coast Guard (USCG) are in critical need of support to build icebreakers, surface vessels and submarines.
The Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) has a crunch time coming up as it looks to refresh its fleet before 2040, and prepares to begin operating Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters, although it is at the back of a long ordering queue. A key part of any solution is looking at what neighbouring Australia is buying.
Agreements with Inventech Marine Solutions and North River Boats cover the acquisition of trailerable aids to navigation boats and cutter boats - aids to navigation – small.