Sea operations off Libya…

I have seen photos of Al Ghardabia, the other Koni class corvette, which was hit by air attacks – but apparently not sunk, but only damaged.

The only survive Libyan frigate Koni III class.

-HMS Liverpool has escorted the Al Hani – flagship of the Free Libya Forces – into Tripoli harbour now the capital is no longer in the hands of Gaddafi’s former regime .

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/HmsLiverpoolEscortsFreeLibyaForcesFlagshipIntoTripoli.htm

Royal Canadian Navy Frigate HMCS Vancouver has relieved sister ship HMCS Charlottetown continuing Canada’s naval Efforts Against the Libyan Regime.

http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/news-nouvelles/news-nouvelles-eng.asp?id=3…

-Moamer Gaddafi’s forces fired rockets at a British warship off the Libyan coast this week as the vessel helped in a NATO bombing mission, the Ministry of Defence said Friday.

“Thankfully they did drop short, but the threat was real,” a ministry spokesman told AFP, adding that it was the sixth time that HMS Liverpool, a Type 42 destroyer, had come under fire from the coast in its four months on patrol.

The rockets were launched from land in the early hours of Wednesday during a strike by coalition forces on Gaddafi targets near Zlitan in western Libya.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/2/8/18180/World/Region/Gaddafis-forces-fire-at-British-warship-ministry.aspx

— France said Thursday its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle would return home for maintenance next week from the NATO-led mission over Libya, but insisted there would be no respite for Moamer Gadhafi.

The vessel, France’s only aircraft carrier and Europe’s biggest warship, will leave on August 10 to head for its home port of Toulon for several weeks of work, defence minister Gerard Longuet told Var-Matin newspaper.

http://www.globalnews.ca/world/France+withdraws+aircraft+carrier+from+Libya+mission/5203721/story.html

-Italy’s defense ministry said Wednesday that an Italian naval ship off Libya reported that a missile fell into the water nearby, but it was unclear whether it had been fired or dropped by accident.

“It could be a Libyan missile or an anti-aircraft missile that fell into the sea,” Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said on the sidelines of a press conference in Rome.

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=297149#ixzz1TyEhQHoW

Slow crumbling of Gaddafi’s forces. The rebels took Brega this month – properly, this time, against determined resistance. They’re advancing step by step in the east, consolidating before each new move. The Misratah garrison in the west is also gaining ground, but again, slowly. Apaches from Tonnerre & Ocean have supported the rebels around Brega & Misratah. The largely Tuareg rebels in the western mountains seem to be making most progress.

One dramatic development yesterday: the much-mistrusted rebel military commander Abdel Fattah Younes was assassinated in Benghazi.

whats going on in libya? only joshing! in britain there is only a couple of stories on the national tv news about it a week,we acasionaly get aircraft camera footage of blowing targets up on the news but not as much as you would think.

You would never know the Libya thing was still going on by watching the news here in the US…….

good looking ship, the garibaldi.

-The UK Royal Navy Type 23 Duke Class frigate, HMS Sutherland, has been retasked to Nato to support Operation Unified Protector in Libya.

HMS Sutherland, temporarily detached from the Cougar deployment and the responsive force task group (RFTG), took over HMS Iron Duke’s role to support the Royal Navy and Nato units in the Mediterranean Sea.

http://www.naval-technology.com/news/news125764.html

San Giusto takes over from Garibaldi as NATO flagship off Libya

(NATO Press Release 26 July 2011) Naples, Italy.

“At midnight of 26 July the Commander Task Group 455.01, Rear Admiral Filippo Foffi and his staff officially transferred from ITS Garibaldi to ITS San Giusto.

This move bestows on San Giusto the honour of becoming the flag ship of the NATO Maritime Task Group supporting Operation Unified Protector in the maritime approaches to Libya.

The San Giusto is an Italian Navy amphibious transport dock ship. Commissioned in 1994 and home-stationed in the Port of Brindisi, she is a highly capable command platform ready to contribute in her own right to the NATO-led operation as well as accommodating the multinational Command Group working in support of RADM Foffi.

ITS San Giusto is currently commanded by Captain Maurizio Scarcella.

ITS Garibaldi has served in the surface Task Force since the start of the operation and has contributed AV8B Harrier strike aircraft and EH101 helicopters. Following a period as flag ship which began 1 June 2011 she returns to national duty.”

ITS San Giusto

ITS Garibaldi

more on Ocean/Apache ops….

Looks like the Apache’s have been busier than would at first appear …..

‘Apaches flew 13 such missions totalling a combined 30 sorties by 3 July, said Lt Col Phillip Cook, SO1 of the Joint Helicopter Command’s air manoeuvre planning team.

During this time they engaged regime targets on a total of 39 occasions, using their Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire laser-guided air-to-surface missiles, unguided rockets and 30mm cannon. Targets included ground vehicles, main battle tanks, vehicle checkpoints, coastal radar sites and patrol boats being used by pro-Gaddafi forces to deploy mines, Cook said’.

as have the Tigers…

‘The Apaches are flown in either a two- or four-aircraft package, with the AAC also having worked in conjunction with French army Eurocopter Tigers flown from the French navy command ship the Tonnerre. They have also received support from RN Westland Lynx HMA8 helicopters and Sea King 7 airborne surveillance and control system aircraft, and from coalition intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms.’

See theyve now got five onboard….

A fifth Apache is also now aboard HMS Ocean, having been transported to the region using a Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessel. The AAC detachment totals almost 90 personnel.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2011/07/08/359298/libya-british-army-details-apaches-success.html

-HMS Liverpool has been in action off the coast of Libya this weekend where she intercepted three rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIBs) suspected of belonging to the Colonel Gaddafi regime.

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/HmsLiverpoolFiresOnGaddafiBoats.htm

A ZSU 23 is a target that you very much want to be rid of if you are flying Helo’s or low level aircraft in that area.

Very nice Tango…have I ever told you how useful you are??? 🙂

Nick

-TWO of Gaddafi’s gunboats were blasted out of the water and an anti-aircraft battery destroyed by Apache gunships operating from HMS Ocean.

An Allied warship on patrol in the western Gulf of Sirte detected the boats moving at high speed towards Misrata and Ocean was alerted.

The Apaches found the craft, destroying two using their 30mm cannon. The helicopters then closed in on a ZSU-23-4 Shilka – a light-armoured radar-guided anti-aircraft vehicle – near Zlitan, 30 miles up the coast from Misrata. It too was eliminated.

http://www.navynews.co.uk/news/1240-oceans-apaches-scrambled-to-destroy-gaddafis-gunboats.aspx

This is all lovely and all that but if we’re talking daydreams here then why not go one further and say that Eurofighter is designed from the beginning as carrier capable and the French stay in the pogramme.

:cool:;)

I confess I was gonna out that it but felt that it strayed even further from the ‘why haven’t we got enough medium utility helos‘ strand of this thread I was responding to. But you are right of course. And in actually I think that you are adding more weight to my (sadly entirely unrealistic) premise.

Whilst we are at NATO standardises on Mauser 27mm revolver as aircraft cannon.

Absolutely, I wasn’t intending that our Norman chums got one of the two built but rather a third unit (I suspect that that they’d get no 2 and we get 1 and 3). Sorry if what I typed could be misconstrued. This being my daydream dates don’t get pushed back so costs don’t go up, JSF cost increase doesn’t happen (well doesn’t affect FAA anyway) and economies of scale (and compettition for contracts to build blocks between French and British yards….) mean that CVFs come in slightly less than planned so we get CVF 4 as well. Since CVF1 and 2 (and maybe 3) are already showing their worth (Libya?) before the lines shut down.

This is all lovely and all that but if we’re talking daydreams here then why not go one further and say that Eurofighter is designed from the beginning as carrier capable and the French stay in the pogramme.

:cool:;)

Absolutely, I wasn’t intending that our Norman chums got one of the two built but rather a third unit (I suspect that that they’d get no 2 and we get 1 and 3). Sorry if what I typed could be misconstrued. This being my daydream dates don’t get pushed back so costs don’t go up, JSF cost increase doesn’t happen (well doesn’t affect FAA anyway) and economies of scale (and compettition for contracts to build blocks between French and British yards….) mean that CVFs come in slightly less than planned so we get CVF 4 as well. Since CVF1 and 2 (and maybe 3) are already showing their worth (Libya?) before the lines shut down.

Groovy!;):D:cool: