Well, the FFG-12 George Philip and the FFG-14 Sides are still in Bremerton , I believe, and they still have the Mk-13 Launchers on them…

(source: http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/ffg-12-uss-george-philip-ffg-14-uss-sides/view/?service=1 )

They were supposed to have been sold to Portugal back in 2004, but Portugal choose instead 2 Dutch M-type Frigates, so they are until today in Bremerton.

I know thay were offered to Turkey but the reactivation costs were so high that the turkish navy decline them.

Back in 2006, when Portugal started negotiating the “M”s, some calculations were made and for both frigate the purchase+reactivation costs would be similar to the “hot transfer ” of both “M”s, ~240 M€.

So it would mean ~120 M€ per ship.

I think it’s a very high price for an already old vessel, ok the FFG-8 is still operational but without Mk-13 launcher is basically a very big OPV.

A very bad deal , IMHO 😐

Unless the USN re-mounts a new Mk-13 launcher and sell her for cheap, maybe if you cut the reactivation price it will drop to 60 M€???

Some time ago I read Ukraine was also interested in one of those…

India-made stealth submarine to be tested next month
Ananthakrishnan G, TNN, Feb 20, 2010, 02.57am IST
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the ‘eye in the sky’, here is a home-grown spy in the sea. India is all set to test its ‘‘Autonomous Underwater Vehicle-150’’ off the Chennai coast next month. Developed by the Durgapur-based Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the unmanned vehicle, has immense civilian and military potential.

‘‘AUV-150 will be tested for sea-floor mapping and monitoring of environmental parameters, such as current, temperature, depth and salinity,’’ CMERI director Gautam Biswas told TOI. ‘‘Once the technology is proven, it will be customised for military applications, like mine counter-measures, coastal monitoring and reconnaissance. It will also be very useful in cable and pipeline surveys.’’

The project was sponsored by the ministry of earth sciences and had technical assistance from IIT-Kharagpur. ‘‘A full-scale prototype was put to freshwater test in Idukki dam in Kerala recently. All navigational parameters functioned satisfactorily,’’ said S N Shome, group head for robotics and automation at CMERI under whose supervision the AUV took shape.

The prototype weighs 490 kg, is 4.8 metres long and has a diameter of just 50 cm. It packs a wide array of gadgets into its slender frame — depth sensor, altimeter, sonar and GPS and payload sensors — apart from a hybrid communication system that uses radio waves while on the surface and acoustic underwater.
The remote controlled vehicle uses a Lithium polymer battery and can operate up to depths of 150 metres at speeds of 2-4 knots, say sources.

The AUV will leapfrog India to a select group of nations, like the US, Australia, Germany, Russia, Korea and Japan, which are vigorously pursuing autonomous underwater technology and underwater robotics. ‘‘The institute had been working on the project since 2003, but with the stress being on indigenization, it was bound to be time consuming,’’ said S Nandy, a scientist associated with the project.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5594779.cms?prtpage=1

Russia, India to sign additional accord on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier

Russia and India are to sign an additional agreement on a contract to upgrade the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrying cruiser, a Russian military cooperation service top official said Monday.

“The document will be signed in February-March this year,” deputy service director Alexander Fomin said.

Moscow and New Delhi had been wrangling over the final cost of the project to upgrade the aircraft carrier since Russia said it had underestimated the cost of modernization, and asked for an additional $1.2 billion, an amount India called “exorbitant.”

Under the original $1.5-billion 2004 contract between Russia’s state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport and the Indian Navy, which includes delivery of MiG-29K Fulcrum carrier-based fighters, work on the aircraft carrier was to be completed in 2008.

In December, it was reported India would pay Russia $2.3 billion to refit the Admiral Gorshkov.

After long-running delays and disputes, India offered in February 2008 to raise the refit costs for the aircraft carrier, docked at the Sevmash shipyard in northern Russia for the past 12 years, by up to $600 million. Russia said it was not satisfied with the proposal.

The Admiral Gorshkov is a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier, originally named Baku. The ship was laid down in 1978 at the Nikolayev South shipyard in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned with the Soviet Navy in 1987. It was renamed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the Admiral Gorshkov sat in dock for a year for repairs. After a brief return to service in 1995, it was finally withdrawn from service in 1996 and put up for sale.

The ship has a displacement capacity of 45,000 tons. It has maximum speed of 32 knots and an endurance of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km) at a cruising speed of 18 knots.

NEW DELHI, February 15 (RIA Novosti)

http://www.en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100215/157892047.html

Submarine forces in the Northern Fleet reorganized
2010-02-11

All nuclear submarines in Russia’s Northern Fleet have been united in one unit – the submarine forces. The forces’ headquartes will be located in the closed town of Gadzhiyevo on the Barents Sea coast.

The two squadrons the submarines in the Northern Fleet earlier were organized in have now been merged into one structure, GTRK Murman reports. The forces are organized in four divisions, all under the leadership of Rear Admiral Andrey Volozhinsky.

Admiral Volozhinsky said after a ceremony in the closed military town Zaozersk that the Northern Fleet’s submarine forces will have the same tasks as before and that there will be no changes in the number of personnel.

According to Chief of Staff in the Northern Fleet Vladmir Korolev solving social issues will be easier under consolidated leadership: – History has shown this. We are now returning to the structure the submarine forces had in the 1950’s and 60’s.

Read also: We never stopped patrolling the world’s oceans

The Northern Fleet’s submarine forces will have their headquarters in Gadzhiyevo, and the submarines will be based in Gadzhiyevo, Vidyayevo and Zaozersk. These three towns are all located on the Barents Sea coast between the town of Murmansk and the border to Norway.

Murmansk Oblast has seven closed towns – Severomorsk, Vidayevo, Gadzhiyego, Zaozersk, Skalisty, Ostrovnoy and Snezhnogorsk. They either host naval bases or defense related industry like ship repair yards.

Watch video: From the ceremony in Zaozersk on TV21

http://www.barentsobserver.com/submarine-forces-in-the-northern-fleet-reorganized.4745504-116320.html

French-Russian Warship Deal Making Waves Among NATO Allies

A French Navy Mistral amphibious assault ship, docked on the Neva River in central St. Petersburg in November 2009.
February 09, 2010
By Ahto Lobjakas
BRUSSELS — The French daily “Le Monde” broke the news on February 9: Paris had “agreed in principle” to negotiate the sale of one or more Mistral-class ships to Russia.

If the sale goes through, it will be the first deal of its kind between a member of NATO and Russia.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin first voiced Russian interest in buying a Mistral-class ship during a trip to Paris in late November. As he spoke, a Mistral was docked in St Petersburg — part of a carefully choreographed move — playing host to Russian combat helicopters.

Feeling vulnerable, a number of Russia’s former satellites have mounted a bid to derail the sale. Georgia is particularly bothered, as memories of its August 2008 war with Russia are still very fresh.

NATO’s new Eastern allies along the Baltic Sea are also unsettled, however, and have taken their concerns not only to Paris but to Washington and NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Undermine Security

Harri Tiido, the undersecretary for political affairs at the Estonian Foreign Ministry, tells RFE/RL that the Baltic states believe the sale of the Mistrals could undermine their security. “Definitely, it would not add to the security of the region. And I think the nations around the Baltic Sea in that case would have to see what they have to do to change their defense planning, maybe,” Tiido says. “But also, it could influence the defense planning of NATO.”

The Mistral is a 200-meter vessel capable of carrying 900 troops, 35 helicopters, four landing barges, and 70 land-going vehicles. It also has facilities for carrying refugees, supplies, and hospitals.

Although it has often been deployed by France in humanitarian missions, Russia seems to have military applications uppermost in its mind. In September, the chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky, said a Mistral-type vessel would have allowed Russia to defeat Georgia in 2008 “in 40 minutes instead of 26 hours.”

Estonians and the other Baltic states take some solace from the fact that the Mistral is not designed to operate in icy conditions.

Russian defense analyst Pavel Felgenhauer says that Russia is planning to deploy the Mistrals in the Black Sea. “The most obvious application is to have the capability to perform large-scale landing operations in the Black Sea. And I believe that’s first and foremost in the western half of Crimea,” he says. “We have quite a number of large landing ships, but they’re not new, and they were all built abroad, in Poland, at the Gdansk shipyard. They don’t have helicopter landing capabilities.

“So, if by 2017, we would have some kind of problem with Sevastopol, having such a capability would be very important.”

Felgenhauer says he doesn’t believe the Mistrals would be used against Georgia.

Lobbying The United States

The chairman of Russia’s national Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, said on February 9 that Moscow has not yet made a decision on whether to buy the Mistrals.

In an attempt to make the sale an issue of NATO solidarity, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have jointly lobbied the United States to intervene.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris today and said afterward, “It is more a problem of the message being sent than a military issue.”

So now [France has] decided to make a step forward and give the green light to a project that is removing many taboos in Russia and the West.
At NATO headquarters, officials appear to assume it is now a matter of when and not whether the deal will materialize. NATO spokesman James Appathurai says that the alliance has no objections.

“NATO has no formal role at all in this sale,” he says. “Of course, allies talk to each other, including on this issue. We are quite confident that the sale would be — when it takes place — perfectly legal, within all the relevant frameworks. But, of course, some allies have expressed concern about the sale, and we are aware of it.”

Heavy With Irony

The whole affair is heavy with irony for both NATO and France. Experts point out that Russia is seeking to buy the Mistrals in order to address some its naval weaknesses that were exposed by the Georgian campaign.

Georgia itself now feels threatened and its leaders are warning NATO that Russia intends to use the Mistrals against it.

Four months before the war, in April 2008, NATO turned down Georgia’s bid to join the alliance’s membership track after France and Germany voiced their opposition. France, acting as EU president, negotiated the war’s August 12 cease-fire — the full terms of which Russia has refused to honor.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that only French intervention prevented Russia from capturing Tbilisi. Both the EU and NATO temporarily broke off relations with Russia after the war.

Last year, France rejoined NATO’s military command structure after an absence of 43 years. But Paris also vowed to pursue a European axis within the alliance. Its leaders have repeatedly argued that the alliance can’t continue treating Moscow as simultaneously an ally and an enemy, a position Germany agrees with.

Both countries opposed the U.S. plan to site part of its missile shield in Eastern Europe, as well as drawing up NATO defense plans for the three Baltic countries.

Broader Agenda

Arnaud Dubien, a Russia expert at the French Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), says that France’s pursuit of better relations with Russia is part of a broader national agenda.

“France wants a more ambitious relation with Russia, notably in the economic sphere, but also on the political sphere. France wants to be present in important sectors: energy, aeronautics, railways,” Dubien says. “So now [it] decided to make a step forward and give the green light to a project that is removing many taboos in Russia and the West.”

Under President Barack Obama, the United States has sought to “reset” its fraught relationship with Russia. NATO, under Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has followed suit. Russia plays an increasingly vital role in NATO’s efforts to stabilize Afghanistan.

Dubien also points out that the Mistral deal has a significant domestic dimension for France, which, like other developed nations, is grappling with the effects of the global economic downturn.

“The shipyards of Saint-Nazaire are currently building a third Mistral for the French Navy, but starting from next year, there are no [new] orders,” Dubien says. “Building a Mistral employs about 1,500 people for nearly two years, and it would have been very difficult for the French government to explain to the future unemployed that there was an order, but that we refused to honor it.”

Potential competition from shipyards in Spain and the Netherlands, both of which have been quietly approached by Moscow, raises the stakes. But Russia, like France, appears to have the bigger picture in mind. Moscow views France as a crucial bridgehead in Europe. Russia’s sights are set on Paris: 2010 is “The Year of France” in Russia, and “The Year of Russia” in France.

French officials expect the sale of the Mistrals to be officially announced during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Paris in early March.

RFE/RL correspondent Antoine Blua contributed to this story

http://www.rferl.org/content/FrenchRussian_Warship_Deal_Making_Waves_Among_NATO_Allies/1953455.html

France agrees warship sale to Russia
Mon Feb 8, 2010 7:14am EST
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGEE5AQ1K820100208

PARIS, Feb 8 (Reuters) – France has agreed to sell a Mistral class warship to Russia, a French official said on Monday, despite concerns expressed by Georgia and other countries.
Russia wanted to buy the 21,300-tonne helicopter carrier from France to modernise hardware that was exposed as outdated in its five-day war against Georgia in 2008.
“France has agreed to sell one Mistral warship to Russia,” a Defence Ministry official told reporters.

France belongs to NATO and its willingness to sell Russia advanced technology that could be used in a confrontation with its forces or against its allies has caused concern among other NATO members.
Several of Russia’s neighbours have also expressed worries. Lithuania wrote to France in November asking for clarification of the situation and details of the ship’s ammunition.
The Mistral, marketed by French naval concern DCNS and estimated by analysts to cost 300 million to 500 million euros, is an amphibious assault ship able to carry helicopters, troops, armoured vehicles and tanks thousands of miles.

During the war with Georgia, launched to repel Tbilisi’s attempt to retake the rebel province of South Ossetia, Russia tried to control the Black Sea coast where NATO warships appeared.
Russia has said it could have moved more swiftly in the Black Sea if a Mistral-type ship had been in its fleet.
Despite a peace deal mediated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, tensions remain high in Georgia. The region is viewed by the West as a vital energy transit route from the Caspian to Europe.

Navy to Formally Induct MiG-29K Naval Fighter Jets

(Source: ddi Indian Government news; issued Feb. 2, 2010)

The [Indian] Navy will formally induct the Russian-made MiG-29K naval fighter jets for deployment on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier on 19th February in Goa.

The first four of the 16 MiG-29Ks that India had bought from Russia in 2004 along with Gorshkov were delivered at the INS Hansa naval base in Goa on 4th December last.

“The formal induction ceremony has been fixed for February 19 at INS Hansa. The squadron has been named Black Panthers,” a Navy spokesperson said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The fighter jets that arrived in Goa in a knocked-down condition in a transport plane were re-assembled at INS Hansa, which also has a maintenance and training facility for the aircraft and its pilots.

“At present the Russian technicians and pilots are based in Goa to do the reassembling and training our technicians and pilots to take over maintenance and operations soon,” he said.

After induction, the fighter jets would be operated temporarily from the shore-based facility at INS Hansa till the actual delivery of Gorshkov, rechristened as INS Vikramaditya, slated for 2012.

Under the USD 1.5 billion deal signed in March 2004 for the 45,000-tonne Kiev class Gorshkov and the MiG-29Ks, USD 974 million went towards the warship and USD 526 million for the fighter jets.

Of the 16 jets, 12 are MiG-29K single-seater fighters and the rest four are MiG-29KUB twin-seater trainers.

India is all set to ink another deal with Russia for 29 more MiG-29Ks for USD 1.2 billion in a bid to strengthen its naval aviation wing.

The MiG-29Ks flight operations on Gorshkov will be in the Short Take Off But Arrested Landing (STOBAR) configuration for which the ship is being re-modified at Sevmash yard in Russia.

To train Indian pilots for STOBAR operations, India has already set up the world’s third shore-based training facility at INS Hansa.

The pilots were also sent to the US for deck landing training and on board a French aircraft carrier for operations training, apart from Russia for Qualified Flying Instructors’ conversion training.

The aircraft has arrester gear on its tail to help hooking onto the arrestor wires on board the landing deck of the carrier.

It also has stronger landing gear to withstand the arrested landing on board the carriers, folding wings and rust-proofing to prevent corrosion.

Fitted with a fully digitised glass cockpit, improved engine protection against ingestion of foreign particles like birds, a multi-mode radar and increased range, the MiG-29Ks will also provide aerial cover to the carrier’s battle group, acquire air superiority and destroy sea-borne and ground-based targets with guided high-precision weapons in all weather, day-and-night conditions.

India currently operates the Sea Harrier jump jets on board its solitary Centaur Class aircraft carrier, which celebrated its 50 years of naval service both in the Royal Navy as HMS Hermes and in the Indian Navy as INS Viraat.

Of the 30-odd Sea Harriers the Navy bought from Britain along with Viraat in late 1980s, only a dozen of them are left in service.

-ends-

http://www.defense-aerospace.com/#

Seems 2nd flight will take place on monday