The Armada de Mexico frigate ARM Mina (F-214) departs Mayport Naval Base to participate in UNITAS Gold off the coast of Jacksonville. Mayport is host to maritime forces from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Uruguay for the 50th iteration of the annual multinational maritime exercise, which will take place off the coast of Florida April 20-May 5.

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=70921

The Marinha do Brasil ship BNS Constituicao (F 42) departs Mayport Naval Base to participate in UNITAS Gold off the coast of Jacksonville.

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=70922

Maritime forces from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Mexico, Peru, The United States and Uruguay sail in formation during UNITAS Gold, the 50th iteration of the annual multi-national maritime exercise to increase interoperability among participating navies.

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=70912

China’s naval review more pics
http://german.china.org.cn/china/2009-04/23/content_17655519.htm

Here are some of the list. Naval ships and assets from more than 20 nations comprise the Combined Maritime Forces. The naval force will operate in an area covering the southern Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean along the coast of Somalia, an area of about 2 000 000 km ² .

US Navy established the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) established Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151). The amphibious assault ship Boxer, now operating with USS Vella Gulf, a guided missile cruiser. the guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72).

The NATO consisting seven warships to fight pirates off the coast of Somalia. They consist of two ships from Germany and one each from the U.S., Netherlands, Spain, Canada and Portugal. Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1):
NRP Corte Real (flagship, Portugal)
HMCS Winnipeg (Canada)
HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën (The Netherlands)
SPS Blas de Lezo (Spain)
USS Halyburton (United States of America)

The Germany Navy participation from a frigate, the FGS Karlsruhe and supply tanker FGS “Spessart”.

France participates in the operation with one fregate and one maritime patrol aircraft, ATL 2, based in Djibouti.

The Swedish send two corvette HMS Malmö and Stockholm, and support ship Trossö.

The Danish flexible support ship HDMS Absalon (L 16).

The Greek Navy with the frigate “Psara”.

Turkey participation the guided missile frigate TCG F-491 Giresun.

Royal Navy Type 23 frigate HMS Portland.

Russia has sent task force to the Gulf of Aden to take part in ongoing anti-piracy operations consist the vessels the Admiral Vinogradov destroyer and Azov & Yamal large landing ships. The Admiral Panteleyev destroyer a salvage tugboat and a tanker will replace task force, led by the Admiral Vinogradov destroyer.

The PLAN sends three warships to Somalia first escort mission: the 169 Wu Han (Type 52B guided missile destroyer), 171 Hai Kou (Type 52C “Chinese Aegis” guided missile destroyer), and 887 Wei Shan Hu (supply ship). China is sending a navy task force to the Gulf of Aden to replace warships deployed. The flotilla -second escort mission -will comprise a destroyer, Shenzhen, a frigate, Huangshan, and Weishanhu, a supply ship that also supported the first escort mission.

Japan will dispatch two destroyers to waters off Somalia for a mission protecting the 4,650-ton Sazanami and the 4,550-ton Samidare.

The Indian Navy has sent warship INS Tabar and the guided missile frigate INS Beas to the Gulf of Aden to conduct anti-piracy operations.

The South Korean Navy is expected to deploy one of its 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyers. The Munmu the Great.

Singapore will send a navy transport ship and two helicopters to support multinational anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden area.

A Malaysian warship, KD Sri Indera Sakti.

Pakistan will send warship Nasr auxiliary ship to seas off Somalia to fight piracy in the area.

A Saudi navy one frigate. The frigate Al-Riyadh.

An Iranian warship has entered the Gulf of Aden to protect Iranian vessels against pirates.

I ‘m not sure for Italyan Navy participation.

Its not correct….currently the Germany Navy participation from three frigates, the FGS Karlsruhe, FGS Emden, FGS Rheinland-Pfalz and and supply tanker FGS “Spessart”.

Here are some more pictures with the arrest of the 7 Somalis that tried to board the FGS SPESSART….http://www.bundeswehr.de/portal/a/bwde/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd443DnQHSYGZASH6kTCxoJRUfW99X4_83FT9AP2C3IhyR0dFRQCsXOUq/delta/base64xml/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS80SVVFLzZfQ18yODI5?yw_contentURL=%2FC1256EF4002AED30%2FW27QPA2V620INFODE%2Fcontent.jsp

German navy captures pirates off Somalia

The German navy thwarted an attack on cargo ship off the coast of Somalia on Tuesday….here some pics:http://www.bundeswehr.de/portal/a/bwde/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd443DnQHSYGZASH6kTCxoJRUfW99X4_83FT9AP2C3IhyR0dFRQCsXOUq/delta/base64xml/L2dJQSEvUUt3QS80SVVFLzZfQ18yODI5?yw_contentURL=%2FC1256EF4002AED30%2FW27PSH52807INFODE%2Fcontent.jsp

A Dutch F125 ?

It looks like the proposed German F125, initially criticized for not being desirable on the export market, may indeed have an interested customer. The Netherlands is mentioned as interested in the F125. This may or may not be accurate, but there are reasons why it probably is.

German Court of Auditors aren’t happy about the F125 price, claiming the new ship could cost as much as 3 billion Euros. For only 4 ships, that would represent a substantial naval investment by Germany. The accountants don’t seem to like anything about the contract, which they claim is designed poorly and only to the favor of the defense industry. That is their job though, sort of like how the CBO hates all procurement costs for any military program, apparently accountants are the same everywhere.

The Dutch and Germans are partners and have experience in joint programs, so this really isn’t anything new about a potential partnership in a shipbuilding program. The F125 contract already has foreign expenditure in the program, and that almost certainly includes Thales NL.

When the announcement came that the 127mm lightweight Otobreda naval gun was chosen over the MONARC, it reminded me that the Netherlands and Italy had already begun working on long range projectiles for the 127mm Otobreda. Given the ground attack role of the F125, and the apparent substantial cost of the F125, it is possible the desire to cut cost in developing the new gun led to the final 127mm choice, and the existing interest by the Dutch to field such a gun in the future was as much as a factor in the final F125 design as the purchase of U212s by Italy. You never know with the webs weaved in the European defense community.

In the end though, the F125 itself is impressive. Designed as a stealth ship, which might be just a vogue way of saying ‘new’ in maritime circles these days, the F125 does have a considerable amount of redundancy, and is built to a higher combat standard than is typically seen in European warships, which tend to cut costs by using a modified upscale commercial standard (not to be confused with a lower cost civilian standard or a higher cost military standard common in the US Navy). At 7200 tons and designed for 2 year deployments, it is an interesting deviation from how other countries are trying to incorporate land attack on the cheap if at all, and a much broader approach than what other European Navies are considering with FREMM.

Source: informationdissemination.blogspot.com

Germany ´s new F125 Frigates gets bigger…from 6500 tons to 7200 tons….

In german

http://www.soldat-und-technik.de/

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New German Navy corvette FGS (Federal German Ship) Braunschweig F260 arrived in Palma (Spain)

FGS Braunschweig F260, which will be based in the Naval Base in Warnemuende (Baltic Sea), will arrive in the Mediterranean next week to take part in the Mare Aperto naval exercise off the coast of Sicily, Italy.

After the Sicily exercise, Braunschweig is to journey through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea to check how its technical systems function in subtropical seas.

http://www.fotosdebarcos.com/viewtopic.php?t=15077

German Navy received the first of its 1,800 ton K130 ocean going corvettes

After six years of planning and construction, the German Navy received the first of its 1,800 ton K130 ocean going corvettes. These will replace S143/148class coastal patrol boats, which were designed for combat along the Baltic Coast. The K130s are designed for moving long distances to support peacekeeping missions, or any other type of mission NATO might have outside of Europe.
The K130 design is based on design designated MEKO-A100 frigate. The K130s can remain at sea for seven days without replenishment, and 21 days if they receive some resupply via helicopter. The K130s are still basically coast defense ships, but they are also built for long ocean voyages, and are able to proceed at 25-30 kilometers an hour in heavy seas. Top speed is 46 kilometers an hour.
The crew of 65 operates a highly automated ship. Actually, crew size can be as small as fifty. Armament consists of a 76mm gun, two 27mm autocannons, two 21 cell Rolling Airframe Missile systems (for missile defense) and RBS-15 anti-ship missiles. There is a helicopter pad, but only for landing and refueling helicopters. The ships can carry a small helicopter, and the navy would like to have a pair of UAVs in the future. Four more K130s are being built, and the navy would like to have at least a dozen of them.

http://www.strategypage.com