The US Coast Guard has commissioned its newest fast response cutter while construction continues on a Montenegrin Navy patrol ship and a US Navy destroyer. A Spanish builder has secured an order for patrol-capable crewboats for operation in Africa.
Kership, the joint venture formed by French naval shipbuilders Piriou and the Naval Group, has launched a new offshore patrol vessel (OPV) ordered by the Montenegrin Navy.
The future Petar Njegoš I is the first of two vessels that Kership is building for the Montenegrin Navy. Both vessels are scheduled to be delivered before the end of this year.
The ships belong to the same class as three OPVs that Kership delivered to the Senegalese Navy.
The Montenegrin OPVs will perform a range of missions including border control, counter-piracy patrols, special operations support, humanitarian assistance, search and rescue, and pollution response.
Germany will order a fourth signals intelligence ship of a new class, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday, adding the budget draft was on its way to parliament for approval.
Speaking in the northeastern town of Wolgast at the keel-laying ceremony for the third such ship built by Rheinmetall, Pistorius said the vessels were crucial for providing situational awareness in a deteriorating security environment.
"These ships can hear and see what others cannot hear and see. They are our eyes and ears at sea. They perceive and analyse a huge extent of signals and sounds."
The German Navy is set to take delivery of the new class of ships from 2029.
Spain's Aresa Shipyard has been selected for the manufacture of new patrol boats to be used by an undisclosed operator.
Aresa said that it has entered into a long-term contract with a UK-based company operating in the oil and gas and crew transfer sector in the Gulf of Guinea region.
The agreement includes a progressive fleet renewal program based on Aresa's coastal patrol vessel design, which will provide both security and crew transfer services across the region's offshore oil fields.
"This project reinforces Aresa Shipyard's long-standing presence in the African market and our commitment to delivering professional naval solutions with local support, technical follow-up and mission-adapted configurations," the company said in a recent social media post.
The US Coast Guard commissioned its 63rd Sentinel-class fast response cutter (FRC) in a ceremony in New York City on Saturday, September 12.
USCGC Jeffrey Palazzo honours Machinery Technician 1st Class Jeffrey Palazzo, a New York City firefighter and US Coast Guard reservist who died in the line of duty during the September 11, 2001, while responding to the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.
Built by Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana, the FRC has a length of 154 feet (46.9 metres), a flank speed of 28 knots, a C4ISR suite, and a stern launch and recovery ramp for a 26-foot (7.92-metre), over-the-horizon interceptor cutter boat.
Her armament includes a 25mm autocannon and four 12.7mm machine guns.
General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (GDBIW) has laid the keel of the future USS John E. Kilmer, a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer (DDG).
The ship will be built as an Arleigh Burke flight III destroyer featuring an AN/SPY-6(V)1 air and missile defence radar and upgrades to her electrical power and cooling capacity plus additional associated changes to provide greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet.
The 513-foot (156-metre) destroyer will be be powered by four GE LM2500 gas turbines that deliver a speed of 31 knots.
Armament will include a 127mm naval gun, 25mm autocannons, a 20mm close-in weapon system, torpedoes, surface-to-air missiles, and Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.