The US Navy has formally welcomed its newest submarine into service while construction continues on a Norwegian rescue boat and a UK Royal Navy frigate. A US builder has secured a contract for a coast guard vessel prototype. Lastly, the Norwegian Government has selected a local firm for design work on future navy ships.
The Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency awarded Kongsberg and Salt Ship Design a contract to develop a design concept for standardised vessels on March 30. This agreement follows a prequalification process initiated in January for the design of up to 28 new vessels for the Norwegian Navy.
Reducing the current fleet of more than 10 vessel classes to a single standardised type is intended to streamline operations and increase flexibility.
President of Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace Eirik Lie said, “A standardised fleet…will simplify maintenance, reduce costs and ensure more efficient operations for the navy.”
The US Navy commissioned its newest Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine in a ceremony in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts, on Saturday, March 28.
USS Massachusetts is the 25th Virginia-class submarine overall, as well as the 12th in the Virginia-class to be delivered by Huntington Ingalls Industries' Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) division.
As with her Virginia-class sisters, the submarine will be capable of operating in littoral and deep waters. Missions will include anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, strike warfare, special operations forces support, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, irregular warfare, and mine warfare.
UK defence shipbuilder Babcock has floated out the future HMS Active, the UK Royal Navy's second Type 31 frigate.
Once in service, the future Active and her Type 31 sisters, also known as the Inspiration-class, will be used to conduct missions including counter-terrorism and counter-drug patrols and disaster response.
Each ship will have a 57mm naval gun, two 40mm autocannon, surface-to-air missiles, a helicopter deck, and space for three small fast boats for at-sea interceptions and boardings.
The US Coast Guard has selected Safe Boats International of Bremerton, Washington, as one of four companies that will build a response boat–small (RB-S) demonstrator vessel.
Safe Boats said the RB-S platform will serve as a critical asset across a wide range of coast guard missions including search and rescue, law enforcement, ports and waterways security, and maritime response operations.
Through this competitive demonstrator program, the coast guard will evaluate multiple vessel designs to inform future procurement decisions.
Norwegian boatbuilder GOT Marine has launched a new search and rescue (SAR) boat ordered by the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue (Redningsselskapet; RS).
The vessel, which has been given the designation RS178, will be the largest in the RS fleet with a length of 32 metres as well as space for firefighting equipment and compartments for housing rescued survivors.
A hybrid propulsion setup will deliver speeds of up to 30 knots, a range of 600 nautical miles, and a bollard pull of 30 tonnes. RS said this will be the first hybrid propulsion installation on a rescue vessel of this size in Norway.
