Maritime Security Vessel News Roundup | June 13 – Australian and Canadian patrol vessels, Indian and Italian submarines and more

A new patrol boat for the Royal Australian Navy hits the water as construction is underway on a US Navy amphibious ship and an Italian Navy submarine. Three separate partnerships are working to introduce new submarines and surface ships for the Royal Canadian and Indian Navies. Finally, a French defence shipbuilder will conduct a study on future deployment of unmanned, combat-capable craft.

Royal Australian Navy’s sixth Evolved Cape-class patrol boat floated out

Austal Australia has floated out the sixth Evolved Cape-class patrol boat slated for the Royal Australian Navy, the future ADV Cape Pillar.

The 57.8-metre vessel was launched at Austal’s Henderson, Western Australia shipyard following 12 months of construction.

Like their baseline Cape-class sisters, the Evolved Cape-class boats were built for sustained operations lasting a maximum of 28 days or covering a range of 4,000 nautical miles in conditions up to Sea State Four. The newer vessels will also retain the baseline Cape-class boats’ standard armament of two pintle-mounted 12.7-millimetre machine guns.

Keel laid for future US Navy amphibious transport dock Pittsburgh

Huntington Ingalls Industries’ Ingalls Shipbuilding division recently laid the keel of the future USS Pittsburgh, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock (LPD) slated for the US Navy.

The LPD will be the fifth US Navy vessel to be named for the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The San Antonio-class LPDs are designed to support embarking, transporting, and landing US Marines and their equipment by conventional or air-cushioned landing craft. The ship’s capabilities are further enhanced by its flight deck and hangar, enabling the ship to operate a variety of US Marine Corps helicopters and the MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

Because of the San Antonio-class ships’ inherent capabilities, they are able to support a variety of amphibious assault, special operations, expeditionary warfare, or disaster relief missions, operating independently or as part of amphibious readiness groups, expeditionary strike groups, or joint task forces.

Partnership unveils proposed patrol vessel for Royal Canadian Navy

A partnership of Canadian companies has begun a project to develop a new class of offshore patrol vessel (OPV) tailored to the future needs of the Royal Canadian Navy.

The OPVs will be developed by the Team Vigilance partnership formed by Canada’s Heddle Shipyards, Vard Marine, and Thales Canada. Other partners include technology firm SH Defence and Vard Marine’s parent company Fincantieri of Italy.

Vard Marine said the vessel is conceived for high-tempo sovereignty missions and engineered for global deployment and forward basing abroad.

Canadian-Korean partnership to collaborate on future submarines

Naval support company Babcock Canada has entered into a technical cooperation agreement with South Korean shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (formerly Hyundai Heavy Industries) to collaborate on the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project (CPSP).

The CPSP was established by the Canadian Department of National Defence to research procurement options for the Royal Canadian Navy’s next-generation submarine.

Babcock Canada said the technical cooperation agreement will enable both organisations to share their respective capabilities in shipbuilding and submarine sustainment in support of the CPSP.

Construction starts on Italian Navy’s second U212NFS submarine

Italian shipyard Fincantieri has begun construction on the second of a planned four U212NFS submarines for the Italian Navy.

The U212NFS boats will be used for missions including anti-piracy, security of energy supply routes, anti-terrorism, and protection of offshore and subsea infrastructure.

The submarines will replace the four aging Nazario Sauro-class boats that entered service from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.

German builder to support Indian Navy submarine construction

German naval shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (MDL) on the intended construction of conventional, air independent propulsion (AIP) submarines for the Indian Navy.

MDL will build the submarines at its Mumbai facilities while TKMS will provide engineering and design work as well as consultancy support.

TKMS said this will be its second collaboration with an Indian partner on submarine construction. The earlier collaboration led to the construction and delivery of the Indian Navy’s four Shishumar-class submarines, which are variants of the Type 209 boats designed by TKMS’ HDW division.

French defence firm tapped for feasibility study covering combat-capable UUVs

The French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement; DGA) has awarded French defence shipbuilder the Naval Group a contract for the study of the main use cases and system architecture of a combat-capable unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV).

This study will identify UUV use cases and define the system architecture of an autonomous combat system demonstrator.

The DGA awarded the contract for the initial study in May 2023. The study period has an estimated duration of nine months.