Arctic: “Six Nations Win Seats on Arctic Council” Wall Street Journal, 15 May 2013 At a ministerial summit on Wednesday, members of the Arctic Council agreed to grant permanent observer status to six nations: China, India, Singapore, Italy, Japan and South Korea. Canada, which took over the chair of the Council from Sweden during the summit, …
Read more »Canada: “Canada tightens shipping emission standards” CBC News, 08 May 2013 The Canadian government is preparing legislation to update its emission standards for marine traffic in line with those of the United States. The new regulations include adopting the North American Emission Control Area (ECA) agreement which has stricter emission standards than are required globally. New …
Read more »Canada / United States: “US and Canadian armed forces to conduct exercise Trident Fury 2013″ Naval Technology, 30 April 2013 Canadian and American military and coast guard forces will conduct the biennial Trident Fury joint exercise off Vancouver Island from May 3rd to 19th. This year’s drills will include the Royal Canadian Navy ships Algonquin, Ottawa, Victoria, Nanaimo, …
Read more »United States: “Navy still seeks to decommission more ships” Navy Times, 23 April 2013 The US Navy (USN) is proceeding with plans to again try to decommission more ships despite having a previous request to do so denied by Congress. In light of looming budget cuts, in February 2012 the Navy announced that it would be …
Read more »United States: “U.S. Navy, Marine Corps acquisition plans hit by sequester” Reuters, 16 April 2013 During presentations to the House of Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, US Navy (USN) and Marine Corps officials stated that legislated budgets cuts, known as sequestration, would reduce overall readiness and cut heavily into naval procurement and research and development (R&D) …
Read more »United States: “Watch Navy’s New Laser Cannon, Mounted on a Ship, Kill a Drone” & “Navy Deploying Laser Weapon Prototype Near Iran” Danger Room blog, 08 April 2013 & New York Times, 08 April 2013 The US Navy (USN) has released video of its prototype solid-state Laser Weapon System (LaWS), mounted on USS Dewey, successfully shooting down a UAV, …
Read more »Canada: “Canadian naval drug bust worth $150M happened ‘peacefully’” CBC News, 01 April 2013 The Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Toronto seized 500kg of heroin from a fishing boat in the Indian Ocean on March 29th. Toronto‘s helicopter spotted the vessel of interest and tracked the dhow until a team from Toronto was able to board the vessel. The cache of …
Read more »World: “Market for conventional subs to grow” UPI, 04 March 2013 The independent research firm Frost & Sullivan predicts that the world market for diesel-electric submarines will grow at a rate of 1.8 percent per year until 2022. Demand will be particularly high for boats equipped with air-independent propulsion systems in new construction and retrofit markets. …
Read more »NATO: “NATO to test anti-submarine warfare underwater and surface vehicles” & “NATO Center Tests Wave Glider in ASW Exercise” Defence Systems, 25 February 2013 & Marinelink.com, 22 February 2013 Naval vessels and air assets from Canada, France, the UK and the US, among others, arrived in the Ionian Sea last week to participate in NATO’s …
Read more »Finland / Russia / Syria: “Finland probes ‘Syria arms smuggling attempt’” al-Jazeera,16 February 2013 Finnish authorities have launched a probe into an alleged Russian attempt to illegally smuggle arms to Syria via a port in Helsinki. The investigation was launched after Finnish custom officials reportedly discovered tank parts in a container on board the Russian …
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