The Royal Australian Navy’s new Bay-class dock landing ship has passed its first capability test after three weeks of amphibious exercises off North Queensland.

At a time of considerable attention being focused on naval sustainment issues and practices, a Class Output Management (COM) approach being implemented in the UK to support Royal Navy ships is showing real, positive results.  Such an approach could address a number of the recommendations raised in the recently published Rizzo Review, Babcock’s Bob Love (Deputy CEO) and former Director General Ships (RN) believes.

The New Zealand Defence Force’s plans to establish a Joint Amphibious Task Force have focussed its attention on the individual and collective skills and expertise it needs as well as the hardware and software: the weapons, platforms and command and control systems.

When is a boat, not a boat? When it’s a Sealegs amphibious boat, capable of being driven on land as well as in the water and launching itself with the assistance of only the driver.

While it will be 10 years or so before Sea 5000, the Future Frigate project, achieves first pass approval, work has already begun on aspects of the project including preparation for canvassing the market next year.

Following trials off Australia and Hawaii that confirmed the exemplary performance against high-speed, agile targets of the Anti-Ship Missile Defence (ASMD) upgrade installed on HMAS Perth, this radical enhancement to capability is now to be extended to the RAN’s seven other Anzac class frigates.

Defence is seeking innovative solutions as replacements for the 40-year-old Balikpapan Class LCHs, possibly including role adaptability. Judging by some of the new designs approaching the market it may get its wish.

The Submarine Institute of Australia (SIA) gathered in Adelaide in November to look at the issues facing submarines both in the present and in the future. There is much work to be done but there is an emerging understanding of some of the issues at play.

The Williams Foundation, at a seminar in Canberra, focussed attention on the relatively unexamined issues of how much the ADF needs to do, and understand, in order to achieve an effective amphibious capability.

In many ways the RNZN’s Operational Diving Team reflects both the Navy and the wider New Zealand Defence Force: small in numbers, stretched and strained yet multi-skilled and world-class in its personnel, training and kit.

Austal held a keel-laying ceremony for its second Joint High Speed Vessel, "Choctaw County", one of seven Austal-designed 103-metre US Navy Joint High Speed Vessels.

Austal's US operation has been awarded a subcontract by BAE Systems to provide structural maintenance services for "Sea Fighter", a US Navy Research Vessel.

DCNS and Thales has announced the launch of a supplementary phase for the Technology Demonstration of a system for automatic landing and deck-landing of UAVs.

The crew of HMAS Broome successfully prevented an environmental and maritime catastrophe off Papua New Guinea recently by providing assistance to a commercial container ship.

Austal responded promptly to a report on the ADM website that the US Navy is planning to slash the number of Joint High Speed Vessels built by Austal USA from 21 to just 10 ships.

The US Navy is slashing the number of multimillion-dollar catamarans it plans to acquire from shipbuilder Austal USA, a move that could terminate the Joint High Speed Vessel program.