Navy

MILAN — An agreement between Finland, Canada, and the United States to jointly build icebreaker ships may hold the key to deeper cooperation between the Arctic nations, as Washington has set out to boost its fleet against Russian and Chinese efforts to ramp up their own.
The Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, was signed in July 2024 on the occasion of NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington. It aims to combine the three nations’ knowledge, resources, and expertise about the Arctic region in general and polar icebreaker construction in particular.
The core ambition of the agreement is to collectively build best-in-class ice boats capable of year-round operations in Arctic waters, plowing pathways for maritime traffic in a region being transformed by climate change. Teaming up in a cluster of countries, the idea goes, will lead to better prices and speedier deliveries for the governments involved.
Officials signed an additional memorandum of understandin..

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines launched a comic book on Friday to counter what the country says is China’s disinformation campaign to push its expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The 40-page comic book, titled “The Stories of Teacher Jun,” was unveiled by Philippine officials. It contains colorful caricatures of a Filipino teacher and his young students discussing the complex territorial disputes in simple terms and highlights the Philippine position.
One fictional student in the book describes China as a bully and another says Beijing’s “behavior is outrageous.”
“Chinese officials, along with state-sponsored media and individuals, continue to spread distorted and twisted narratives to malign our efforts and justify their unilateral claims,” national security adviser Eduardo Ano said in a speech at the book launching in Manila.
The Philippines will do everything to “fight misinformation, disinformation ..

The U.S. Navy expanded a contract with BAE Systems, awarding the company more money to upgrade and overhaul the service’s Mk 45 naval gun systems in an effort to improve their long-range strike and air defense capabilities, the company announced Monday.
BAE will receive an additional $23.5 million, according to a release. That amount comes in addition to its original $47 million contract, bringing the cost of the project to over $70 million.
The company will extend the barrel of the Mk 45 to 62 calibers and strengthen the gun mounts. It will also incorporate a fully digital control system. The upgrades will allow the Mk 45s to fire more modern munitions that have 50% greater firing energy, BAE said in the release.
The work is expected to be completed by the end of 2028.
Brent Butcher, vice president of weapon systems at BAE, said the events in the Red Sea last year emphasized the need for modernized weapons systems in the Navy’s fleet. Starting in late 2023 and continuing t..

ABOARD A FRENCH NAVY FLIGHT OVER THE BALTIC SEA — With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel’s front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney.
The long-range Atlantique 2 aircraft on a new mission for NATO then shifted its high-tech gaze onto another target, and another after that until, after more than five hours on patrol, the plane’s array of sensors had scoped out the bulk of the Baltic — from Germany in the west to Estonia in the northeast, bordering Russia.
The flight’s mere presence in the skies above the strategic sea last week, combined with military ships patrolling on the waters, also sent an unmistakable message: The NATO alliance is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic, prompt..

MILAN — The increased frequency of underwater infrastructure damage across Europe has raised legal challenges related to the jurisdiction and ownership of undersea cables, which may limit NATO’s ability to respond.
The majority of critical undersea infrastructure is located in international waters, which means would-be saboteurs can take advantage of oversight gaps.
“If you go outside territorial waters, in principle there’s not much regulation – this makes the area attractive for those who want to operate outside the jurisdiction,” Capt. Niels Markussen, director at NATO’s Maritime Centre for Security of Critical Underwater Infrastructure, said at the recent Arctic Frontiers conference in Norway, as reported by Arctic Today.
Matters become even more complex in having to determine and prove whether damage is accidental or deliberate. In addition, unlike when a crime is committed above the surface, where authorities can rely on fingerprints and ..

The U.S. Marine Corps has now passed its audit for a second straight year while the rest of the Defense Department is still working toward the goal.
“Independent auditors verified that the Marine Corps’ financial records are materially accurate, complete, and compliant with federal regulations and issued an unmodified opinion for Fiscal Year 2024,” the service announced in a Feb. 4 statement.
The efforts to pass an audit “tell the American people that a dollar invested in the Marine Corps is a dollar well spent,” Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said in the statement. “Make no mistake, passing an audit makes us more ready to fight when our nation calls.”
Reporting for $49 billion in financial assets “requires a holistic view from the ground level up to the highest service levels,” said Lt. Gen. James Adams III, deputy commandant for programs and resources. “The audit process demonstrates Marines’ inherent integrit..

The U.S. Navy successfully tested its High-Energy Laser with Integrated Optical Dazzler and Surveillance, or HELIOS, system on one of its warships in fiscal 2024, according to a recently released report.
The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Preble fired its HELIOS system to zap an aerial drone during a weapons testing exercise in 2024, according to an Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation report published in January.
The report, which did not provide a date or time of the laser’s deployment, included a black-and-white photo showing a streak of white light beaming out from the vessel into the sky.
The Center for Countermeasures — a program developed in 1972 to gauge the Defense Department’s ability to combat emerging technological threats — conducted 32 tests in fiscal year 2024, which included the “development and evaluation of directed energy weapons,” according to the report.
This test conducted on the Preble was run “to verify..

U.S. leaders should invest at least $40 billion every year to grow and maintain the country’s fleet of battle force ships in preparation for long-term and large-scale wars, the nonprofit Navy League urged in a policy statement unveiled in early February.
The statement also called on Congress to increase funding for a Navy plan to revitalize public shipyards, add to the Coast Guard’s fleet of polar icebreakers and spend more on producing munitions to prepare for a “possible great power conflict.”
The nonprofit, which supports the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine, releases policy statements every other year to help guide lawmakers as they make decisions about maritime power.
In the wake of territorial disputes in the South China Sea, an ongoing fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, an escalating NATO-Russia contest in the Baltic Sea, increased competition between the U.S. and its adversaries over Arctic sea lanes and a looming Chinese threa..

Two Republican senators have introduced legislation that would establish more detailed plans for President Donald Trump’snew missile defense shield for the homeland – to include resurrecting several previously proposed plans and capabilities that were either canceled or placed on the back burner over the last decade.
In the bill, submitted Feb. 5 by Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., the senators lay out a plan for missile defense for the continental U.S. that would include Aegis Ashore systems (only two such systems exist and are operating in Poland and Romania). The plan also calls for using blimps for detection of complex threats, expanding thecurrent Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, or GMD, at Fort Greely, Alaska, and adding a brand new interceptor site on the east coast.
According to the bill, the amount authorized for the endeavor to establish a new missile defense shield for fiscal 2026 would total approximately $19.5 billion, which comes to near..

The man is insistent: Our ship is in difficulty, so keep your distance, he instructs another vessel over the radio.
“Warship on your course,” he says. “I am drifting. I’m not under command.”
The broadcast, according to military officials, came from a Russian spy ship, the Kildin, as the vessel packed with intelligence-gathering equipment drifted temporarily out of control off the Syrian coast on Jan. 23, with flames and black fumes rising from its smokestack.
The Associated Press obtained audio of the broadcast, as well as video and photos showing the blaze, that three military officials said were gathered by a ship from a NATO nation operating nearby. The officials, also from a NATO country, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the fire and radio transmission that Russian authorities haven’t publicly reported.
The audio provides an unusual peek inside Russia’s fleet of spy ships that NATO nations are watching closely because of..