Navy

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..

Texas-based Saronic Technologies announced Tuesday it raised $600 million in private funding to build an autonomous shipyard it’s calling Port Alpha.
The company plans to use the facility to grow its fleet of medium- and large-class autonomous surface vessels amid demand from the Pentagon for more drones of all kinds, including ships.
“It is going to be the most advanced shipyard in the world,” CEO Dino Mavrookas told reporters. “We’re going to build it right here in America. We’re going to build it from the ground up.”
Saronic hasn’t yet picked a site for Port Alpha, but the company is working with state governments throughout the U.S. to find the right fit. Texas and the Gulf Coast are among the regions the firm is closely exploring, according to Mavrookas.
The company declined to offer specifics on how much the project would cost, saying only that it planned to funnel “billions and billions of dollars” toward the effort ove..

PARIS — France’s Naval Group has criticized Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems for hurting European submarine vendors by transferring technology to countries that later managed to build their own boats for export.
TKMS “are champions at creating new competitors,” Guillaume Rochard, Naval Group’s head of strategy, partnerships and mergers, said at a round table in Paris to discuss France’s defense-industrial base earlier this month. “They’ve made extremely significant technology transfers to Turkey and Korea, two nations that are now in the submarine export market.”
Naval Group and TKMS regularly face off on submarine contracts, and Rochard described the German firm as his company’s main competitor in conventional submarines. The executive said Naval Group is “very careful” regarding transfer of technology in order to not create or intensify competition, an approach he contrasted with that of TKMS.
TKMS den..

PARIS — Airbus Defence and Space, together with Naval Group, won a contract worth as much as €480 million (US$504 million) to upgrade the communications system of the French Navy to prepare for collaborative and networked combat.
Airbus is leading an industrial consortium that will equip more than 80 vessels of the French naval forces with the RIFAN 3 network, including the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, amphibious helicopter carriers, frigates and submarines, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The system will be deployed on ships between 2028 and 2032, according to Airbus.
The third stage of the RIFAN network aims to boost connectivity between ships, equipping frontline vessels with high-speed and low-latency systems that will allow for collaborative combat, according to Airbus. The network will also feature enhanced security to deal with increased cyber threats, the company said.
“With RIFAN 3, we are preparing for the next stage, that of collaborative ..

MILAN — NATO showed off its underwater surveillance capabilities in an unmanned surface vessel demonstration in the Baltic Sea as part of alliance efforts to deter acts of sabotage against critical undersea infrastructure in the strategic area.
The trials took place in waters near Denmark from Feb. 17 to 20 and involved integrating manned and unmanned assets in live-firing events and tactical maneuvers.
Participating drone boats were fielded through the Task Force X initiative established earlier this month by the alliance’s top transformation branch as part of patrolling activities in Baltic waters.
“It provides a framework for all nations to contribute by enabling the deployment of their autonomous capabilities. … This collaborative effort will fill gaps in surveillance, particularly in areas not covered by existing systems like the Automatic Identification System,” Adm. Pierre Vandier, commander of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, said in a ..