Armidale class patrol boats of the Royal Australian Navy

Written by D-Mitch

HMAS Albany and HMAS Maryborough of the Armidale class

The Armidale class patrol boats is a class of 14 boats which were commissioned the period 2005-2008 in the Royal Australian Navy. The boats were built in order to replace the 15 aging boats of the Fremantle class that entered service the period 1980-1984. Of the seven proposals tendered, the Austal Ships/Defence Maritime Services (DMS) proposal for twelve vessels based on an enlarged Bay-class patrol boat was selected. Two additional patrol boats were ordered in 2005 to provide a dedicated patrol force for the North West Shelf Venture. The vessels were built at Austal's Henderson shipyard near Freemantle. The Armidale class ships are operated by the Australian Patrol Boat Group, and based in Darwin. They are primarily tasked with border protection, fisheries patrols, and the interception of unauthorised arrivals by sea. The Armidales are longer and heavier than their Fremantle class predecessors, with improved seakeeping ability and increased range, allowing them to reach Australia's offshore territories. Initially, the ships are multi-crewed, with three ship's companies available for every two vessels, allowing allows the patrol boats to spend more time at sea without cutting into sailors' rest or training time. The last years however, are no more multi crewed .

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Jeanne d'Arc helicopter cruiser of the French Navy

Written by D-Mitch

The helicopter cruiser of the French Navy, Jeanne d'Arc

Jeanne d' Arc was a helicopter cruiser of the French Navy (Marine Nationale). She was the third vessel of the French Navy named after Joan of Arc ("Jeanne d'Arc", in French). In the mid-1950s the need arose to replace the old training cruiser Jeanne d'Arc of 1930. Various proposals were considered, including the use of a flotilla "avisos escorteurs", but in 1956 it was decided to construct a specialized helicopter cruiser which in wartime could be employed for ASW operations, for amphibious assault, or as a troop transport capable of lifting a battalion of 700 men. The resulting PH 57 design adopted a hull form based on that of the anti-aircraft cruiser Colbert. A conventional cruiser superstructure forward accommodated all command and control facilities, together with the boiler uptakes, while the after part of the ship was dominated by a helicopter deck (62x21m) beneath which were located the hangar and aviation facilities.

INFOGRAPHICS OF COAST GUARD VESSELS #3: Russia, China, Peru and Greece

Written by D-Mitch

This is the third post of infographics of various coast guard vessels from around the world. These infographics aim to highlight the most important equipment of the vessels; I do not analyze the systems in depth as I do for the warships instead I provide some basic information mainly from wikipedia (if else I provide the source) about the ships, their history and their capabilities.

1. Krivak III (pr. 11351, NATO codename Nerey) class frigates of the Russian Coast Guard

Varovsky Krivak III class frigate. Photo: Владимир Кононов

The Project 1135 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) class were a series of frigates built for the Soviet Navy. These ships are commonly known by their NATO reporting name of Krivak and are divided into Krivak I, Krivak II (both navy), and Krivak III (coast guard) classes. These ships were designed as a successor to the Riga class. The design started in the late 1950s and matured as an anti-submarine ship in the 1960s. A total of 40 ships were built, 32 ships for the Soviet Navy (Russian Navy) and nine (9) modified ships of Nerey (Krivak III) subclass for the KGB Maritime Border Guard. Of the nine Nerey class vessels, eight (8) served in the FSB Coast Guard and two (2) units were transferred to Ukraine prior to completion (the Hetman Bayda Vishnevetskiy never completed) of which one, the Hetman Sagaydachny, is till today the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy.

INFOGRAPHICS #20: The Battleship-Carrier and the Battleship of the Future!

How do you imagine the warships of the future? See how an American designer was imagining in 1940 the Battleship of the Future and how another designer in 1943 was imagining the Battleship-Carrier, a battleship with extensive flight deck that could be "transformed" to a light aircraft carrier!!!

From Popular Mechanics magazine of September of 1940 via James Vaughan, flickr.com. High resolution image here.

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Panagopoulos class coastal patrol boats of the Hellenic Coast Guard and the Hellenic Navy

Written by D-Mitch

Panagopoulos class coastal patrol boats of the Hellenic Navy

The three coastal patrol boats of the Panagopoulos class were designed and donated by the engineer and reserve sub-lieutenant Eugenios Panagopoulos a graduate of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). Panagopoulos after the events in Cyprus on July 20, 1974, took the initiative to strengthen the Hellenic Navy fleet with the donation of three heavily armed and quite innovative, small and very fast warships. The total cost was about 3 million US dollars. The following year the three boats entered in service with the Hellenic Coast Guard. (source) All the boats of the class, were built at the Hellenic Shipyards.

NAVAL FORCES #8: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Naval Forces

Written by D-Mitch

Member States of NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO /ˈneɪtoʊ/; French: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique Nord; OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. NATO's headquarters are located in Haren, Brussels, Belgium, where the Supreme Allied Commander also resides. Belgium is one of the 28 member states across North America and Europe. (source: wikipedia) The following graph depicts the Naval Forces of NATO in categories/types of warships. Next to the quantities I have included the percentage of the United States Naval Forces in order to highlight the important contribution of the U.S.A. to the Alliance. This time, I have included a table in the image, where I explain briefly the acronyms, the classes and how they differ with each other, as well the criteria I set for the inclusion or exclusion of a number of countries' warships.  I avoided each country's system of pennant numbers and classification (sometimes for political reasons) such as -D- for George Leygues class making them in that way to belong to destroyer type despite the non destroyer's capabilities and the small size of the class. I tried to avoid also the unfair categorization of warships in a higher position in the hierarchy such as the Pauk or Joao Coutinho class to corvettes without having missile launch capability while other larger ships such as those of Holland class are classified as oceanic patrol vessels. I tried to avoid all these unfair classifications and based on capabilities, size and armament I divided all the classes (in brackets) except of the auxiliary ships in 18 main types/categories. Warships that are out of service (cannibalized) or in reserve (without sensors or weapons) are not included in the graph.

FLEETS #15: Russian Navy

Some of the heaviest surface combatants of Russian Navy today in formation,
Marshal Ustinov in the foreground and Peter the Great in the background.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), published an excellent report accompanied by some very good graphs, about the current and future capabilities of Russia's maritime forces. ONI's most recent unclassified report on Russia's navy, The Russian Navy - A Historic Transition, looks historically and currently at the role played by Russian Naval forces. It is the first such report discussing the Russian Federation Navy by ONI since the seventh and last issue of Understanding Soviet Naval Developments published in 1991. The document is titled  "The PLA Navy: New Capabilities and Missions for the 21st Century", and you can read it here. Moreover, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is making available publicly two great tables, the one about the Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet, Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet (Continued) and Russian Navy New Constructions.

INFOGRAPHICS OF COAST GUARD VESSELS #2: United States, Venezuela and Albania

Written by D-Mitch

This is the second post of a new category of infographics of various coast guard vessels from around the world. These infographics aim to highlight the most important equipment of the vessels; I do not analyze the systems in depth as I do for the warships instead I provide some basic information mainly from wikipedia (if else I provide the source) about the ships, their history and their capabilities.

 1.  Legend class cutters (National Security Cutters - NSCs) of the United States Coast Guard

USCGC Bertholf 

USCGC Bertholf with open hangars

NSCs are the flagship of the Coast Guard's cutter fleet, designed to replace the 115-meter Hamilton-class High-Endurance Cutters, which entered service during the 1960s. Ingalls has delivered five till today with one more being on sea trials. The Legend-class cutters are the second longest of all U.S. Coast Guard cutters, behind the research icebreaker Healy, and will replace the twelve Hamilton class cutters in service. These cutters are envisioned by the Coast Guard as being able to undertake the entire range of the High Endurance Cutter roles with additional upgrades to make it more of an asset to the Department of Defense during declared national emergency contingencies (the NSC is built to about 90% military standards). These vessels can be used for intercepting suspect vessels, or for rescuing swimmers, fishery protection, maritime homeland security missions, counter terrorism, or coastal patrol missions. To facilitate intercept missions, the Legend class can carry and launch both the 7-meter Short Range Prosecutor and the 11-meter Long Range Interceptor RHIBs.

PHOTO GALLERY #10: Kountouriotis, frigate of the Hellenic Navy

Frigate Kountouriotis of the Hellenic Navy

Today, December 6th of 2015, Hellenic Navy celebrates the feast day of its patron Saint, Saint Nicholas and the anniversary of the Balkan Wars (1912-13) naval battles. Such day of the year is a great opportunity for citizens of Athens and Piraeus to visit warships of Hellenic Navy that visit Piraeus for three days (Dec 4-6) to pay tribute to the patron saint of sailors and to give the opportunity to the citizens to "learn more" about their country's Navy. Once again for the second time in a row I was there! F462 Kountouriotis, is one of the nine (ten once, Bouboulina was decommissioned in 2013) of the Elli class frigates (Kortenaer/Standard class) of the Hellenic Navy. The name pays tribute to Pavlos Kountouriotis who was a famous Greek admiral and naval hero during the Balkan Wars, regent, and the first and third President of the Second Hellenic Republic. For a full analysis of the equipment and the capabilities of the Elli class click here. Enjoy about 60 photos of the ship!