Foreign navies

Report: Ukrainian 'killer dolphins' switch sides

By Kevin Lilley on March 28, 2014 Foreign navies

An elite team of Ukrainian special operators will help Russian forces find explosives on the bottom of the Black Sea, a state-run Russian news agency reported. The reason for the defection isn’t clear: Team members aren’t talking, and it’s tough to get inside the head of what RIA Novosti calls “Crimean combat dolphins.” In 2012, Scoop Deck brought you the story of 10 dolphins being trained by the Ukrainian navy to attack human combat swimmers, possibly using knives and guns strapped to their heads. The program resurrected training efforts that dated back to the Soviet Union and had operated under…

VIDEO: Japanese navy's popularity contest goes viral

By Kevin Lilley on October 15, 2013 Foreign navies, Navy

Somewhere between “American Idol” and the Navy Times Sailor of the Year award lives Mr. and Ms. JMSDF, the ongoing Japanese navy-sanctioned popularity contest that’s down to six sailors — three men, three women. The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force has produced a nine-minute video starring the sextet, complete with special effects, a stirring action-movie-esque soundtrack and a voice-over from an actor one can only assume is Japan’s answer to America’s gone-but-never-forgotten “In a world …” guy: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SUEVf6I-NA[/youtube] For those who can’t sit through a nine-minute foreign film, the choices are: Men: A P-3 crew member, a security forces specialist and…

Russian Navy's Neptune tradition under fire

By Kevin Lilley on July 31, 2013 Foreign navies, Navy, Traditions

All navies have traditions. Some of these traditions involve Neptune, who had a good run as “god of the sea” a few years back, according to an online reference of note. Ask any shellback. Changes to such traditions have stirred up strong emotions throughout the fleet, with terms like “hazing” and “political correctness” often finding their way into the debate — and the debate often finding its way onto the cover of Navy Times (Subscribe now!) But you rarely see a religious leader wade into the fray and call out the Navy for encouraging “dark spiritual powers,” or have a…

Killer dolphins on the loose!

By Jacqueline Klimas on March 13, 2013 Foreign navies, Navy

Remember a few months ago when we told you that the Ukranian navy was training dolphins to attack enemy divers with guns and knives attached to their heads? Well, apparently they are missing in the Black Sea, and may have been wearing their lethal headgear at the time of their escape, Gawker reported Tuesday. Only two of the five trained dolphins returned to their home base after a training exercise earlier this month, Russian news site Ria Novosti reported. Experts said that the three missing male dolphins were likely lured away from their training by the urge to find a…

That flag

By Bill McMichael on August 2, 2011 Aviation, Foreign navies, Helicopters, Historical, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Maritime operations, Naval aviation, Navy, Pearl Harbor, Photos, Ships, The Pacific, Training, World War II

I remember a 1990-ish visit to a Japanese submarine base and being dumbfounded to see the subs flying the rising sun flag off their stern masts. Dumbfounded, because being, ahem, of a certain age, I associated the flag — a red disc with red and white “beams” extending outward — with the aggressive World War II-era regime that launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in an effort to exercise total dominance over the Pacific. Its use was banned in 1945 following the surrender to the United States and its allies, but many Americans don’t realize that it was re-adopted…

It's a real FRUKUS

By Bill McMichael on June 21, 2011 Counter-piracy, Foreign navies, Maritime interdiction, Maritime operations, Navy, Officers, Photos, Royal Navy, Ships, Training

No, we haven’t lost our sense of decorum here at Scoop Deck. FRUKUS 2011 is an invitational naval exercise now underway off the Virginia coast involving ships from Russia, France, the U.K. and the U.S. Navy. “FRUKUS” is an acronym for all four nations — we’re guessing it rhymes with RUCKUS, which means a commotion — but it’s a bit more controlled than that denotes. It’s a two-week interoperability exercise … but let’s get to the pictures of the ships, shall we? ‘Ere’s the British ship, a destroyer … The French entrant, a frigate…

Colombia's drug lords enter the silent service

By Sam Fellman on February 15, 2011 Foreign navies, Navy, Submarines, The Pacific

It’s Pablo Escobar meets John Holland: drug lords built a 99-foot-long submarine, believed to be the first Colombian narco-sub capable of traveling fully submerged, Colombian officials said Monday. It even sported a periscope. The fiberglass sub, crewed by four, had been designed to haul up to eight tons of narcotics and could travel 9 feet underwater, powered by two diesel engines, Colombian officials told the Associated Press. Tipped off to its existence, the Colombian military seized the sub from its makeshift berth on a jungle river, hundreds of miles off the country’s northwest coast. No one was aboard, however. Col.…

Indian frigate sinks after collision

By Sam Fellman on January 31, 2011 Foreign navies, Navy

Fire-ravaged and collision-bruised, an Indian frigate floundered at the dock in Mumbai early Sunday and sank in about 22 feet of water. By late Monday, only the mast of the Vindhyagiri was visible, the Hindustan Times reported. The frigate’s troubles began late Sunday afternoon. Some of the crew of 400 had brought along their families for a relaxing family day cruise and by 4:45 p.m. the frigate, along with another Indian warship, was headed back into port, The Times of India reported. A container ship, M.V. Nordlake, was headed out to sea. The first Indian warship arranged a port-to-port passage…

The big, bad Iranian surface fleet

By David Larter on January 17, 2011 Foreign navies, Iran, Navy

Iranian media reported Friday the country was getting ready to invest in new Jamaran-type frigates. The Iranian Navy launched the first of its Mowj-class frigates in February of last year. It was the first domestically produced surface combatant of its kind and a second is well along in production at Bandar Abbas, according to Jane’s. The ship is fairly well outfitted: 1,500 ton displacement with six Mk 32 torpedoes and launchers for four C-802 anti-ship and SM-1 anti-air missiles. But let’s not get carried away here, this is a trinket of a ship relative to the 9,700-ton CG 47s. Which…

Ark Royal’s last voyage

By David Larter on December 6, 2010 Foreign navies

Her Majesty’s fleet took an austerity beating in October; that’s when it learned its flagship HMS Ark Royal would be decommissioned. On Friday, the doomed carrier pulled into Portsmouth, England, for the last time. The Guardian reports: “It’s very emotional,” said Leading Seaman Paul Stockell, one of those who had tears in his eyes — and not just because of the biting wind –as he helped bring the ship alongside in Portsmouth today. Stockell has lived on board Ark Royal for four and a half years. “She’s home from home to me. It was a shock when we heard she…

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