Littoral Operations

The Israel Ministry of Defense has called off an international tender for the supply of four Offshore patrol Vessels for the Israel Navy after Germany said it will reconsider sharing the construction costs if the contract is handed to a German shipyard

Israel Shipyards is expanding the SAAR class of missile boats, extending the range from missile boats into ‘Mini Corvette’ class vessels. The new class is addressing the growing requirements of Israel and other nations in extending maritime control and sovereignty far from their territorial waters. Defense-Update reports from IMDEX 2013. The Israel Navy is required to expand the security and...

The US Navy contracts Textron Systems to deliver Common Unmanned Surface Vessel (CUSV) for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UAISS) - a Mine CounterMeasure (MCM) system to be deployed by unmanned boats on the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)

The US Navy is testing a fish like robot designed to carry out stealthy, silent and secure underwater surveillance missions - from intelligence gathering to hull inspections, where its silent operation and mission endurance would provide great advantages to sailors and marines.

The German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) has signed today a contract to build four patrol corvettes for the Israeli Navy. Israel will pay €315 million of the €430 million contract.

Could a stealthy, fast going corvette-sized 'super Ghost' vessel take on the US Navy Littoral Combat Ship and win? The people at Portsmouth' Juliet Marine Systems believe it can. They are proposing that, at a cost of a single LCS, the navy take six of Ghosts which will be able to assume many of the LCS' littoral operations either independently, or operating with oceangoing naval vessels as motherships, providing a more affordable, agile and survivable naval strike force.

The US Navy is evaluating a technology controlling swarms of unmanned boats with high level of autonomy. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has tested an applique kit that will allow any unmanned surface vehicle (USV) to not only protect Navy ships, but also, for the first time, autonomously “swarm” offensively on hostile vessels.

The US Navy has demonstrated operations of manned and unmanned aircraft from the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). On a test off the Pacific coast, the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout launched and controlled from the USS Freedom, transferred information to an airborne Sikorsky MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter, both providing the LCS critical surveillance information

The Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan (D37) and Spanish navy frigate ESPS Victoria (F82) completed a training mission in the East Mediterranean sea, as part of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 operating in the Eastern Mediterranean. By the end of May, after a short port visit at Haifa, the two warships joined with the Israeli navy on an exercise that involved the 'Protector' Unmanned Surface Vessel (USV) that demonstrated how such unmanned boats can assist large vessels in repelling attacks by swarms of fast boats.

LAAD 2015: IAI set to expand operations in Brazil, investing in a number of strategic partnerships

Tthe U.S. Navy selected the Norwegian Naval Strike Missile (NSM) developed by Kongsberg Defense to provide the fleet of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) of the U.S. Navy with an Offensive Anti-Surface Warfare (OASuW) capability engaging hostile ships and land targets at ranges of 200 and beyond. Adding an offensive over-the-horizon capability is essential for the LCS to address the US Navy’s Distributed Lethality (DT) strategy. The Navy defines DT as the capability to strike from any ship and at any place in the world. The Navy considers that deploying offensive weapons on as many U.S. ships as possible would complicate an enemy’s ability to attack.

Navies from 44 nations are participating in this year's exercise, whose focus is to promote regional security through mine countermeasure operations.

LCS 4 Littoral Combat Ship demonstrates flexible weapon mounting applications, firing the Norwegian Naval Strike Missile from the aft deck

The US Navy has test fired the Israeli Spike Electro-Optically Guided Missile from an unmanned boat last week, on Oct. 24th, as part of an operational demonstration of the weapon conducted as part of an international agreement between Israel Ministry of Defense and the US Combating Terrorist Tactics Support Office.