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Latest News for our Navy Network Download the MARCH edition of our newsletter BROADSIDE |
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16 April ANZAC
Day March times clarificationRSL Victoria would like to clarify misinformation on social media regarding the ANZAC Day March in Melbourne. The start time of the march has not changed. It will start at 9am like it has for several years now. The form up time has been brought forward to 8am (from 8:30am) at the request of Kindred Orgs and Unit Leaders to give the more than 10,000 expected participants more time to get organised in the correct slot for the march. More..... |
15 April Enter
AJUS? Australia, Japan, US must boost trilateral intel,
industrial cooperation: ExpertsDue to an “unprecedented convergence in the strategic outlooks of all three countries,” a new report stresses that Australia, Japan and the US (jointly, AJUS) must work more closely as a trilateral unit on defense issues, especially when it comes to boosting intelligence sharing and increased real-world operational cooperation, to better counter Beijing. “Though it may lack the same ‘brand power’ of groupings like AUKUS or the Quad, AJUS (as the three countries are known) is arguably the grouping best suited to deliver tangible results when it comes to the balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific. More..... |
15 April Trump
signs shipbuilding order as Navy leaders call for 381-ship
fleetPresident Donald Trump on April 9 signed an executive order aimed at revitalizing an American shipbuilding industry that has fallen well behind production levels of its rivals from the People’s Republic of China. Language in the executive order, which cites the need to strengthen a “commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce,” mirrors many concerns expressed among the industry’s defense counterparts. More..... |
14 April New
tech to enhance the battlespaceThe Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) is leading a new cutting-edge quantum research project to enhance secure timing technologies in the battlespace and provide asymmetric advantage to the warfighter. Position, navigation and timing is an essential component of the command and control of deployed forces. These technologies enable real-time operational and logistical information to be shared across Defence assets in the air, on the land and in the sea. More..... |
14 April Scientists
on board at the sharp endAmid Navy’s largest anti-submarine warfare exercise in more than a decade off the Western Australian coast, one group is focused on some of Navy’s most powerful and sophisticated weapon systems – its people. A team of Australian scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) have embarked on HMAS Choules to experience life at the “sharp end of the spear”, allowing them to better develop the next-generation capabilities used in theatres of war. More..... |
13 April Anzac
Day event at Museum of Chinese Australian History in
MelbourneA message from the Museum of Chinese Australian History The Museum of Chinese Australian History in Melbourne is holding a special event to honour the Chinese Australians who served during the First and Second World Wars. The event centres on three short videos featuring Chinese Australians who fought for Australia. These include: More..... |
11 April Nations
prepare for warfighting exerciseAustralian personnel are taking part in a multi-nation military exercise to defend Malaysia and Singapore against a fictional enemy. About 800 military personnel from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United Kingdom, including seven surface ships and more than 30 aircraft, will conduct mock warfighting scenarios across the Malay Peninsula from April 7-22. The exercise is being conducted under the Five Power Defence Arrangements. Established in 1971, it is the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia. More..... |
11 April Humble
hero of the fleet“I think we are often in the right place at the right time.” The ultimate understatement, illustrating the determined nature of the ‘humble hero’ of the Australian fleet, HMAS Choules. As spoken by its Commanding Officer, Commander Arron Convery. “People on Choules, they just get the job done. They’re excited to do their job, which is helping people,” Commander Convery said. It is not the fastest, prettiest or most heavily armed ship in the fleet, but it is arguably the bravest. More..... |
10 April Defending
the Arts on the high CsMidshipman Alex Agnew can pinpoint the moment she fell in love with music – a violin performance in a cathedral that blew her away. “I loved the feeling of the music so much, I immediately wanted to be a part of it,” Midshipman Agnew said. She started playing violin but found a new passion in classical guitar, an instrument that has stayed with her ever since. Alongside playing bass drum for the ADF Academy Pipes and Drums and performing in theatre productions, the musically minded Midshipman Agnew dedicates her spare time to conquering guitar compositions. More..... |
10 April Anzac
wolf pack hunts subs off WAFour of Australia’s seven Anzac-class frigates sailed in formation off the Western Australian coast for ASWEX 25 this month. Their mission; to hunt Australian submarine assets to ensure Navy is fully capable of protecting Australia and its interests. While capable of operating independently for long periods, for ASWEX, this lethal grey wolf, the backbone of the fleet, operated in packs. HMA Ships Warramunga, Toowoomba, Stuart and Arunta worked as one united frigate force under the direction of the Australian Maritime Task Group. More..... |
09 April U.K.
Carrier HMS Price of Wales Set for Pacific DeploymentHMS Prince of Wales (R09) will depart its homeport in Portsmouth on April 22 and deploy as the lead ship in the U.K. Carrier Strike Group 2025 to the Mediterranean and Indo-Pacific, the U.K. Ministry of Defence announced Tuesday. Upon departing Portsmouth, the carrier will proceed to join a formation of warships, supply ships and aircraft off the coast of Cornwall and head to the Mediterranean. The carrier strike group will initially be placed under NATO command for Exercise Neptune Strike, testing the alliance’s ability to use high-end maritime strike capabilities, including multiple aircraft carrier and amphibious strike groups. More..... |
09 April US
Navy unveils newest Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS
IowaThe Navy formally unleashed its newest Virginia-class fast attack submarine, the Iowa, in a commissioning ceremony Saturday in Groton, Connecticut. The 377-foot vessel, built by General Dynamics Electric Boat, can dive to depths of more than 800 feet below the surface and maneuver at speeds of over 25 knots, or nearly 29 miles per hour. Iowa is equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles and a nuclear reactor plant that eliminates the need for refueling. The boat was built with flexible design features, including an expansive lock-in/lock-out chamber for special operations divers and a reconfigurable torpedo room. The submarine can also deliver unmanned undersea vehicles. More..... |
08 April Thales,
Saildrone pitch a windsurfing fleet of submarine spottersThales Australia has partnered with Saildrone to integrate a towed array sonar system with the Surveyor unmanned surface vessel, promising navies the ability to pinpoint underwater threats through silent operation. The companies’ tie-up follows sea trials, funded by the United States Office of Naval Research, during which Saildrone’s Surveyor USV, equipped with Thales’ BlueSentry sensor package, operated almost uninterrupted for 26 days. More..... |
08 April Top
US admiral at NATO removed amid Trump’s growing military
firingsVice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, a top U.S. military official at NATO, has been fired as the Trump administration continues its widespread removal of senior uniformed officers, according to multiple U.S. and European officials. It’s unclear whether the firing originated from the Pentagon or the White House, which last week removed several national security officials — including Gen. Timothy Haugh, head of the NSA and Cyber Command — after President Donald Trump met with far-right activist Laura Loomer. More..... |
07 April Royal
Navy turns to drones to support carrier task group missionFor the first time a fleet of drones will fly crucial supplies between ships of the UK Carrier Strike Group when it deploys to the Indo-Pacific later this month. Alongside its F35B stealth jets and naval helicopters, flagship HMS Prince of Wales’ air group will also consist of nine powerful octo-copters for remotely moving items – food, packages from home and engineering parts – around the task group on its mission east. The trial of the new systems alongside crewed aircraft is intended to free up the more expensive helicopters to focus on their primary role of protecting the task force from danger on its mission to the Far East. More..... |
07 April AUKUS
and PNSY: Partnering for Enhanced Deterrence in the
Indo-PacificStrong alliances and partnerships have played a key role in the U.S. efforts to promote peace and stability around the world. No where is that more evident today than in the enhanced trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States known as AUKUS. AUKUS focuses on promoting a free, open, secure and stable Indo-Pacific region while building on strong trilateral ties. Those ties were on display at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, as the facility welcomed a delegation from Australia. More..... |
07 April Anduril
unveils ‘Copperhead’ underwater droneDefense tech company Anduril today unveiled a new unmanned undersea vehicle, dubbed Copperhead, built specifically to be launched from larger underwater drones. “Victory at sea will require large fleets of autonomous subsea, surface, and air vehicles capable of bringing advanced awareness and overwhelming adversaries with mass maritime effects,” according to a company statement. “With the Dive-LD and Dive-XL, Copperhead enables a comprehensive, intelligent maritime capability that allows operators to quickly respond to threats in the undersea battlespace, at a fraction of the cost of legacy options.” More..... |
07 April Australia:
“O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?”Australia will soon face a problem. It will have lots of naval helicopters, but not enough warships to embark them upon. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) currently has 23 Sikorsky MH-60R helicopters, but it has another 13 on the way. Simultaneously, Australia’s navy presently has ten surface combatants – seven Anzac-class frigates and three Hobart-class destroyers – a total that will reduce by one next year when the frigate HMAS Arunta retires. In one sense, this is a good problem to have – a surfeit of capable naval helicopters. But the other side of the coin is alarming – Australia has an insufficient number of warships. So perhaps the title of this article would more aptly be “O warships, warships, wherefore art thou warships”! More..... |
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06 April OUR APRIL HERO  Lieutenant
Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre STOKER DSC MiDJust before the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli on the morning of 25 April 1915 an Australian submarine, the HMAS AE2 set out on an historic journey. Its mission was to force a passage up the treacherous Dardanelles Strait into the Sea of Marmara, and then, in the words of the Chief of Staff, 'Generally run amok.' Such an extraordinary order required an extraordinary Captain and luckily the AE2 had such a Captain, Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker -- an Irishman. Henry Stoker, the second son of a physician, was born in Dublin on 2 February 1885. At the age of 12 he went to England to enter a school which specialised in training boys to pass the entrance examination for the Royal Navy, which he eventually joined at 15. Stoker became interested in the submarine service and applied to join this relatively new branch of the Navy. In October 1906, he was selected for submarine training and dispatched to the submarine depot ship HMS Thames at Portsmouth. Stoker was very much a free spirit and revelled in the freedom that the submarine service offered. He completed his submarine training in October 1907. Then in 1913 he volunteered and was selected to serve on loan with the RAN as Commanding Officer of one of the fledgling navy's new submarines HMAS AE2. Continue reading about this outstanding hero..... |
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05 April Hegseth
to visit Panama as Trump says US is ‘reclaiming’ its canalDefense Secretary Pete Hegseth will travel to Panama next week, the second senior U.S. official to visit the country in as many months, as President Donald Trump says America is “reclaiming” the country’s eponymous canal. While there, Hegseth will meet with the country’s president, Jose Raul Mulino, and attend a meeting of regional chiefs of defense. He will also visit military sites and the Panama Canal itself. The meetings “will drive ongoing efforts to strengthen our partnerships with Panama and other Central American nations toward our shared vision for a peaceful and secure Western Hemisphere.” More..... |
04 April Aboard
the Ford: What it’s like on a US Navy aircraft carrier
preparing for deployment“Here we go!” the air crew chief yells, waving his hands back and forth to grab the attention of the two dozen reporters and sailors sitting in the cabin of this US Navy C-2A Greyhound transport aircraft as it comes in for a landing. Moments later, everyone is pinned to the back of their seats as the tailhook on the Greyhound catches one of the flight deck’s wires upon landing and, through the power of electromagnetism, the plane comes to a dead stop in a matter of seconds. As the reporters exhale and the plane’s aft door opens, it reveals the deck of an aircraft carrier where numerous sleek F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets come into view, surrounded by sailors wearing their iconic, brightly colored jerseys. More..... |
04 April Acting
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby Speaks at
Australian, US, UK Naval Capabilities and Science and
Technology TalksActing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby spoke to leaders from the Royal Australian Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the U.S. Navy to discuss the long-standing partnership between the three navies and the continued integration and interoperability of their forces, at the inaugural tri-lateral Naval Capabilities and Science and Technology Talks, April 3. The talks between the navies centered on ways to increase warfighting capabilities, advance naval strategy and tactics efforts to increase lethality in operations and strengthen long-term warfighting advantage through a series of high-tempo working groups and panels. More..... |
04 April Australia’s
plan for acquiring nuclear-powered submarines is on trackSince the announcement in September 2021 that Australia intended to acquire nuclear-powered submarines in partnership with Britain and the United States, the plan has received significant media attention, scepticism and criticism. There are four major risks to the AUKUS national enterprise: the political will of all partners; delivery schedule; the cost of acquiring and sustaining the capability (including its impact on Australia’s broader Defence budget); and workforce challenges, both for uniformed personnel and within the submarine-building industry. More..... |
04 April Refugee's
Navy story of hope and tenacityAble Seaman Naffissa Mohamed’s story is one of hope, tenacity and determination. Born in Eritrea, a country fraught with internal strife since the 1960s, Able Seaman Mohamed and her family were forced to leave the country in the 1990s, when an unelected presidential dictatorship took control of the country. “When I left Eritrea at the age of seven, I began a long journey which started in Sudan and the grim reality of a refugee camp there, followed by a long trek into Egypt and a United Nations shelter,” Able Seaman Mohamed said. More..... |
03 April Australia-US
duo set to unveil ‘innovative’ autonomous naval attack
vesselUS defense company Eureka Naval Craft and Australian marine autonomy specialist Greenroom Robotics are set to unveil what they describe as ‘the most advanced autonomous naval attack vessel ever designed’. The new vessel AIRCAT Bengal MC (module carrier) is a 36-meter multi-mission surface effect ship (SES) being developed by Eureka and ESNA Naval Architects with autonomy and AI software supplied by Greenroom. It is the first autonomous naval vessel in the world to be able to carry a 40-tonne payload (2 X 40 ISO Footprint modules) with a top speed of more than 50 knots. More..... |
03 April Teaming
up to protect the blue economyOfficers from 15 navies attended the annual Pacific and Indian Ocean Shipping Working Group (PACIOSWG) meeting, demonstrating the growing significance of protecting maritime trade for Indo-Pacific navies. Observers and guests from the navies of Germany, Japan, Malaysia and Fiji joined for the 27th meeting of the PACIOSWG forum at HMAS Penguin from March 3-6. The meeting was established to advance the cooperation of member and observer navies with merchant shipping and related stakeholders. More..... |
03 April Recognising
a year of defence to the nationCyber Command celebrated its first birthday during a ceremony in Canberra on March 26, recognising its contribution to the defence of the nation. Officially activated on March 25, 2024, Cyber Command was established to deliver the transformational change required to meet the increasingly complex challenges within a contested, congested and competitive cyber domain – the fifth warfighting domain. Now, 12 months on, it has been a year of constant evolution to stay ahead of the challenges and opportunities present in the domain that has no geographical boundaries. More..... |
03 April Tragedy
remembered 20 years onMore than 20 years ago, a team who set off to deliver lifesaving aid met a tragic fate. Six sailors and three aviators died when their Sea King helicopter crashed on the Indonesian island of Nias. The emergency medical team were deployed with Operation Sumatra after a 8.6-magnitude earthquake struck days earlier. There were only two survivors. Air Force Sergeant Wendy Jones was among those who perished. On April 2, commemoration ceremonies were held at Russell Offices in Canberra and at the Royal Australian Navy Fleet Air Arm at HMAS Albatross in Nowra, NSW. More..... |
03 April Britain
launches AUKUS parliamentary inquiry amid 'geopolitical
shifts'The United Kingdom has launched a parliamentary inquiry into the AUKUS partnership, with its scope to include the "impact of geopolitical shifts" on the deal since it was signed. Wednesday's announcement in London comes just over four weeks after US President Donald Trump appeared unfamiliar with the trilateral defence pact while giving a press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office. When asked whether they'd be discussing AUKUS, Mr Trump replied: "What does that mean?" More..... |
02 April AUKUS
partners launch Innovation Challenge 2025AUKUS partners have released the trilateral AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025, connecting partner governments to the very best technology across industrial and innovation sectors to deliver cutting-edge capabilities to defence forces. The AUKUS Maritime Innovation Challenge 2025 seeks innovative solutions from industry and research institutions around the world to provide capability with a focus on undersea communications and control of autonomous systems. Australia’s Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator (ASCA) will lead the Australian component, and work with the United Kingdom’s Defence and Security Accelerator and United States’ Defense Innovation Unit. More..... |
01 April New
U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier To Be Named USS MuskImportant update on this article: April Fool’s The U.S. Navy is set to launch it next aircraft carrier, CVN 80, later this year. In a change from the planned USS Enterprise name, the vessel will now be named after the Senior Advisor to the President, Elon Musk. The U.S. Navy will name its next aircraft carrier the USS Musk according to an executive order to be issued later today. The vessel, which was originally to be christened the USS Enterprise (CVN 80), is expected to be launched by Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in November. The executive order on ship naming will follow on from a draft order in February entitled ‘Make Shipbuilding Great Again’. More..... |
01 April Defence
challenges students’ STEM skillsFrom high-tech augmented reality to flying drones, a group of talented Victorian students had the opportunity of a lifetime to explore Australia Public Service (APS), ADF and Defence industry capability in an emergency simulation. The Defence Work Experience Program, 'STEM to the Rescue', works with the Knox Innovation Opportunity and Sustainability Centre and Defence industry organisations to deliver a five-day placement in Melbourne. More..... |
01 April US
shipbuilding in a ‘perpetual state of triage,’ watchdog saysThe U.S. Navy is hoping to nearly double the amount of battle force ships in oceans around the world within the next three decades — a jump from 296 ships, including submarines, aircraft carriers and destroyers, to 381. The current state of American shipbuilding, however, is sorely in need of a complete overhaul if that plan is to be achieved, according to recent testimony and a new government watchdog report. More..... |
01 April From
Lang Lang rodeo air ambulance to RAN cockpitIt’s been a quite a journey for a teenager from regional Victoria, fascinated by helicopters, to take centre stage at the Australian International Airshow representing Navy. Sub-Lieutenant Nicholas Mudge grew up in Lang Lang, about 70km south-east of Melbourne, and would jump on his BMX whenever he heard a chopper was inbound, which was often the Air Ambulance on its way to help a local in trouble. “There’s the Lang Lang rodeo and unfortunately, back in the day, that could result in some poor soul needing extra medical attention after a run-in with a bull or a horse,” Sub-Lieutenant Mudge, of Fleet Air Arm’s 725 Squadron, said. More..... |
01 April Navy
takes Victorian schools to new heightsTwo Victorian schools received an extraordinary visit as a Royal Australian Navy MH-60R helicopter and its crew touched down, offering students a rare glimpse into naval aviation. Navy’s Fleet Air Arm’s 725 squadron landed the helicopter on the sports ovals of Geelong High School and Ocean Grove’s Bellarine Secondary College for an early-morning visit. The planned landing was part of a presentation to students about the aircraft and ADF capability ahead of the Australian International Airshow, March 25-30. More..... |
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BROADSIDE - MARCH 2025 Edition NOTE: To read Broadside in Flipbook form, click on the "Full Screen" arrows. |
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