By Adrian Croft LUXEMBOURG, June 22 (Reuters) - The European Union will use submarines, warships, drones and helicopters in an operation to gather intelligence on gangs who smuggle thousands of asylum-seekers to Europe from Libya, officials said on Monday. EU foreign ministers agreed at a meeting in Luxembourg to launch the operation even though it will be limited to … [Read more...]
Austal’s fast ferry fleet continues humanitarian relief efforts in Japan
Austal's 101 metre “WestPac Express”, which has operated as a high speed theatre support vessel with the Okinawa based Third Marine Expeditionary Force (III MEF) of the United States Marine Corps for over 10 years, is currently deployed to mainland Japan to provide support for foreign humanitarian assistance operations following the devastating March 11, 2011 … [Read more...]
CTF 76 Heads Maritime Response Cell Supporting Earthquake, Tsunami Relief
From Task Force 76 Public Affairs YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan (NNS) -- In response to the earthquake and tsunami disasters in Northern Honshu, Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. Scott Van Buskirk, directed Commander, Task Force (CTF) 76 to organize a Maritime Response cell on March 11, to coordinate U.S. Naval relief efforts out of U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) headquarters on … [Read more...]
hospital ship comfort returns from humanitarian voyage
Back in June we brought you the departure of one of our favorite ships, the USNS Comfort hospital ship. You can read that article including ship details HERE. Today PilotOnline has news of the ship's return to the states. They tell us; America's high-tech, smart-bombing Navy could be seeing its future in a pair of hulking former oil tankers and their patchwork crews of … [Read more...]