Close Communications News

Buckley McAllister, President of McAllister Towing & Transportation, weighs in on the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the maritime sector.McAllister Towing & Transportation is a long and storied organization based in New York, the original U.S. COVID-19 hot spot that has been transformed from the city that never sleeps into a surreal ghost town. Describe the view from your perspective.All McAllister administrative personnel who can work from home are doing so. Luckily, most office personnel do most of their work online, so the need for actual visits to the office are infrequent.

British multinational BAE Systems was awarded a pair of contracts worth $300 million that will support the Navy in digital endeavors.The first is a $212 million contract from the Navy’s Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division to integrate and sustain critical communications systems. As per contract, BAE will design, acquire, integrate and test radio systems for new guided missile destroyers specifically, as well as other unspecified Navy and Coast Guard ships.Additionally, the company was awarded a separate $104.7 million contract by NAWCAD to provide engineering and technical services to support production, lifetime-support, and in-service engineering for the radio communications C5ISR (command…

Wilson Sons Estaleiros has delivered the third Damen designed ASD Tug 2411 to SAAM SMIT Towage in Brazil. The vessel is part of a four-vessel order, the final unit of which the shipyard is on track to deliver according to schedule in November this year.Damen has partnered with Wilson Sons for over 20 years. Under the arrangement of the relationship, Wilson Sons builds vessels using a Damen design, engineering and materials package. The delivery later this year of the final vessel of the SAAM SMIT order will mark the 91st Damen-designed vessel built by Wilson Sons.

At the highly anticipated International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) annual conference,  IUMI President, Dieter Berg, detailed a number of key initiatives that will  continue to raise the organisation’s profile and political influence on an international level. To strengthen the association’s presence in emerging markets, specifically in Asia and Latin America, by building relationships with its members in the Far East and with an Asia roadshow planned for this winter with meetings organized in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Tokyo will be the location for the 2017 annual conference. To further support and strengthen close cooperation with IUMI members and affiliate members.

Coast Guard inspectors on board the Clipper Lasco have confirmed the 645-ft. cargo vessel has run aground just west of the designated anchorage area off Fort Lauderdale Beach, Fla. The Clipper Lasco is carrying more than 30,000 tons of bauxite and 323 metric tons of fuel. Coast Guard inspection and investigation teams on board continue to gather information to determine the cause of the grounding. It has not been determined on what type of bottom (sand, coral, mud, rocks) the vessel grounded and the extent, if any, of environmental damage. The Coast Guard is in close communications with the vessel owners, state and local partners and technical experts, and is establishing a unified command to coordinate salvage efforts.

The two Military Sealift Command (MSC) ships that were moored at the North Carolina State Port here are now on their way to an undisclosed location. In their place, a third MSC ship has taken residence at the port in the continued military outload efforts. The USNS Red Cloud, a 950-foot large medium speed roll on/roll off ship, arrived at the state port Sunday morning to commence another outload phase. The ship has approximately 300,000 square feet of cargo space. Security remains high in the vicinity of the port, on land and in the Cape Fear River. The waterway security zones that were put into effect last week with the arrival of the U.S. Naval ships Denebola and Regulus will remain in effect for the USNS Red Cloud.