Long Range Search News

The Secretariat of the Navy of Mexico (SEMAR) has held a ceremony marking delivery of the Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA) Class vessel ARM Reformador. The delivery ceremony was attended by Admiral José Rafael Ojeda Durán, Secretary of the Navy and High Command of the Mexican Navy, in the company of Mr. Juan Carlos Atecas Altamirano, Municipal President of Salina Cruz Oaxaca. Damen Shipyards Group was represented by Executive Board member René Berkvens, President of Damen Shipyards Mexico Horacio Delgado, and POLA Project Director Frank Verhelst.

Damen Shipyards Group and the Mexican Navy, via the Directorate General of Shipbuilding, are currently working together to build the Long Range Ocean Patrol (POLA (from its initials in Spanish)), the most technologically advanced vessel in Latin America. With this, the Mexican Navy will join the long list of navies around the world that have Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding vessels in their fleets. POLA will be the Mexican version of the Damen SIGMA 10514, a proven design that has booked successful results internationally. POLA will be 107 meters in length, with a beam of 14 meter.

The crew of Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City is hosting an international joint search-and-rescue exercise with members of the Royal Canadian Air Force beginning Tuesday in and around the Traverse City area. The Royal Canadian Air Force's 424th Transport and Rescue Squadron based at CFB Trenton, Ontario, will be flying a CC-130 Hercules aircraft and a CH-146 Griffon helicopter during the search-and-rescue exercises taking place from October 13 to October 15th. U.S. Coast Guard units participating include MH-65D Dolphin helicopters from Air Station Traverse City and vessels from Coast Guard Stations Charlevoix, Michigan, and Manistee, Michigan. Training operations will start Tuesday when Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews will begin classroom and ground-rescue briefings.

Lockheed Martin recently completed successful demonstrations of its Gyrocam 15-inch Dual Sensor & 15-inch Triple Sensor to the Navy. The demonstration was conducted as part of a cooperative research and development effort with the Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program. That program was established to help accelerate the delivery of innovative maritime technologies across all armed services. During the demonstration in Virginia Beach, Va., U.S. Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) sailors used the 15-inch gyro-stabilized optical sensors in both day and night exercises. After successfully tracking items of interest and acquiring on-the-move, high-resolution electro-optical and thermal video, end-users provided immediate feedback on the technology.

The Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and Automated Mutual-Assistance Vessel Rescue System partners, coordinated in the rescue of 10 crewmembers forced to abandon ship due to a shipboard fire 700 miles west of Guam. Coast Guard Sector Guam watchstanders received an initial alert from an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon from the Hsin Man Chun, a 70-foot Taiwanese fishing vessel. Watchstanders then received a call from rescue coordination center Taipei, China reporting that a sister ship of the Hsin Man Chun received a radio call indicating the crew was planning to abandon ship. A Navy P-3 Orion long-range search aircraft from Patrol Squadron 1 stationed at Kadena Air Base…

The Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf, an Alameda-based National Security Cutter, is tendering help to a damaged yacht located approximately 270 miles west of San Francisco to help three crewmembers injured as a result of heavy seas. The Clipper Round the World Race competitor, Geraldton Western Australia, with 13 crew on board, is part of a ten-vessel around-the-world yacht race that started in Southampton, U.K. and will finish July 22 after nearly a year at sea. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station San Diego has flown to the cutter to prepare for  rescue operations after an initial attempt to assist the injured sailors was thwarted by weather.

Lockheed Martin formally delivered the first HC-130J Super Hercules airlifters to the Coast Guard in ceremonies here today. The new aircraft will serve in a number of roles for the Coast Guard, which now falls under the Department of Homeland Security. On Dec. 17, 1903, volunteers from the Life Saving Service station (as the Coast Guard was then called) on North Carolina's Outer Banks assisted Wilbur and Orville Wright as they prepared their flying machine for mankind's first manned, powered, sustained and controlled flight. A Coast Guardsman, John T. Daniels, even took the photograph of the first flight. A Lockheed Martin crew flew the first HC-130J for the first time on Dec.

According to reports, Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) has launched two vessels and commissioned one all on a single day. All three vessels have been designed and built by GSL for the Indian Coast Guard. The two vessels launched include an Extra Fast Patrol Vessel (XFPV) and an Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV). The 105 metre long AOPV will be the biggest vessel ever built for Indian Coast Guard. The XFPV will be the fifth in the series built by GSL. The commissioning of XFPV Coast Guard Ship Subhadra Kumari Chauhan was held at MPT jetty in Vasco. The 266 ton vessel is 50 meters long and is primarily designed for patrolling, anti-smuggling and anti-terrorist operations.