French Navy News

Shipping group CMA CGM on Friday suspended until further notice all crossings by its vessels of the Bab al-Mandab Strait in and out of the Red Sea due to security risks, a source familiar with the matter said.The decision was taken after the latest attacks on vessels by Houthi militants in Yemen, including the targeting this week of a convoy containing CMA CGM-operated ships, the source said.The move means CMA CGM joins other major shipping firms in suspending transit through the southern Red Sea, disrupting the main route for trade between Asia and Europe.CMA CGM, one of the world's largest c

Commodities trader Trafigura said on Saturday it was assessing the security risks of further Red Sea voyages after firefighters put out a blaze on a tanker attacked by Yemen's Houthi group a day earlier.The U.S. military said a U.S. Navy ship and other vessels provided assistance after the Marlin Luanda was hit by a Houthi anti-ship missile."No further vessels operating on behalf of Trafigura are currently transiting the Gulf of Aden and we continue to assess carefully the risks involved in any voyage…

The 2023 IMO Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea has been presented to Caleb Halle, Aviation Survival Technician Second Class (AST2) of the United States Coast Guard (USCG). He was recognized for the outstanding courage, endurance and determination he showed during the rescue of the seven-strong crew of the tugboat Legacy in January 2023.AST2 Halle, based at the Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City, received the award at the annual IMO Awards Ceremony in London. The ceremony…

During a ceremony organized on July 18, 2023 in Toulon, its home port, the Jacques Chevallier, the first of the four force supply vessels (BRF) of the "Logistics Fleet" program (FlotLog), was received by the Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) for delivery to the French Navy.Launched in 2019 and built in Saint-Nazaire by Chantiers de l'Atlantique and Naval Group, the Jacques Chevallier returned to its home port of Toulon in March 2023 to carry out a sea trial campaign dedicated…

The launch of the bow section of the second logistic support unit LSS (Logistic Support Ship) ordered from Fincantieri by Chantiers de l'Atlantique under the FLOTLOG ("Flotte logistique") program took place at the Castellammare di Stabia shipyard.The FLOTLOG program envisages the construction of four Logistic Support Vessels (LSS) for the French Navy by the temporary consortium formed by Chantiers de l'Atlantique and Naval Group under the French-Italian LSS program led by OCCAR (Organization for the joint armaments cooperation) on behalf of DGA…

A five-person submersible vessel taking wealthy adventurers on a $250,000 trip to see the wreckage of the 1912 Titanic disaster 12,500 feet (3,800m) undersea is missing in the Atlantic off Canada.Reuters is reporting the following individuals onboard:HAMISH HARDING. The British billionaire and chairman of aviation consultancy Action Aviation is among those missing, according to his stepson. Dubai-based Harding had posted on social media that he was proud to be heading to the Titanic as a "mission specialist"…

A hijacked Singapore-registered oil tanker has been recovered and escorted to Abidjan port in Ivory Coast on Saturday, five days after it was captured by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea, the Ivorian military said. On Tuesday, Singapore's port authority said the [Success 9] tanker had been boarded by "unidentified persons" about 300 nautical miles (555 km) off Ivory Coast with 20 crew of various nationalities aboard. A search operation by Ivory Coast's navy backed by a French navy aircraft located the vessel on Saturday, Ivorian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lassina Doumbia said in a statement. "As for the crew, they are safe and sound," he said.

The Singapore-flagged chemical tanker Success 9 has been attacked by pirates. Praesidium International reports the attack occurred on April 10 300NM south of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in the Gulf of Guinea.The number of people that boarded the vessel is unknown, AIS transmission has been lost, and the incident is on-going. Praesidium notes that the vessel regularly travels in the region and was likely involved in bunkering operations.Fuel theft is suspected as a motive for this and other attacks mounted in the region. The Liberian-flagged tanker Monjasa Reformer was attacked in March 2023.

The French navy on Friday escorted a tanker to port in the Gulf of Guinea after pirates abandoned the vessel and kidnapped some of the crew, the ship's owner told Reuters.The Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker Monjasa Reformer with 16 crew members was hijacked [Saturday, March 25] by five armed assailants 140 miles west of the Republic of Congo's Port Pointe-Noire.The hijackers abandoned the ship late [last] Thursday but took some crew members with them, Danish shipping company Monjasa, which owns the vessel, said on Friday."We have our vessel secured. We have our crew members secured on board, or part of the crew members. So right now we are being escorted by the French Navy," Chief Operating Officer Svend Stenberg Molholt said in an interview.

Pirates have abandoned a Danish-owned ship that was hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea last week, and have taken some crew members with them, while others have been brought to safety, the vessel's owner said on Friday.The Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker Monjasa Reformer with 16 crew members was boarded by five armed people 140 miles west of the Republic of Congo's Port Pointe-Noire, its owner said at the time.The Monjasa shipping company declined to say how many crew members were still missing.The Reformer subsequently went missing, but was later located by the French navy off Sao Tome and Principe, Monjasa said in a statement."Our thoughts are with the crew members still missing and their families during this stressful period.

Brazil sank a decommissioned aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Ocean off its northeast coast, the Brazilian Navy said, despite warnings from environmentalists that the rusting 1960s French-built ship would pollute the sea and the marine food chain.The 32,000-tonne carrier had been floating offshore for three months since Turkey refused it entry to be scrapped there because it was an environmental hazard and the ship was towed back to Brazil.The carrier was scuttled in a "planned and controlled sinking" late on Friday…

A decommissioned 32,000-ton 1960's aircraft carrier has been floating off Brazil's shore for three months since Turkey refused it entry to be scrapped there because the rusting ship is an environmental hazard.The Brazilian Navy's Sao Paulo carrier had been towed by tugs to Europe but did not get past the Gibraltar straits, and was returned across the Atlantic.The Navy has acknowledged the ship is a risk to the environment and could sink, so it has not been allowed into Brazilian…

REMEMBERING MY SHIPMATE JOHN MICHELWe met in January 1959 when I became the first Officer in Charge of the Navy’s newly acquired Bathyscaph Trieste and John was the first USN enlisted man to be assigned to the project. We were based at the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego. Trieste was unique as there were only two deep diving manned submersibles in the world. The French Navy had the other. Our team learned about the bathyscaph more by ‘apprenticeship’ than through any sort of formal learning process.

A Brazilian vessel carrying more than 4.6 tonnes of cocaine worth over 150 million euros ($157.4 million) was intercepted last week by the French Navy off the coast of Sierra Leone, the Europol international police agency said on Wednesday.Europol said the vessel, which was en route to Europe, was intercepted on November 30, following joint intelligence work by France, Brazil, Britain and the United States."An investigation is underway to identify the criminal groups involved on either side of the Atlantic Ocean," Europol said in a statement.European Union agencies warned in May that Europe wa

The City of Brest, on France’s Atlantic coast, calls itself the Capital of the Oceans and it is surely living up to that moniker this week as the city hosts the international Sea Tech Week, held every two years, with a programmatic focus on “Maritime Transport: Towards Smarter & Greener Solutions.”New Wave Media was honored to join a small international press group invited to attend Sea Tech as well as a chance to participate in expanded activities at some of the related and extensive maritime resources within and around Brest.

Three crewmembers were injured by an explosion in the engine room aboard a containership off the coast of France on Tuesday.The blast on board the Panama-flagged MSC Rachele occurred while the vessel was about 20 nautical miles south of Cape Cépet, en route from from Napoli, Italy to the port of Fos-sur-Mer.The three injured crewmembers were medevaced by the French Navy for immediate medical treatment aboard the amphibious assault helicopter carrier Tonnerre. The mariners, including two reportedly in serious condition…

German Naval Yards has converted and and will delivery later in May the high-performance tug Abeille Normandie to the French shipping company Les Abeilles. The vessel arrived at the shipyard for conversion in September 2021.The 91 x 22-m vessel has a 282 ton towing capacity and 20,800 kW (28,300 hp) of power, and will be available to the French Navy as a multifunctional emergency tug.Designed to be multifunction, the ship has the ability to accommodate 300 shipwrecked persons…

The European Union's counter-piracy outfit announced a new Deputy Commander has taken over to lead its maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia.European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia - Operation ATALANTA said RAdm Messina (Italian Navy) handed over the role of Deputy Operation Commander (DCOM) of the EU NAVFOR Somalia to RAdm Slaars (French Navy) during a ceremony presided by Operation Commander, Vice Admiral José M. Núñez Torrente at Operation Headquarters (OHQ) in Rota…

The first MV7000 drives for the LSS FLOTLOG program has successfully passed their Factory Acceptance Tests at GE Power Conversion Nancy Factory, reaching a first milestone for the new fleet of logistic support ships (LSS) of the French Navy.It follows the contract signed in 2020 between GE Power Conversion and Chantiers de l’Atlantique to provide systems for the four LSS to be built by the Shipyard for the French Navy, under the contract management of the Organisation for Joint Armament Co-operation (OCCAR)…

While the adoption of unmanned/uncrewed surfaces vessels (USVs) was initially in defence, use of these low footprint systems has spread into other sectors, not least survey, and now the race is on for greater capability, endurance and autonomy. Elaine Maslin reports.After starting small, in inland waterways, use of USVs for survey operations has moved into coastal and now offshore waters. Given the extensive amount of seabed and rapid growth in offshore wind, there’s plenty of work out there for them to do.With the travel restrictions posed by Covid and increasing awareness of climate change…

The Italian Navy has taken delivery of the newly built logistics support ship LSS Vulcano from Fincantieri's Naval Integrated shipyard in Muggiano, Italy.The 193-meter LSS Vulcano is part of the FLOTLOG (Flotte Logistique) program, which includes the construction of four LSS destined to the French Navy, by the temporary consortium between Chantiers de l’Atlantique and Naval Group under the Italian-French LSS Program led by OCCAR (Organization for Joint Armament Cooperation). The construction of the forward sections of these ships has been commissioned to Fincantieri…

France is launching a program for the construction of third-generation nuclear-powered, ballistic missile-carrying submarines - SSBN (SNLE 3G). The program aims to provide a new generation of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines that will serve the French Navy's operational needs between the 2030s and the 2090s. The construction of the new submarines will be led by the French company Naval Group.The new submarines will gradually replace the second-generation SSBN…

French Navy's ballistic nuclear submarine Le Terrible has arrived in dock 8 of the Brest naval base in France to continue its Full Cycle Docking (FCD), otherwise known as a major refit. This will be the first FCD for Le Terrible and will involve 14 months of industrial activities to modernize the submarine and restore its operational potential for the coming 10 years.The submarine’s FCD work began on the operational base of l’Ile Longue with two major preparatory operations: the removal of weapons and the fuel elements from the nuclear reactor.