Lance L Smith News

Navy’s deployed ship in the Middle East, HMAS Arunta, has had its small arms weapons inspected, serviced and certified during a recent port visit. HMAS Arunta is serving on a nine-month Operation MANITOU deployment which has necessitated an all-important maintenance period. With all previous ships only spending six months away, the requirement to have weapons inspected and maintained while in the area of operations had not been required. The fly-away team was required as embarked personnel are not qualified to conduct the tightly-controlled specific technical maintenance which is undertaken by the joint logistic units at Australian major bases in Sydney and Perth.

Thirteen NATO nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), paving the way for the creation of the Combined Joint Operations From the Sea (CJOS) Center of Excellence (CoE) at Allied Command Transformation (ACT) headquarters in Norfolk, Va., May 31. Allied Command Transformation is one of NATO’s two strategic-level headquarters and is NATO’s forcing agent for change, leading the continuous improvement of Alliance capabilities to uphold NATO’s global security interests. The CoE falls in line with ACT’s mission to transform NATO’s military capabilities, making allied maritime forces faster and more precise in their operations. Commander, U.S. 2nd Fleet Vice Adm. Mark P.