Official: 2 U.S. carriers to stay near Taiwan

Two U.S. aircraft carriers will remain deployed in waters near Taiwan to ensure a smooth transition of government in Taipei amid heightened regional tensions, Taiwan Defense Minister Michael Tsai said Wednesday.

Tsai told a parliamentary session that the Kitty Hawk and Nimitz will stay in the “Western Pacific” near Taiwan after deploying here since shortly before the island’s March 22 presidential election.

“The deployments have their strategic significance,” Tsai told lawmakers, citing what he said was the U.S. Pacific Command’s position that “the period between March 22 and May 20 is an uncertain time for the Taiwan Strait.”

French Troops Attack Somali Pirates After 30 Hostages Freed

Helicopter-borne French troops swooped in on Somali pirates Friday after they freed 30 hostages from a yacht, seizing six of the hijackers and recovering sacks of money — apparently ransom paid by the ship’s owners.

The pirates had boarded the 288-foot French luxury yacht a week ago, capturing its mostly French crew off the coast of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates seized more than two dozen vessels off the Somali coast last year.

Gen. Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of staff of France’s armed forces, said the pirates released the hostages after negotiating with the ship’s owner. That phase of the operation was calm, with no weapons fired, he said. The hostages were brought to safety and the pirates went ashore.

After the pirates were on Somali territory, a French attack helicopter chased a vehicle carrying some of them, firing to destroy its engine, the general said.

There were conflicting reports about what happened next.

Dahir Abdulqadir, a Somali governor in the region near where the yacht was held, said officials had heard “reports over VHF radio that at least eight people were killed.” But the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy denied any pirates died in the raid.

Georgelin said six of 12 hostage-takers were in custody and would be tried in French courts. All six “gave themselves up without too much difficulty,” he added.

US military turns away speed boats in Gulf

Three speed boats of unidentified origin approached a US patrol boat as it transited the Gulf but stopped after a warning flare was fired, a US Navy spokesman said.

The USS Typhoon, a Coast Guard patrol boat, was heading from the central to the northern Gulf when it was approached by the high-speed boats, said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet.

“Typhoon issued the standard query to the incoming small boards via bridge-to-bridge,” he said by telephone from Bahrain. “Upon receiving no response, Typhoon activated a flare. Small boats stopped and Typhoon continued on its way.”

Christensen said the small boats were of “unidentified origin.”

Iran: Naval encounter routine check

Iran rejects reports of a confrontation in the Persian Gulf between Iranian speedboats and a US Navy warship, an Iranian official says.

“There was no hostile encounter,” an official from Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps told Press TV.

“Iranian boats carried out a routine check of the vessels,” the official who spoke on condition of anonymity added.

The Associated Press had earlier quoted the US navy as claiming that its ship, the USS Typhoon, fired a flare towards an approaching Iranian boat Thursday to make it stay away.

The whole event was a normal identification process, the Iranian official reiterated.

Major Naval Deployment This Week-End

Final preparations are underway for a major deployment of ships from CFB Esquimalt.

No fewer than four ships depart Sunday for overseas duty. The frigate Calgary and the supply ship Protecteur will be on their way to the Middle East for a six month tour; and the frigates Regina and Ottawa have a four month assignment in the Far East and the Mid Pacific.

[Australian] Navy has hard time recruiting sailors

DEFENCE admits it has a tough time recruiting sailors, with research revealing navy lifestyle is considered lonely and dull.

Navy recruiting, while going far better than in past years, is still likely to fall far short of its present financial year target of 2,304 fulltime and part-time positions.

So far, 1,098 new recruits have signed on, leading to expectations of an 80 per cent of target result by the end of June.

Market research, conducted by Defence Force Recruiting, reveals a perception problem with navy careers.

“It is probably the least well understood of the three services out there in the wider Australian community,” recruiting director-general Brigadier Simon Gould said.

“You can imagine why that would be because a lot of the good work that navy does is well offshore, away from cameras and film crews.

“Or indeed if you look where navy is positioned around Australia, a lot of it is in Perth, some in Sydney, some up in Darwin, Cairns.”

The research revealed respondents thought navy lifestyle was “pretty lonely” and a “bit dull”.

Defence today unveiled a series of brief documentary videos – called webisodes – which highlight the experiences of a group of young navy officer trainees during their initial training at the Royal Australian Naval College at HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 and is filed under Australia, Canada, France, Iran, Maritime Strategy News, Navy, Piracy, Somalia, Taiwan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.