Naval News Today
Pirates release Jordanian ship captured off Somalia
Pirates on Friday released a Jordanian-flagged cargo ship from captivity off the Somali coast where it was held for nearly a week, officials said. “The ship was released after the pirates held talks with the local elders in Haradere town and it is now sailing to Mogadishu,” the ship’s contractor, Yusuf Moalim Ahmed, told AFP. “I am not ready to give further details on negotiations, but I can confirm that the local elders helped in the release of the ship,” he added.
The vessel, the MV Victoria, was seized Saturday and taken to Haradere, a coastal village around 500 kilometers north of the capital Mogadishu.
Sailor suffers minor burns in US carrier fire
The Navy says a fire aboard the USS George Washington aircraft carrier has left one sailor with minor burns and 23 others with heat stress.
The Navy said Friday that sailors extinguished the fire several hours after flames were spotted Thursday near the auxiliary boiler room and air conditioning and refrigeration space in the rear of the nuclear powered ship. It says the fire spread through a passageway for cables.
It says the carrier’s propulsion plant was not damaged and the fire did not threaten the safety of the ship’s nuclear reactor.
Philippines, US to hold naval exercises near Spratlys: report
US and Philippine forces will carry out joint naval exercises off Palawan, the closest major Philippine island to the disputed Spratlys chain in the South China Sea, a report said Saturday.
The joint exercises will begin Monday, Vice Admiral William Douglas Crowder, commander of the US seventh fleet flagship the USS Blue Ridge, told the Philippine Star newspaper.
About four US ships will sail to Palawan, southwest of Manila, for the combined naval war games involving about a thousand US and Filipino sailors, the newspaper said.
A report from the International Maritime Bureau in Malaysia indicates pirate attacks are increasing for the first time in more than a decade.
The bureau’s report says pirate attacks have gone up 20 percent around the globe in the past year, The Daily Telegraph reported Sunday.
It is reported the growing threat from the maritime marauders is partially a result of Somalia’s flailing legal system and ongoing conflict in Nigeria.
Nigeria has ranked No. 1 for piracy, with India and the Gulf of Aden coming second, the bureau said.
Arrival of sub completes SA navy’s order
All has been plain sailing for South Africa’s third submarine, the SAS Queen Modjadji, which arrived at the naval base in Simonstown on Thursday.
The submarine is the last of the naval vessels, bought in a multibillion-rand deal, to be delivered to South Africa.
It sailed in under escort of the SA Navy supply ship, the SAS Drakensberg.
The SAS Queen Modjadji was welcomed by her sister submarine, the SAS Charlotte Mxeke, two of the country’s frigates, and warships from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
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Bio: I currently teach security studies at the graduate level, hold a BS in management and a MA in national security studies, and am pursuing a MA in systematic and philosophical theology. I've written for Navy Times, Proceedings, Armed Forces Journal and a number of blogs. As a 24-year veteran of the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserve, I attained the rank of Commander, deployed five times for four different conflicts and served as a Foreign Area Officer and a Surface Warfare Officer. During my seven years in the private sector, I worked in the fields of information technology and publishing, and even ran for public office once.
