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The Royal Navy has just one nuclear powered submarine in operation after the rest of the fleet has been left out of action due to defects and damage. Four of the Royal Navy's new multi-billion hunter and killer submarines are still in dock at Barrow-in-Furness because of defects that have delayed their production - 15 years after the new ships were first ordered. Only two of the boats have actively joined the fleet, and one has already had to return to the dock and can only be used for training after more than 50 defects were found. Just the HMS...

China's recent deployment of a nuclear submarine for an antipiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden may have caused unease among its neighbours, but naval experts say the Type 091 vessel is unlikely to pose any real threat because of the noise it generates. The experts say the international community should instead keep an eye on China's quieter, more advanced diesel-driven submarines. CCTV's military channel last Sunday reported that a nuclear submarine from the People's Liberation Army Navy had completed a two-month escort mission in the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden, and returned to its base in Qingdao...

The submarine battle that erupted across the Baltic Sea was about business. The Swedish government, upset with German ownership of Sweden’s biggest shipyard, last summer compelled ThyssenKrupp AG to sell its Kockums operation to Sweden’s Saab AB. The move, which ThyssenKrupp calls “unfair,” cost the German industrial group a billion-dollar submarine contract and hundreds of skilled engineers. And Sweden’s maneuver established defense contractor Saab as a new rival in the global submarine market. ThyssenKrupp, the world’s top nonnuclear-sub maker, already feels heat from newly active producers in Japan and South Korea, and from old rivals in France and Russia. “It...

HELSINKI – The Finnish military says it has dropped depth charges onto a suspected submarine in the sea outside Helsinki after twice detecting the presence of a foreign object in the area.

HONG KONG: Vietnam is arming its expanding submarine fleet with land attack missiles that could be capable of reaching Chinese coastal cities, a choice of weapon likely to be seen as provocative by China in the ongoing South China Sea dispute. The independent Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently updated data on its website to show Vietnam's acquisition of the Russian-made land attack variant of the Klub missile for its state-of-the-art Kilo attack submarines. SIPRI arms researcher Siemon Wezeman said the entry was based on an earlier but little-noticed filing Vietnam made last year to the United Nations' register...

Finland’s navy dropped depth charges this morning as a warning to a suspected submarine in waters near Helsinki, raising tensions with neighbouring Russia. The navy said that it had detected an underwater target on Monday and again today and fired warning charges the size of grenades. Carl Haglund, the defence minister, did not say whether Russian involvement was suspected.

Vows by China and Pakistan to deepen security and defence ties will reinforce Beijing's ambitions to increase its arms exports, which could create unease among some countries in the region, especially India, security experts say. President Xi Jinping made his first state visit to Pakistan last week and met Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, with the sides agreeing to boost their partnership to "all-weather levels". The two nations also decided to step up dialogue between their armed forces, and expand cooperation in defence technology and production. Three weeks before Xi departed for the trip, Sharif approved a US$5 billion deal to...

Submarines are a lot like Batman, they are covered in rubber and are great fighters, but they are gadget toting stealth detectives at their core. Of the Navy’s sub force, there is no boat more capable at sleuthing under the high seas than the heavily modified Seawolf Class submarine, the USS Jimmy Carter SSN-23. The 12,150 ton displacement USS Jimmy Carter, whose namesake qualified in Submarines during his pre-Presidential naval career, is one of only three Seawolf Class submarines ever built. The Seawolfs are relics of the final stages of the Cold War and are the most lethal fast attack...

One of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War’s destructive potential is the intercontinental ballistic missile. But during the 1950s, the U.S. Force developed a strategic cruise missile known as the Snark. The Snark was highly unusual at the time. Almost forgotten today, the flying branch developed the missile as a nuclear-armed “pilotless bomber” that would herald a new era of robotic warfare.

Germany has approved the delivery of the fifth of six promised submarines to Israel – amid claims that the sub will be outfitted with nuclear weapons. Is this part of Israel's answer to the US nuclear agreement with Iran? The German Federal Security Council, which monitors Germany's export of military goods, has given the green light for the delivery of another submarine to Israel. The news has renewed claims that Israel will fit the sub with one or more nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. The six submarines ordered by Israel several years ago have been and are being built by the German...

A Russian nuclear submarine has caught fire in the northern province of Arkhangelsk ... The blaze started in the early afternoon local time when insulation between the craft’s inner and outer hull caught fire during welding. The submarine was the Oscar class K-266 Orel (Eagle), a similar vessel to the Kursk, which sank in the Barents Sea in 2000, claiming the lives of 118 men. A spokesman for the shipyard told Interfax there were no casualties and all crew and workers left the craft in time.

BEIJING: China would soon commission three indigenously-built advance nuclear-powered attack submarines having a vertical launcher capable of delivering its latest supersonic anti-ship missiles, state media reported today. China Central Television (CCTV) showed a satellite picture earlier this week of three submarines anchored at an unidentified port, and reported that the vessels were China's most advanced Type-093G nuclear-powered attack submarines, just completed by a Chinese shipyard and awaiting delivery. With a teardrop hull, the submarine is longer than its predecessor, the Type-093, and has a vertical launching system, China Daily reported. RELATED Ubisoft Announces New Assassin's Creed Games Set in India,...

To keep track of increasingly stealthy Russian, Chinese, and Iranian submarines, the U.S. is building a robotic ghost ship - an unmanned, autonomous patrol ship - to follow them around the high seas.

Pakistan government has approved the purchase of eight submarines from China, as per an “in principle” decision conveyed during a hearing of the Pakistan National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defence. Pakistan has been negotiating the purchase of six submarines – now increased to eight — from China since 2011. Pakistan Navy currently operates five French submarines: three Agosta 90B submarines purchased in the 1990s and two Agosta 70 submarines of late 1970s vintage. It also has three MG110 miniature submarines. After the recent accidents, the number of active duty submarines in Indian Navy is now down to 13 diesel-electric submarines...

Narendra Modi in Mahe, Seychel On February 18, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) formally cleared India's single-largest defence project: a joint Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)-Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)-Navy project to build six nuclear-powered attack submarines or SSNs for roughly $12 billion (Rs.74,400 crore). This mammoth 'Make in India' project, nearly the size of the budget allotted this year to the three services to buy hardware ($15 billion), was not an isolated policy decision. Less than a month after he chaired the CCS, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Indian Ocean littoral countries of Seychelles, Mauritius and...

China’s latest nuclear submarine design appear to include a shelter capable of holding a miniature submarine for special operations forces (SOF) not unlike vehicles used to deliver Navy SEALs to shore from U.S. nuclear attack boats, according to an image in wide circulation in Chinese online networks. The Chinese boat — a Type-93T or Shang-class nuclear attack submarine — features a hangar for the SOF submersible that would allow People’s Liberation Army troops to discrete deployment much like U.S. forces, according to a translation of a March 17 story in the state-run Reference News. The image was first reported in...

A skipper has claimed a submarine may have snagged itself on his trawler as it fished off the Outer Hebrides. Angus Macleod said he and his four crew were "extremely lucky" after his net was continually dragged in front of his 62ft boat. The Royal Navy has said there were no British or Nato submarines in the area at the time. There has been speculation in recent months that Russian subs have been operating off the Scottish coast.

Poland's Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said on Thursday he has asked the United States whether the European nation could buy Tomahawk missiles for its new submarines. "One of the capabilities we want them (the submarines) to have is cruise missiles," Siemoniak told public radio, following a report by daily newspaper Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. Siemoniak also said around 10,000 NATO soldiers will take part in military exercises in Poland this year,

TONY Abbott says the nation’s $50 billion submarine project will create at least 500 new jobs in South Australia, as the government reveals a shortlist of foreign partners to design and build the new fleet. The Prime Minister has moved to end months of uncertainty over the project in a visit to Adelaide this morning, saying government-owned shipbuilder ASC would be guaranteed more work “under any possible scenario”. “There will be at least 500 new jobs in South Australia,” he said. Mr Abbott said the government would select a foreign contractor by the end of the year, but has narrowed...

After 15 years of painstaking restoration, scientists say they are on the brink of solving what sank the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley - the first sub in history to wreck an enemy warship. Considered the Confederacy's stealth weapon during the Civil War, the hand-cranked Hunley sank the Union warship Housatonic in winter 1864 and then disappeared with all eight Confederate sailors inside. Its remains were discovered in 1995 in waters off South Carolina and five later it was raised to a conservation lab. Now with about 70per cent of the hull cleaned of heavy rust, Paul Mardikian, a senior conservator...