Free Republic

China’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarine sank in the spring, a major setback for one of the country’s priority weapons programs, U.S. officials said. The episode, which Chinese authorities scrambled to cover up and hasn’t previously been disclosed, occurred at a shipyard near Wuhan in late May or early June.

The Iranian Students' News Agency, citing "Defense Press" reports that the Iranian Navy's Sahand frigate was involved in an accident t in the area of ​​Bandar Abbas, a port city in the south of the country. Several reports say the warship capsized...

A large part of Russia's mauled Black Sea Fleet was seen leaving the port of Novorossiysk this week, with satellite images suggesting the berths of the southern Russian port had been largely emptied despite the ever-present threat posed by Ukrainian maritime drones and missiles. The intentions of the vessels departing Novorossiysk—further from Ukrainian-controlled territory and considered safer than the Crimean ports repeatedly bombarded by Kyiv's forces—remain unclear. -snip- The Black Sea Fleet has been forced to largely abandon its traditional bases of choice on the occupied Crimean Peninsula because of numerous—and ever more sophisticated—Ukrainian long-range attacks. Despite having no conventional...