Western European Navies (week 33)

As I explained in my introduction, Galrahn asked me to bring some European eyes to the blog.
To do that, I'm going to experiment (to see how much interest there is in this topic) with a 'Western European Navies' weekly, to show what is happening on this side of the Atlantic.
The 'Western European' part is because I don't understand the Eastern European languages. And there will also be 2 Western countries that will be (mostly) absent from my news clippings: Finland and Greece. Their languages differ so much from the other western european languages that I can't make heads or tails of it.
Because I'm Dutch, expect too see a disproportionate amount of news from the Netherlands.

Most of the news I will be blogging about, will come from the Navy websites from these European countries. To go through the (major) news sites of every country every week is just undoable.

Denmark

Exercise DANEX 2010 is a national Danish naval exercise with the participation of foreign units.

The exercise is conducted from 16 to 26 August in the Baltic Sea around the island of Bornholm, in the Kattegat and Skagerrak.

The goal of this exercise is to train the units in cooperation in coastal operations in an out of area environment, focusing on operations that take place in unstable regions. This exercise is divided into two phases.

The main object through both phases is to let the units experience and train working in a multinational naval force. During the first phase the units train cooperation conducted by a serialized program and during the second phase, the units work out in a free play, while the level is intensified during the exercise.

Nearly 30 ships from 12 different nations, including the one of NATO standing mine forces Standing Naval Mine Countermeassure group 1 (SNMCMG1) will participate in DANEX 10.

Furthermore a number of helicopters and aircraft from Denmark, England and Germany will contribute. Finally, a large number of other Navy units such as Frogman Corps, Naval Districts, Naval Weapons Course and the Naval Operational Logistics Support Centre participate in a range of contributions, all of which provide exercise participants opportunity to discover more facets of being part of a multinational operation environment.

The website for the exercise is in English.

France
The Mistral sale isn't proceeding as planned, see Galrahn's article here.

Germany
Germany is thinking about reducing their armed forces with 33% and ending conscription. The navy might shrink from 16,000 to 11,500 in personnel numbers.

The State Attorney in Hamburg wants to prosecute the pirates who attacked the MV Taipan for attempted murder.

The Netherlands
The navy has launched a new website called 'in the middle of the navy'. It might be interesting because it is essentially a video documentary (in 7 episodes of a couple of minutes) about HNLMS Tromp during Operation Atalanta. This was the ship that freed the MV Taipan, so I'm hoping for some new footage on that in the episode that launches on 3 September.

HNLMS De Zeven Provincien has prevented a pirate attack off the Somali coast. This is NATO operation Ocean Shield and suddenly you can only find the news in the Dutch press. Looks like the EU is doing a better PR job than NATO, with their website on Operation Atalanta.

Damen Schelde have signed a contract worth $220 million with Indonesia to build a 2,400t frigate at the PT Pal shipyard in Indonesia. This is important for Damen (who are at the moment the sole builder of warships for the Dutch), because Indonesia's frigates are ageing, so this may become the first of a series.

Portugal
With the decomissioning of the Albacora, Portugal has no more submarines in its inventory. This will only last until 8 September, when the Tridente (a Type 214) will join the Portuguese navy.

Spain
The Spanish LPD Galicia has left for Operation Atalanta. It will be interesting to see how the Spanish will operate their LPD compared to what the Dutch did with their LPD HNLMS Johan de Witt.

United Kingdom
The much plagued Sea Viper has hit its first target in the Mediteranean. Sea trials are planned aboard the new Type 45 destroyer HNLMS Dauntless for later this year.

The UK is still busy discussing the future of its armed forces. This offcourse, includes the navy.

The UK MoD has accepted the PASCAT (Partial Air Cushion Supported CATamaran), a new type of landing craft, as a trials vessel.