Western European Navies (week 37)

Political News
After both the UK and France have said that they will not share aircraft carriers and are only looking into joint R&D, the chairman of the french National Assemblee defence committee (Guy Teisser) has said he could see pooling of British and French resources.

With the restructuring of the German Bundeswehr a part of the Defence Ministry might move from Bonn to Berlin.

The UK and Brazil are to sign a defence agreement.
Looks like Brazil is really pushing to make sure it will become the most important regional power.

Spain and the Seychelles have signed a Declaration of Intent on combating piracy and a Memorandum of Understanding on Defense Cooperation.

In contrast with the cuts in defence facing most European countries, German spending will rise by 1.4 percent in 2011.

Global Operations
Swedish HSwMS Carlskrona has rejoined Operation Atalanta.

German frigate FGS Schleswig Holstein has left Operation Atalanta, being replaced with FGS Köln.

Finland has decided to join Operation Atalanta in January with FNS Pohjanmaa.

Shipbuilding
The third ship of the Berlin Class replenishment ships, FGS Bonn, has been laid down.

Spain is trying to sell an Agosta class submarine to save costs. They've offered it to Thailand.

Spain has also offered 6 S-80 submarines to India. Competitors would be Germany (TKMS), France (DCNS) and Russia.

Denmark has shortlisted the Merlin, Future Lynx, NH90, Superhawk and Seahawk to replace their current Lynx fleet.

Start of the technology transfer by French DCNS to Brasil.

Exercises
Finland is hosting the Northern Coasts 2010 exercise from Sept 13-24. About 50 ships are involved, 3500-4000 people from 13 countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, German, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, France, USA, Great Britain, Belgium and the Dutch). The goal is to develop interoperability, especially in shallow reef filled waters. The scenario is a crisis management operation with terrorism, pirates and smuggling as security threats/challenges.

H/T to Charly for both the heads-up and the translation for Northern Coasts.