CVN-65 Begins Her Final Cruise

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Operation Sea Orbit: On 31 July 1964, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) (bottom), USS Long Beach (CGN-9) (center) and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25) (top) formed “Task Force One,” the first nuclear-powered task force, and sailed 26,540 nmi (49,190 km) around the world in 65 days. Accomplished without a single refueling or replenishment, “Operation Sea Orbit” demonstrated the capability of nuclear-powered surface ships.

The world’s first nuclear-powered flattop and the longest carrier ever constructed (at 1,088 feet oal, later pushed to 1,123 feet, some 31 feet longer than a Nimitz and 17 feet longer than a Ford) is now on her way to be deconstructed slowly in Mobile Bay through the end of the decade, under the oversight of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. She will disappear while docked at Modern American Recycling and Radiological Services, LLC (MARRS), where the former SS United States is now tied up, the two ships likely passing each other as SSUS heads for reefing.

The ex-USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, was ordered on 15 November 1957 during the Eisenhower administration and commissioned on 25 November 1961, somehow just four years later. She left on her inaugural deployment just seven months later in June 1962. In all, she would complete 25 overseas deployments in her career.

Keep that in mind when you note that Ford took nine years from ordering (2008) through commissioning (2017) and only deployed for the first time six years later (2023).

Big E’s original cost, in 1961 dollars, was $451.3 million. Her $536 million recycling, after more than 55 years of service, will be more expensive once you factor in inflation.

She still looks mighty, even though her last airwing flew off in November 2012 and her last of eight reactors defueled in 2017. It could be argued she is still more effective than Russia’s carrier right now, regardless.

Images from HII as she left Norfolk:

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

Enterprise CVN 65 Final Departure

As detailed by HII:

The world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the former USS Enterprise (CVN 65), departed HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding division today for the final time, bound for dismantlement.

When CVN-65 launched at NNS in 1960, she ushered in a new era for the U.S. Navy and the world. A technological marvel, Enterprise served our nation for 51 years.

From construction through inactivation, the skilled shipbuilders of HII are proud to have supported the entire lifecycle of this mighty aircraft carrier.

To the generations of shipbuilders, suppliers, and sailors who are forever part of the CVN-65 legacy: thank you for your dedication to the mission. That legacy will live on in the next Enterprise, CVN-80, under construction right now at NNS.

B&T Suffers Fire at Swiss Facility, Vows Comeback After Arson

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B&T has been around since 1991 and has an interesting history, along with some seriously top-shelf stuff. (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com) 

B&T’s facility and headquarters in Thun, Switzerland, suffered a catastrophic fire late last week, and leftist terror groups are claiming responsibility, apparently tied to the company’s less-lethal offerings being used against riots elsewhere in Europe.

No one was injured, but the damage is estimated at 12 to 20 million Swiss francs ($15 to $24 million USD), and the company announced on its website that the main building, flagship Store, and indoor shooting range will remain closed until further notice. As authorities investigate the crime and pursue possible suspects, B&T is picking up the pieces.

However, company officials vow they will not roll over and play dead.

An excerpt from a statement released Monday:

Our motto is, and always will be:

We stand together.

We will not be intimidated.

We will not be defeated.

We will come back stronger.

B&T is far more than buildings, machinery or material assets. B&T is a community of people who believe in their work, take responsibility and stand by one another, even in the most difficult of times.

Our strength lies not only in what we have built, but above all in the people who make this company what it is every single day.

We will overcome the damage that has been inflicted, continue our work and move forward with the same conviction and determination with which we have built B&T over the past decades.

Violence will not silence us. Threats will not deter us from our path. And destruction will not break our unity.

We have faith in the rule of law and trust that justice will prevail.

B&T (aka Brügger & Thomet AG) entered the firearms scene manufacturing suppressors in 1991, but it wasn’t long before they began offering complete, tactical firearms. Soon after, they became a leader in the gun industry.

From iconic early products such as the MP9/TP9 submachine gun and the VP9 (Veterinärpistole 9mm), or Station Six, the company has expanded into interesting and diverse designs such as the USW and APC series.

The APC9 was recently selected by the U.S. Army and Air Force for use as a Sub Compact Weapon platform, beating out stiff competition from around the world.

It is unclear what impact the Swiss fire will have on B&T products in the U.S., where there has been some messy back-and-forth over licensing and distribution recently.

What is known is that the company’s Utah suppressor facility – commercial silencer imports from overseas are banned – has expanded production to 7,000 cans a month. 

‘Slay dragons, do noble deeds… and never, never, never, never give up’

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Patriot, Vietnam vet, publisher, and Cold War legend Robert Brown has passed away, leaving behind generations of gun enthusiasts who spent much of their youth scanning newsstands for his publications.

Born in Monroe, Michigan, in November 1932, Brown served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1957 and again from 1964 to 1985. A Green Beret, he served with Special Forces in Vietnam and retired as a lieutenant colonel.

Long the beacon in the newsstand for those who yearned to meet interesting people in far-off lands– and maybe get into a firefight with them, Brown founded “Soldier of Fortune, The Journal of Professional Adventurers,”  in 1975 after having a hand in founding field manual outlet Paladin Press five years prior.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, SOF provided an outlet for legitimate and would-be professional military contractors and helped fill urgent positions in Africa, the Middle East, and South America, while fueling untold Walter Mitty fantasies in the more chairborne commando.

Noted contributors included Col. David Hackworth, Lt. Col. Oliver North, and sniper guru Maj. John Plaster.

While at the helm of SOF, Brown continued to globetrot and, through the magazine’s offices, helped support pro-Western groups in El Salvador, Afghanistan, and Laos, among other Cold War hotspots. If the Russkis showed up there, Brown was not far behind.

SOF pulled off a number of coups for the good guys over the years, including effectively grounding Sandinista Mi-24 Hind helicopters during the Contra years after Brown published an offer of a $1 million reward for the defection of a Nicaraguan pilot with his gunship. Brown also spirited out the first bulk caches of the then-new Soviet 5.45x45mm AK74 round seen in the West as well as other equipment of intelligence interest from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

The Soviets even targeted Brown in propaganda efforts (left) largely for his support for Mujahideen groups in Afghanistan and Contras in Nicaragua. His offer to buy a Sandinista-operated Mi-24 Hind reportedly grounded the entire force for weeks. In December 1988, a Nicaraguan Air Force captain defected to Honduras in a Soviet-built Mi-16 transport helicopter.

At least six correspondents from the magazine were killed while on assignment in such third-world hotspots as Burma, Angola, and Sierra Leone, going that extra mile for the story.

A member of several Hi-Power and Marksmanship Unit teams while in the Army, Brown was long a power in the gun rights community and sat on the board of the National Rifle Association since the early 1980s. He played a prominent, though behind-the-scenes, role in electing pro-gun political leaders for generations.

In disclosure, this author spoke with Brown, whose email address was simply “Maximus,” numerous times over the years, and was invited to an annual retreat in New Mexico with RKB in 2019. He was always a great storyteller and a true gentleman. He was a welcome regular in the media room at SHOT Show and NRAAM every year.

My buddy, Ben Philippi, also spent time with Brown in Colorado in 2014 and captured an image of him for his book, “We the People.”

Still very spry in his 80s, Brown cautioned Philippi, “Certainly, the Second Amendment and a ‘God-given right’ are substantial reasons for the right to keep and bear arms. But for me, the key criteria for justification of an armed populace, is for it to serve as an ultimate protection from the tyranny from an oppressive government. Think 1776.”

Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, USAR, (Ret.), publisher of Soldier of Fortune magazine, NRA BOD, photographed in Boulder, Colorado, 2014, sporting his DPMS-Panther Arms SASS .308 rifle topped off with an Aimpoint Hunter scope. He leans on his “arrest-me-red” ’93 Vet convertible. (Photo: Ben Philippi)

The motto of SOF during the Brown era was “Slay dragons, do noble deeds… and never, never, never, never give up.”

Warlords always get the coolest guns

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War Noir recently uncovered a short clip from Haiti’s near-lawless streets, apparently showing Galil-, Kalashnikov-, and M14-equipped members of the Unite Bawon Laplen (UBP) preparing for war as their leader blesses other gang members and their weapons with rum, as one does.

Lanm SanJou, the gang’s leader, was shown mogging with a very rare American-made Colt R80 Monitor, a subvariant of the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle.

Colt produced only about 125 Monitors in its Connecticut factory, the result of a “cleanup” of leftover parts from its Great War contract to supply 12,000 BARs to the military.

Capable of emptying a 20-round magazine of .30-06 rounds in under three seconds when cyclic, the Colt Monitor could bring it when needed. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site, courtesy of Alex MacKenzie, curator)

Note the massive compensator. In the early 1920s, Colt made the early Auto Ordnance Thompson submachine guns, which also included a Cutts. (Photo: Springfield Armory National Historic Site, courtesy of Alex MacKenzie, curator)

With a bit of infamy, Colt loaned Texas Ranger Frank Hamer a slow-selling Monitor (Serial No. C-103168) to help bring Bonnie and Clyde to ground, and Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Ted Hinton used it in the 1934 ambush that well-ended the outlaws. The gun lives in the Ranger Museum today.

Of the 125 made, at least 90 went to the FBI, and the specimen in SanJou’s possession could have come from U.S. stocks during one of the periods when the U.S. assisted the Gendarmerie d’Haiti.

For much of the Duvalier period and into the early 1990s, the Haitian military and police mirrored the U.S. military of the late 1940s.

Haitian Army 1980s-early 1990s

Seeing the Monitor reminds me of the worst M1903s I’ve ever seen, two five-digit serial-numbered Springfields that I was able to handle at the U.S. Army’s Museum Support Center at Anniston Army Depot in 2017.

They had been recovered, among tons of other relics, during the 1994 Uphold Democracy operation.

Among the other Uphold Democracy relics recovered was a M3A1 Stuart, found with five improved M5A1s, all apparently acquired by Papa Doc from “an Italian arms broker during the 1950s after being refurbished by the automobile company Ferrari.”

Kept in service until the 1970s, they were left to ruin.

The U.S. Army brought the M3A1 back to Anniston, where it was later restored and sent first to Baumholder, then to Fort Bliss, where it remains today.

Ex-Haitian M3A1 Stuart in the Fort Bliss Museum, Wikimedia Commons

With the U.S. military on the ground off and on in Haiti since at least 1915, invited or not, and with the Pentagon currently supporting the UN-backed Gang Suppression Force (recently supplying C-130s to airlift Salvadoran special forces into Port-au-Prince following the gang ambush and disappearance of Salvadoran personnel attached to the force), the prospect that SanJou’s monitor could possibly “come home” isn’t totally off the table.

Cue the “it belongs in a museum” memes.

Interesting what a sole frigate can do (if you have one)

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The days of the old Spanish Armada have long gone, but today’s Spanish Navy just wrapped up a historic 160-day, 24,000nm globetrotting deployment that included the country’s first warship participation in RIMPAC.

Spain deployed the CODAG Aegis guided-missile frigate ESPS Álvaro de Bazán (F101) to the Pacific during the biannual exercise, where the ship engaged in multinational air defense, surface warfare, and live-fire drills. The latter included a Harpoon warshot expended in a SINKEX against the ex-USS Peleliu (LHA 5).

Spanish Navy Ship ESPS Álvaro de Bazán (F101) launches a Harpoon missile at the hulk of decommissioned Tarawa-class amphibious assault ship USS Peleliu (LHA 5) during a combined sinking exercise in the Pacific Ocean as part of Exercise Rim of the Pacific 2026, July 17, 2026.

Spanish Navy frigate Álvaro de Bazán (F-101) Bay of Acapulco, Mexico deployment in the Pacific

Spanish frigate EPS Álvaro de Bazán in the Panama Canal

She carries a 5″/54 forward, has a 48-cell VLS, 8-can Harpoon AshM battery, carries a single SH-60, and has a fit for four (4) triple Mk32 ASW torpedo tubes– which is a lot of tubes these days. Her sensor suite includes a SPY-1D 3-D phased array radar, active and passive sonar, two SPG-62 illuminators, and an Aegis combat system plus EW and countermeasures. That is a lot of firepower and capability in a 5,600-ton ship. For reference, she is about 1,000 tons heavier than a Knox-class FF, but much more capable

Prior to sending a warship to Hawaii, Spain attended RIMPAC ’24 as an observer country without deploying surface vessels or submarines.

Bazan just returned home last week to the Arsenal de Ferrol, with the proud flag flying.

However, this wasn’t her first Pacific cruise.

In 2007, she completed the first circumnavigation of the globe by a Spanish warship in 142 years (the last being a three-year circuit by the French-built, iron-hulled armored steam frigate Numancia from 1865-68), and made the first visit by a Spanish man-of-war to Australia in over 150 years.

Plus, Spain has four more or less identical sisters to Bazan, while the newer CODELAG F110 (Bonifaz)-class Aegis frigates, of which at least five are planned, are even more advanced.

The first, Bonifaz, is being fitted out ahead of commissioning, while the second, the future ESPS Roger de Lauria (F 112), was launched at Navantia Ferrol last week.

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

Spanish fragata F112 Roger de Lauria clase F110 launched 27 October 2026 at Ferrol

So tell me again why Spain can pull this off, and we haven’t had a proper FFG since 2005, when the SM-1 platform was stripped from our remaining OHPs, and we’ve never had an Aegis ship smaller than a cruiser-sized destroyer?

Holding down the Hanko

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Some 85 years ago. The siege of the Soviet naval base on Hanko Cape in occupied southwestern Finland, north of Leningrad, during the Continuation War, November 1941.

Swedish Volunteer Battalion (Svenska Frivilligbataljonen, SFB) member Erland Petrus Malmström (#872910) seen on the line with a 6.5mm Gevär m/96 Mauser and a commercial optic.

Note how he uses his thumb around the stock’s wrist to raise his view of the scope, which is mounted too far forward for a normal face-on buttstock position. Also note the puukko knife hanging from his belt and the Swedish m/37 helmets to his right. The Swedes later picked 5,300 m/96s and converted them into scoped sniper rifles (the Prickskyttegevär m/41) based on experience in Finland, though the above is not one.

The Swedes have long been a traditional enemy of the Russians, fighting a dozen wars with them between 1554 and 1809.

In the 20th Century, they proved willing on numerous occasions to rise to the occasion against the old foe when prompted.

In March 1918, a 1,000-strong Swedish volunteer brigade under Allan Winge landed in Finland to help disarm Russian troops and fight for Finnish independence.

The Swedish brigade deployed in Helsinki on May 16, 1918. Allan Winge is at the forefront.

When the Soviets invaded neighboring Finland (formerly Swedish territory) in November 1939, a Swedish Volunteer Corps (Svenska frivilligkåren) formed with 12,000 volunteers (including 727 Swedish-speaking Norwegians and at least a few Danes) under Lt. Gen. Ernst Linder.

Swedish Volunteer Corps poster, 1939 Finland Winter War: “Det gäller oss” translates to “It’s about us”

Only 8,260 of its men made it to Finland before the Winter War ended in March 1940.

Swedish Volunteer Corps Finland, during the Winter War, Salla, March 1940

They saw a bit of combat, with 33 killed, around 50 wounded in direct combat, and over 130 suffering frostbite before they were disbanded and sent home on the outbreak of peace.

Well-equipped Swedish Volunteer Corps ski patrol poses in Finland during the Winter War in 1940, along with a Swedish BAR (Kg m/21) and m/96s. Note the bamboo ski poles and, for dramatic effect, gas masks. 

Once the Finns invaded the Soviet Union after the Axis launched Barbarossa in June 1941, the 900-strong SFB was stood up in Sweden to give it another go.

With volunteers arriving as early as 24 July, the SFB swore allegiance to the Finns as a unit on 17 August, and the battalion, simply dubbed the Hangöbataljonen, was seconded to the Finnish IR 55 on the Hanko Front.

Swedish Volunteer Battalion Hanko, Finland, August 1941, with Swedish uniforms and helmets, along with a Swedish BAR (Kg m/21) and m/96s. (SA-Kuva)

Swedish Volunteer Hangöbataljonen, Finland, August 1941, including Swedish BAR (Kg m/21), SMGs, and m/96s. Note the mix of helmets and uniforms. (SA-Kuva)

The Swedish Voluntary Battalion pioneers advancing through the deep Finnish forests, clearing bunkers with explosives (note the satchel charges on their backs) and flamethrowers, to liberate the city of Hanko under Soviet occupation. (SA-Kuva)

Fighting into December, the Hangöbataljonen was the first to march into the port after the Soviets withdrew, though they raised a Finnish flag. They suffered 25 killed and another 75 wounded in the short campaign.

After the Finns disbanded the victorious SFB and sent it home, die-hards wanting to keep fighting formed a smaller Swedish Volunteer Company (Svenska frivilligkompaniet) in February 1942 under Capt. Rickard Nilsson, which was attached to the Finnish IR 13.

Serving on the Svir Front and later fighting in the brutal Battle of Tali-Ihantala on the Karelian Isthmus in 1944, some 412 Swedes served at one time or another in this final unit, which was never stronger than 160 men at any given time. It suffered 39 dead, and 84 were wounded in its time on the line. The unit was disbanded on 26 September 1944, a week after Finland’s peace with Moscow. They apparently had no appetite for fighting the Germans. Russians only.

As for the m/96 Swedish Mauser in Finnish service, besides the 8,800 or so guns brought over by the assorted volunteer groups, Helsinki bought another 77,000 m/96 rifles and carbines directly from surplus Swedish military stocks during the Winter and Continuation War, with some 30,000 eventually repatriated with thanks. The rest were sold off as surplus in the 1950s and were generally unwanted post-war by the Finnish military because they didn’t accept the standard 7.62x54R round used by the Finnish-standard Mosins.

Sometimes you find yourself in a real live shooting war, declared or no

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USS Reuben James in the Panama Canal in happier times, 19-N-10982. National Archives Identifier 496085338

Some 85 years ago this week, just after 0530 on 31 October 1941, the “Red Devil” boat, German Type VIIC submarine  U-552, Kptlt. Erich Topp, commanding, was less than a week out of St. Nazaire, France, on her sixth war patrol. By that point in the war, Topp, 27, had already sunk 18 enemy ships. He had just joined five other boats of Wolfpack Stosstrupp, combing the North Atlantic for convoys.

And he found one off Iceland.

Stumbling across slow-moving (8-knot) Allied Convoy HX-156, with 43 ships, Topp fired two torpedoes that punched into the port side of an enemy destroyer.

As noted in the Official War History of the humble Wickes-class “four piper” USS Reuben James (DD-245):

A lookout on the escort commander’s ship, USS Tarbell (DD 142), reported that there had been a large flash followed by a deep explosion on the port quarter of the convoy in the direction of Reuben James. Immediately, all escort vessels were called by radio. Everyone answered with the exception of James.

At the time of Topp’s attack, HX-156, sailing from Halifax for Liverpool, was being shepherded by the American tin cans, USS Benson, Hilary P. Jones, and Niblack, along with the aforementioned Reuben James and Tarbell as CTU 4.1.3 under CDR R.E. Webb, with a scheduled handover to British escorts on 1 November.

The U.S. Navy, on FDR’s orders, had only just begun escorting Allied convoys from Canada to a Mid-Ocean Meeting Point south of Iceland (around 58° North and near 35° West) the previous month, with the first being HX-150 which sailed from Halifax on 16 September 1941, with U.S. Navy destroyers USS Dallas, Eberle, Ellis, Ericsson and Upshur replacing Canadian coastal escorts HMCS Algoma, Annapolis and Brandon the next day, then handing over to HMS Arrowhead, Badsworth, Blankney, Camella, Celadine, Churchill and Honeysuckle on the 25th, the convoy arriving in Liverpool unscathed on the 30th.

The follow-on HX-151, 152, 153, and 154 all followed the same template.

HX-156 almost made it without a hitch as well.

The thing is, almost isn’t good enough when torpedoes are concerned.

James, suffering from magazine explosions, broke in two. The forward section sank immediately with all hands while the stern remained afloat for five minutes. When the stern sank, at least two unsecured depth charges exploded, killing some survivors in the water. Niblack picked up 36 men (one of whom later died of wounds), and Jones found ten more.

Among those lost were James’s skipper, Texas-born LCDR Heywood Lane Edwards (USNA ’26)— who wrestled in the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam– along with the destroyer’s entire wardroom. Of the 159 souls aboard, 113 perished outright.

The senior-most survivor was the only member of the Goat Locker to make it, the injured Chief Machinist’s Mate (AA), William H. Bergstresser, 35.

Bergstresser told the NYT about his ship’s loss when the crew returned to Brooklyn, something the country allowed because it was still under peacetime rules.

James was the first American warship lost in WWII, lost in the shuffle when Pearl Harbor hit six weeks later.

Ultimately, 86 American “tin cans,” counting both DDs and DEs, were lost in the conflict.

James’s slayer, U-552, almost survived the war, scuttled at Wilhelmshaven three days before Dönitz surrendered what was left of the Third Reich.

As for Topp, after September 1942 he spent the rest of his Kriegsmarine career in a series of training assignments, passing on his experience. By that time, he had sunk 36 ships for nearly 200,000 tons across 12 patrols. He escaped the fate that caught 583 fellow U-boat skippers and survived the war.

He surrendered to the British in Norway in May 1945, later joined the West German Navy, and retired as a rear admiral in December 1969. He retired with the Großes Verdienstkreuz, adding it to his wartime Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

He later became an industrial consultant for, among others, the submarine maker Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft, where he had some input on the Type 209. He died on dry land the day after Christmas 2005, aged 91.

Some are luckier than others.

Looks like AUKUS is getting real(ish)

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The Virginia-class USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrived at Perth’s HMAS Stirling last week for a scheduled month-long Submarine Maintenance Period, marking the fourth SMP in Western Australia since the AUKUS security partnership began.

Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado arrives at HMAS Stirling for a scheduled Submarine Maintenance Period in Western Australia. *** Local Caption *** The United States Submarine Maintenance Period 2026 (USSMP26) marks an important step in Australia’s preparations for the establishment of Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-W), which is on track to commence from 2027. The USS Colorado’s visit to HMAS Stirling will demonstrate Australia’s growing ability to sustain US and UK nuclear-powered sub

GARDEN ISLAND, Australia (Oct. 27, 2026) – Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Colorado (SSN 788) arrives at HMAS Stirling, Western Australia on Oct. 27, 2026, for a planned submarine maintenance period (SMP) supporting AUKUS, the trilateral security agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. During the SMP, more than 30 fully trained and certified Australian civilian technicians from ASC Pty Ltd. will perform routine maintenance on a Virginia-class submarine in Western Australia

The previous three boats included USS Hawaii (SSN-776), supported by the USS Emory S. Land (AS-39), from August to September 2024; USS Vermont (SSN-792) without tender support from October to November 2025 and with a blended USN/RAN workforce; and the far-ranging RN Astute-class sub HMS Anson (S 123) from February to March 2026, which integrated local Australian-made components and systems into the boat.

Key activities to be undertaken during Colorado’s upcoming Maintenance Period include:

  • The installation of an Australian-made sail maintenance scaffolding, also known as a ‘racetrack’, which will sit around the submarine during its time at HMAS Stirling –  giving workers safe and rapid access to carry out submarine maintenance work
  • Personnel from Australia, the UK and the US working side-by-side to conduct off-hull capability demonstrations using specialized training equipment and locally produced submarine components
  • Australian personnel conducting in-hull maintenance work, including replacing the thin line towed array and ship repairs
  • Use of the newly upgraded Diamantina Pier at HMAS Stirling, demonstrating Australia’s increased readiness to sustain conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines.
  • Australian personnel (supported by US personnel) conducting simulated radiological scenarios that exercise radiation safety practices and procedures, with no radioactive waste being transferred ashore.

This is important as Colorado, a Block III Virginia packing 12 VLS slots along with her torpedo tube-launched weapons, is a fairly new boat, just eight years in the fleet. Based at Pearl, she is slated to be the first boat assigned to the Perth-based Submarine Rotational Force-West (SRF-West) beginning in late 2027. The deployment will last about one year.

The Australians, whose submarine arm dates back to 1914 with HMAS AE1 and AE2, currently operate six aging Collins-class SSKs (the youngest commissioned 23 years ago) and have roughly 850 men in the branch.

They plan to buy purchase three-to-five used Virginias in the early 2030s as a decade-long stopgap measure between the retirement of the Collins-class and the acquisition of five new-built 10,000-ton British-designed/American armed SSN-AUKUS class submarines, which are tentatively set to begin construction at the Osborne Naval Shipyard in South Australia in 2027 (hold your breath) with the first entering service with  Rolls-Royce PWR3+ reactors in “the late 2030s.”

Read that as the RAN will probably run their surplus Ginnys for 20 years without replacement.

Either way, RAN says it has 230 personnel in various stages of the U.S. nuclear-powered submarine training pipeline, with 400 to be on hand by 2030. A retired Australian admiral says a force of 3,000 nuke-qualified submariners will be needed to operate five SSNs, and recruitment will obviously need to step up robustly.

Further, the Brits are putting all their eggs in the SSN-AUKUS basket, intending to buy “up to 12” boats, built at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard and Rolls-Royce’s Raynesway facility, to replace their seven hard-used Astutes. Steel cutting for the first British SSN-AUKUS is scheduled for 2027 and operational entry in the late 2030s.

Read that as the Brits will probably get six Ginnys of their own in the 2030s. Perhaps with a Submarine Rotational Force-Atlantic (SRF-Lant) kicking off in the late 2020s with a forward-deployed Ginny at, say, Holy Loch.

I mean, I want AUKUS to work and would love the Brits to have 12 and the RAN to have at least five, but the track record isn’t there.

Hopefully I am wrong.

Why can’t we have nice things…

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It is hard to look at our LCS and stillborn FFG program then see something like this.

Check out this great overhead shot of the 6,600-ton Iver Huitfeldt-class frigate HDMS Niels Juel (F-363) of the Royal Danish Navy.

Forward you have a pair of OTO Melara 76mm guns, while the amidships “missile deck” holds 16 Harpoon Block II cans, and a 32-cell Mark 41 VLS for SM-2 IIIAs, flanked by two 12-cell Mk.56 VLS for Enhances Sea Sparrows. Aft is a Oerlikon Millennium 35mm CIWS, overlooking the helo deck atop the hangar for an MH-60R Seahawk. Not seen are two pairs of  MU90 Impact 324mm ASW torpedo launchers.

The Harpoons are being replaced missile-per-missile with the NSM while her soft kill countermeasures (Terma Mk 137 130mm decoy launchers and Seagnat Mark 36 SRBOCs) are being augmented by the new Rheinmetall  Multi Ammunition Softkill System (MASS).

A great in-depth 45 minute doc on another Huitfield, HDMS Peter Willemoes, is here.

Respective ends of eras, in passing

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As the man said, “You can’t take a picture of this, it’s already gone.”

Here we see, in this circa October 1989 U.S. Navy image from the National Archives, a PBR Mark II riverine patrol boat escorts the British patrol submarine HMS Ocelot (S 17) into the Miraflores Locks during the latter’s transit of the Panama Canal.

Photo by PH1 (Sw) J. Elliott, 330-CFD-DN-SN-90-08113, NAID: 6453615

Introduced in the early 1960s for use in the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam’s myriad inshore rivers and streams, the Patrol Boat, Riverine, or PBR, was an Apocalypse Now-icon worthy staple of Operation Game Warden in both its 31-foot MK I and improved 32-foot MK II varieties.

With over 300 produced, most PBRs were handed over to the South Vietnamese by 1972 but a handful were retained for use by USNR small boat units in California and the Canal Zone until circa 1995.

Likewise, Ocelot, one of 13 Oberon-class diesel boats built for the Royal Navy in the early 1960s and the last submarine built for the Royal Navy at Chatham Dockyard, was, in the above image, like the PBR, coming to an end of her career and would be paid off less than two years after the above image was snapped.

HMS Ocelot paying off. Much of her Cold War history is still classified. 

Decommissioned in August 1991 after a 27-year career, she is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

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