Newsletter navale

Vilnius, 2 mai 2014 (AFP) -

Cinq navires de l'Otan sont arrivés vendredi dans le port lituanien de Klaipeda (ouest) sur la Baltique pour renforcer la défense de la région, a indiqué le ministre lituanien de la Défense Juozas Olekas.

Le ministre a salué l'arrivée de ces navires - quatre dragueurs de mines et un navire de soutien, battant pavillon norvégien, néerlandais, belge et estonien, comme un signe de la volonté de l'Otan de rassurer la Lituanie et les autres Etats membres de l'Alliance dans la région, inquiets de la crise en Ukraine.

"L'arrivée de navires de l'Otan est encore un autre signe de l'unité et de la solidarité de l'Otan", a-t-il déclaré à l'AFP par téléphone après la cérémonie d'accueil.

Selon le ministre, la présence accrue de l'Otan dans la région constitue une "mesure de dissuasion" face à la Russie, qui a rassemblé environ 40.000 soldats à la frontière orientale de l'Ukraine.

L'Otan a déployé le groupe naval sur la Baltique la semaine dernière pour marquer "son engagement dans la sécurité et la sûreté des Pays baltes", membres de l'Alliance depuis 2004.

Les navires se rendront dans d'autres ports de la Baltique et participeront à une opération de dragage de mines plus tard ce mois-ci dans la Lettonie voisine.

Les trois anciennes républiques soviétiques - Lituanie, Lettonie et Estonie, s'inquiètent du potentiel militaire grandissant de la Russie à leurs frontières, la crise ukrainienne n'ayant fait que renforcer leurs appréhensions.

Quelque 600 soldats américains ont été envoyés dans ces pays et en Pologne au cours des dernières semaines, alors que la Grande-Bretagne, la France et le Danemark y ont envoyé ses avions de chasse.

Le ministre britannique de la Défense Philip Hammond est attendu vendredi dans la journée en Estonie, puis en Lituanie.

NEWTOWN, Conn. - Estonia's military has opted to decommission the Navy's flagship, Admiral Pitka, due to the ship's lack of use and the cost of returning her to seaworthiness. The Admiral Pitka was gifted to Estonia by Denmark in July 2000. The ship, formerly known as Beskytteren, was constructed in the 1970s, and upon re-commissioning into the Estonian Navy in November of 2000, the 74-meter ship's hull was strengthened for navigating in ice. The ship was thereafter used primarily as a research vessel.
Due to a lack of funds to maintain her, however, the Admiral Pitka has remained dockside since 2008. Last year the Navy planned to bring the vessel back to a state of seaworthiness, announcing a tender in September. However, this was later canceled and a decision was then reached to forego the ship altogether, instead focusing on a 3+1 naval capability, whereupon the fleet will be comprised of three minehunters and one diving and support vessel.
The three mine-warfare ships are ex-British Royal Navy Sandown class ships that were retired from U.K. service in July 2004 due to force-level reductions. They were purchased from the U.K. by Estonia in late October 2006 for roughly $65 million. The three ships - the Admiral Cowen, Sakala, and Ugandi - replaced the Estonian Navy's two aging ex-German Navy Frauenlob class vessels and a single Lindau class mine warfare craft since retired.
The lone auxiliary ship remaining in the Estonian Navy is the Tasuja, which is also a former Royal Danish Navy vessel. The boat was handed over to Estonia by Denmark on April 12, 2006.
The Admiral Pitka is now being stripped of Estonian-sourced equipment and will be returned to Denmark as per the terms of the original 2000 gifting arrangement, which stipulated that the ship's ultimate fate rests with Danish authorities.

Source : Forecast International

Thales UK has signed a contract with the Estonian Defence Forces to provide an additional four years of technical support and maintenance to two former Royal Navy (RN) mine countermeasures vessels (MCMVs) now serving with the Estonian fleet.

The contract provides a framework to achieve cost savings while accessing a wider range of support activities than previously provided. Thales offers a complete range of services and support packages to suit specific operational and maintenance requirements.

The two former RN Sandown-class vessels – HMS Sandown and HMS Inverness – were decommissioned and sold to Estonia in 2006. The vessels were re-named ENS Admiral Cowan and ENS Sakala.

As part of a programme to return the two ships to operational service, Thales originally signed a contract in 2006 to provide operational support to the ships in service and upgrades to Thales UK’s highly-successful Sonar 2093 system. This new contract now extends the support programme until December 2016.

Sonar 2093 is a variable-depth sonar system and is designed for the detection and classification of bottom and moored mines. It is optimized for littoral (coastal) and open-ocean waters and is effective against all known mine types.

The system is in service with the RN’s remaining Sandown-class MCMVs, and existing export contracts include Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Italy and the Republic of Korea.