Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

ACTUV ( Image credits- DARPA) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady The Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency responsible for developing and testing cutting-edge military technologies, will test-launch the prototype of its 140-ton Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV), named Sea Hunter, in April this year, the deputy director of DARPA, Steve Walker, said, according to National Defense Magazine. The 132-feet (40 meters) long Sea Hunter, an unmanned autonomous trimaran, will be christened in April 2016 at the Vigor Shipyards in Oregon and immediately afterwards commence sea-trials for 18 months to test its long-range tracking capabilities, among a host of other things. During the testing DARPA will closely cooperate with the Office of Naval Research and the Space and Naval Systems Warfare Command. The ship’s primary mission will be tracking enemy subs in shallow waters, I noted  in June 2015 (See: “US Navy

INS Kadmatt ( Image credits- Indian navy) Source- The Indian Navy INS Kadmatt, the second indigenous stealth Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvette built by M/s Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) is scheduled to be commissioned by Admiral RK Dhowan, the Chief of the Naval Staff at Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam on Thursday, 07 January 16. A unique feature of the ship is the high level of indigenisation incorporated in the production, accentuating our national objective of ‘Make in India’. About 90% of the ship is indigenous. The ship has been indigenously designed by the Indian Navy’s in-house organisation, Directorate of Naval Design and constructed by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited, Kolkata.Directorate of Naval Design (DND) is the Navy’s Design Organisation undertaking indigenous design of all surface combatants.  Kadmatt is the latest indigenous ship after Shivalik class, Kolkata class and INS Kamorta wherein a plethora of weapons and

Japanese P-1 ASW Plane ( Source- Wikimedia Commons/ Credits- JMSDF) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady Japan will offer Great Britain its first indigenously developed and built maritime patrol aircraft, the Kawasaki P-1, and will send two jets overseas for the first time to participate in UK’s  Royal International Air Tattoo – the world’s largest military airshow – according to media reports. The Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) will dispatch two P-1s, part of the JMSDF’s 51 Air Development Squadron, from the Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Kanagawa Prefecture on July 10, according to the Japanese Ministry of Defense. One aircraft will be on static display, whereas the second plane will perform a flight demonstration at the airshow from July 17-19. The planes will then head to an airbase near Ambouli International Airport in Djibouti to perform tests and permit “the technical challenges when operating in tropical and desert areas,” according to J