DefenceTalkTaiwan has opted out of purchasing anti-submarine helicopters from the United States because they are too expensive, its defence minister said Thursday. The island was planning to buy up to 12 Seahawk choppers but the deal has been scrapped as Taipei prioritises lower cost, more mobile weaponry to counter any threat from China. Local media […]https://www.defencetalk.com/taiwan-scraps-deal-to-buy-us-anti-submarine-helicopters-78780/

DefenceTalkThe United States said Tuesday (April 2) it had approved the sale of 24 MH-60R helicopters to India, significantly boosting its emerging ally’s firepower to target submarines as China expands in the Indian Ocean. In a quick reply to an Indian request submitted late last year, the State Department said it was informing the US […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-approves-anti-submarine-helicopter-sale-to-india-72239/

DefenceTalkAll Ilyushin Il-38 (NATO reporting name: May) antisubmarine warfare planes will be upgraded to the Il-38N level, Russian Naval Aviation Chief Igor Kozhin said. “The defense minister has assigned a task to upgrade the entire Il-38 plane fleet,” Kozhin said. According to him, the Il-38 plane has had “virtually no accident” for almost 50 years. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-to-upgrade-all-il-38-antisubmarine-warfare-planes-69072/

DefenceTalkThe United States has deployed a P-8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore for the first time ever, both countries said, amid simmering regional tensions over Beijing’s island-building in the disputed South China Sea. China is locked in a territorial dispute with four Southeast Asian countries — including Washington allies Vietnam and the Philippines — and […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-deploys-p-8-poseidon-spy-plane-in-singapore-amid-south-china-sea-row-66015/

DefenceTalkThe Royal Navy’s anti-submarine warfare helicopter, the Merlin Mk2, has achieved Full Operating Capability (FOC), on time and under budget. The significant milestone of the £807 million program has now been met, following the delivery of 24 out of a total of 30 Merlin helicopters to the Royal Navy. The upgraded Merlin Mk2s are the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/royal-navys-next-generation-helicopters-ready-for-action-65392/

DefenceTalkThe U.S. Navy awarded a nearly $1.5 billion contract Aug. 27 to Boeing Defense, Space & Security for the procurement of 13 Full-Rate Production (FRP) Lot 2 P-8A Poseidon aircraft. Nine planes will join the U.S. fleet and four will join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), who has been a cooperative partner in the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-navy-orders-additional-p-8a-aircraft-first-royal-australian-air-force-planes-65216/

DefenceTalkSouth Korea and the United States kicked off a major anti-submarine drill on Monday, weeks after North Korea claimed it had successfully tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The three-day exercise, aimed at tackling provocations by North Korean submarines, is being conducted off the southern island of Jeju, the South’s defence ministry said. “This is the […]https://www.defencetalk.com/south-korea-us-stage-major-joint-anti-submarine-exercise-64389/

DefenceTalkThe Pentagon has moved one step closer toward its goal of creating an unmanned, autonomous patrol ship. Set to drift in the high seas, the robotic Sea Hunter will silently follow potentially hostile submarines. In 1872, British sailors spotted the Mary Celeste off the coast of the Azores. With a single lifeboat missing, but no […]https://www.defencetalk.com/pentagon-launches-submarine-tracking-unmanned-ghost-ships-63931/

DefenceTalkDARPA’s Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program seeks to develop a new type of unmanned surface vessel that could independently track adversaries’ ultra-quiet diesel-electric submarines over thousands of miles. One of the challenges that the ACTUV program is addressing is development of autonomous behaviors for complying with the International Regulations for Preventing […]https://www.defencetalk.com/automated-lookouts-for-unmanned-surface-vessels-63675/

DefenceTalkRussia has successfully tested its newest anti-submarine system, which features anti-torpedo capabilities, during military exercises in the Baltic Sea. Russia’s stealth corvette Soobrazitelny has successfully tested the country’s newest Paket-NK small-sized anti-submarine system with anti-torpedo capabilities during the military exercises in the Baltic Sea. The Kilo class diesel-electric torpedo submarine “Varshavyanka” (Project 877) served as […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-successfully-tests-anti-submarine-system-62811/