August 17th Weekly Update

SHIP LOGS & EXERCISES:

Ship & Group Locations Checked & Updated (August 13-17)

• CARAT 2012 continues in WESTPAC? No news since July, ESG may be transiting to new task
• RELIANT MERMAID-2012 Begins (August 13-16) in Mediterranean, International Search & Rescue Exercise (US Navy )
• NORTHERN EAGLE 2012 Begins (August 18) in North Sea / Barents Sea
• NATO Amphibious Exercise will begin in (August) in Mediterranean, date TBA, HMS Illustrious and FS C.D. Gaulle tasked to participate

HMS Dauntless (DDG)

• (August 17) Visiting Falklands (Royal Navy )

HMS Defender (DDG)

• (August 13) Friends & Families Day @ Portsmouth, UK (Royal Navy )

HMS Diamond (DDG)

• (August 14) joins Enterprise CSG in Arabian Sea (Royal Navy )

RFS Adm. Kulakov (DDG)

• (August 16) in Atlantic, begins return trip home after patroling for pirates off Somalia and leading the Mediterranean ITF. Kulakov is planning to visit Lisbon, Portsmouth and Cork (Naval Today )

RUSSIAN INTERFLEET TASK FORCE

• (August 11) ends 2-day tactical drill in Mediterranean
• (August 12) misses port call in Novorossiisk, Russia for supplies
• (August 13) near Italy, training in central Mediterranean …heading West? No explanation (RIA Novosti )
• (August 17) group splits, the LSTs head into Atlantic for exercises, the FFGs return to their patrol station in Mediterranean (RIA Novosti )

USNS Mercy (T-AH-19)

• (August 13) PP12 Cambodia completed, Mercy returning to San Diego (US Navy )

USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19)

• (August 14) departs Fukuoka, Japan ...currently on WESTPAC patrol (US Navy )

USS BH Richard (LHD-6)

• (August 12) training in Pacific, Firefighting EX ...add to schedule, EST possible WESTPAC deployment in December

USS Carr (FFG-52) 

• (August 14) assists sailing vessel in the Western Caribbean (US Navy )

USS D. Eisenhower CSG (CVN-69)

• (August 12) CSG in Arabian Sea, Vice Chief of Naval Operations visits ship
• (August 12) USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109) @ Haifa, Israel for RELIANT MERMAID 2012
• (August 15) USS Hue City (CG-66) aids a distressed Iranian flagged dhow MV Payam SE of Muscat, Oman (US Navy )

USS Enterprise CSG (CVN-65)

• (August 12) USS Porter (DDG-78) Collides with Japanese freighter MV Otowasan in Strait of Hormuz, @ Jebel Ali, UAE for repair (US Navy )
• (August 14) HMS Diamond (DDG) joins CSG in Arabian Sea
• (August 16) USS Porter (DDG-78) receives assistance from USS O'Kane (DDG-77) while in port @ UAE (O'Kane is currently on independent WESTPAC / CENTCOM deployment) (US Navy )

USS Farragut (DDG-99)

• (August 11) departed Tallinn, Estonia after 3-day port visit ...currently on EUCOM deployment (US Navy )

USS Forrest Sherman (DDG-98)

• (August 13) participating in RELIANT MERMAID-2012 ...currently on EUCOM deployment

USS G. Ford (CVN) 

• (August 9) US Navy delays combat stress test for new CVN until second ship in class is built due to costs

USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20)

• (August 14) visiting Theoule-Sur-Mer, France to commemorate the 68^th anniversary of the landing of allied troops there in WWII (US Navy )

USS Peleliu (LHA-5)

• (August 15) Begin CERTEX (lasts 2-weeks, then will be available for deployment) (US Navy )

USS Swift (HSV-2)

• (August 11) departed Liberia ...currently on APS-West deployment (US Navy )

USS Topeka (SSN-754)

• (August 10) @ Yokosuka, Japan ...currently on WESTPAC deployment

GROUND UNITS LOGS & EXERCISES:

US Ground units logs updated per DOD reports, up to (August 13-17) (DOD News Releases )

France, UK, Russia, China Army logs updated per various news releases and open sources

• KAVKAZ-2012: (September 17-23), upcoming Russian Army Ex in Caucasus

NOTEWORTHY NEWS:

EGYPT

• (August 13) President Morsi stages what some describe as a civilian counter-coup on the military, and dismisses the top leadership of the Army (Yahoo News)
• POLAND
• (August 14) Poland is planning to replace it's obsolete SU-22 strike fighters with 30-UCAV aircraft by 2018, forming 3-squadrons (RIA Novosti )

RUSSIA

• (August 14) Russian Akula Class attack subs were discovered patrolling the Gulf of Mexico after they left the area ...I wonder, did we know they were there, but didn't want them to know; or did we not know until it was too late, and have a big hole in our anti-sub detection network?
• (August 16) US denies that the Akula SSN was undetected (RIA Novosti )

SYRIA

• (August 13) Rebels claim to have shot down Syrian fighter over Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria. Government says it crashed from technical problems (Debka ); In Aleppo, Syrian army storms the western neighborhoods with tanks and APCs (RIA Novosti )
• (August 14) Russia complains about false media reports in a Saudi paper, stating Assad will soon resign, according to an interview with a Russian diplomat, which the Kremlin says never happened (RIA Novosti ); Iranian pilgrims captured in Syria are revealed to be IRNG fighters, sent to support the Assad regime (Fox News )
• (August 16) UN Monitors quit mission, saying both sides are committed to war (Yahoo News ); Meanwhile, diplomatic sources say the US and their allies are discussing to potential to sending up to 60,000 troops into Syria to secure the chemical weapons in the event the Syrian government and security forces collapse (Debka )
• (August 17) UN appoints new peace envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian Foreign Minister (RIA Novosti )

USA

• (August 14) The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is soliciting bids to develop a kilowatt-scale solid-state laser for use on naval ships as a Point-Defense against drones and small boat threats. The last test was in 2011 on board a decommissioned navy ship, and it proved able to disable a small boat target (US Navy )