December 22 Weekly Update

SHIP LOGS & EXERCISES:

Ship & Group Locations Checked & Updated (December 16 to December 22)

ACTIVE EXERCISES:

• EURASIA PARTNERSHIP CAPSTONE 2012 (December 9-15) at Souda Bay, Greece (US Navy )

SHIP LOGS:

HMS Diamond (DDG)

• (Dec 21) Returns to Portsmouth, UK from deployment (Royal Navy ) (...removed from log)

PLAN Anti-Piracy TF

• (Dec 18) 3-ships visit Sydney, Australia for 4-days, en-route back home (Yahoo )

RFS Shaposhnikov TF

• (Dec 19) TF visits Bandar Abbas, Iran (Rusnavy.com )

RFS Vladivostok (New Mistral Class LHD)

• (Dec 21) Russia delays launch of the first Mistral Class LHD until 2016, ship being assessed for performance, role and status as part of Russian Navy (RIA Novosti )

RUSSIAN TASK FORCE TO SYRIA

• (Dec 18) RFS Kaliningrad (LST) tasked with urgent call for readiness to deploy to eastern Mediterranean, possibly to rescue Russian citizens in Syria, possibly for two months. Also tasked are RFS Moskva (CG), Severomorsk and Smetlivy (DDG), and Novocherkassk (LST) (Rusnavy.com )
• (Dec 19) RFS Severomorsk (DDG), Altai (Tug) and Dubna (Tanker) left Northern Fleet Severomorsk base for Gulf of Aden, expected to reach zone in mid-January (RIA Novosti )

USS Eisenhower CSG

• (Dec 18) Airwing fly’s off
• (Dec 19) returns from Deployment (US Navy ), DDG escorts separate from IKECSG (...speculate they attached to Stennis CSG, who has no DDG)

USS Iwo Jima ARG

• (Dec 18) returns to Norfolk, deployment ends (US Navy )

GROUND UNITS LOGS & EXERCISES:

US Ground units logs updated per DOD reports, up to (December 16 to December 22) (DOD News Releases )

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

ACTIVE EXERCISES:

• None Noted

UNIT LOGS:

• UK Prime Minister Cameron visits British forces at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan on (Dec 20) (MOD )
• (Dec 18) Russia and Kyrgyz President sign agreement establishing Joint Use Base by 2017 for a 15-year term (RIA Novosti )
• 173^rd Airborne Brigade – KIA @ Logar Province, Afghanistan (Dec 14)

NEWS that makes me go Hmmmm......

SYRIA

• (Dec 21) Syria fires 4-6 SCUD missiles at rebel positions near Aleppo (UPI )
• (Dec 22) Statements by Russian FM Lavrov seem to indicate Syria’s WMD's were consolidated into 1-2 locations, and were under Russian control (Debka ) (Yahoo )

MAPPING UPDATES

• None, Mapping file damaged, being recreated :(