Russian Navy Cruisers Positioned to Counter U.S., French and Italian Carrier Groups in the Mediterranean Slava-class guided-missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov departs Severomorsk. Russian MoD Photo Three Russian guided-missile cruisers have been arrayed across the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to counter three NATO carrier strike groups, causing concern in the Pentagon, a U.S. defense […]
NOC Member Tom Lewis was the advisory historian for the project which simulated a virtual dive on the wreck of I-124, a WWII Japanese submarine, sunk 80 years ago today, 20 January, in combat with HMAS Deloraine, off Darwin Harbour. I-124 was the first Japanese warship sunk by the Royal Australian Navy. The video can […]
Commodore Jim Dickson RAN Ret’d has spent some of his COVID lockdown time considering certain aspects of the ADF’s employment as we move into the uncertain territory of future warfare, self-defence and civil support. The Paper can be accessed by clicking on this link. Comments on the paper can be contributed by going to the […]
When the War broke out I was on exchange with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean as a very lowly Midshipman. We immediately sailed for our war station in Simonstown in South Africa. Our main task was to keep lookout for two German Battlecruisers, namely the Graf Sree and the Scheer which had sailed from […]
ANNUAL COMMEMORATION AND LUNCH SYDNEY, 7 MAY 2016 Address by Rear Admiral James Goldrick AO CSC RAN at the Australian National Maritime Museum Sydney We think of the face of naval battle as grey warships on a blue horizon, with the flash of guns and the splash of shells. We imagine it as very frightening […]
By LCDR Desmond Woods, RANR Karl von Clausewitz famously wrote that war is the realm of uncertainly. The lived experience of war at sea bears this out. Ships like people can be the Victims of Circumstances, not of their making. So it is with the story of the RAN’s Heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra. It […]
Hobart in Vietnam: Follow-up letters by Ian Callaway and David Holthouse Part 2 of 2. Read Part 1 here Ian Callaway (left) is at the Naval Gunfire Support (NGS) plotting desk in HMAS Hobart. The Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow (right) is a semi-active air-to-air missile that homes at up to Mach 4 on a target illuminated […]
HMAS Hobart in Vietnam by Harry Daish Part 1 of 2 This tale started as a story for grandchildren eager to learn details of their grandfather’s service in a destroyer in Vietnam. In late February 1967 I was a senior Lieutenant of 16 years service, having just returned from three years exchange service with the […]
Australian Clearance Diving Team Three in Khwar AzZubayr, Iraq by Troy Miles and Paul Papalia You can be forgiven for thinking we dropped off the radar screen after our formal farewell in Sydney on Valentine’s day, 14 February 2003. Once we began the deployment, OPSEC was imposed to ensure security from the terrorist threat in […]
The P-40 Curtiss Kittyhawk The P-40 Kittyhawk – goes well, downhill. The aircraft type flown by Nicky Barr in RAAF 3 Squadron had a long and colourful history that commenced with its original contract. Worth $12.9 million in 1939, it was the largest American aircraft manufacturing order since 1918. Competitors cried foul, citing better aircraft […]
