Maritime Vessels Directory

Oil prices rose to their highest in almost six weeks on Wednesday, with Brent crude surpassing $95 a barrel, on mounting concerns about disruptions to Middle Eastern supply routes because of escalating hostilities between the U.S. and Iran and threats to shipping by the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen.Brent crude futures were up $2.23, or 2.45%, at $93.24 a barrel by 1323 GMT, after hitting a session high of $95.47. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 climbed $2.18, or 2.18%, to $86.18. Both benchmarks touched their highest levels since June 11.The Brent crude three-month timespread, meanwhile, expanded to $10.

VARD, the Norwegian shipbuilding subsidiary of Italy's Fincantieri Group, won a contract valued at more than €220 million to design and build two next-generation buoy and lighthouse maintenance vessels for Trinity House, the General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar.The award, made through a competitive public tender, is part of Trinity House's fleet renewal program and will replace the THV Patricia and THV Galatea, enhancing the organization's ability to maintain the UK's aids-to-navigation network and other critical maritime infrastructure.

If the Navy can’t successfully introduce smaller ship classes of ships, why does it think it can succeed with the largest surface combatants since World War II?The Navy has announced a new class of guided missile battleships, the USS Defiant [BBG(X)] or the Trump-class, as the centerpiece of a new “Golden Fleet.”  BBG(X)s would be 840 to 880 feet long and have a full load displacement of more than 35,000 tons.  They would be the largest surface combatants built since World War II, and cost an estimated $17.5 to $22 billion each.  The Navy wants 15 of them.  Because of its size and complexity, Defiant will undoubtedly be more challenging than most new ships the Navy has introduced.

Technology companies and shipyards are vying for attention as the US unmanned navy grows in size and sophistication.No too long ago, US Navy Secretary John Phelan said: “If the last few years of conflict have taught us anything, it is that we will not win the wars of the future with the platforms of the past.” The nation’s ability to deter future conflict or to prevail, if necessary, will benefit from high quantities of low-cost air, surface and subsea unmanned systems. These will be used for close-range reconnaissance or one-way strike missions along with lower numbers of high-cost sophisticated systems with surveillance and/or mid- to long-range strike capability.

Hanwha Philly Shipyard (HPSI) and TOTE Services were selected to deliver the Missile Defense Agency’s (MDA) Missile Range Instrumentation Vessels (MRIV). TOTE Services will serve as vessel construction manager (VCM), and HPSI will build the ships at its Philadelphia shipyard.The MRIV will replace the Pacific Tracker and Pacific Collector, which currently support missile range instrumentation missions, and were constructed in 1965 and 1970, respectively. The selection of a VCM for the MRIV program comes as the federal government sharpens its focus on rebuilding the U.S. maritime industrial base, with shipbuilding capacity now recognized as a major national security priority.