January 2012 issue (published December 30)

• HOW TO DEAL WITH PIRACY’S VIOLENT TWIST?
• RETURN OF THE WARRIOR
• ROYAL NAVY & ‘THE HAGUE DOCTRINE’
• BIG E: 50th BIRTHDAY
• EUROPEAN CARRIER STRIKE
• FOCUS ON GERMAN NAVY
• THE NAVAL ROOTS OF BRITAIN’S SPOOKS Pt2
• CANADA’S BOLD NEW NAVAL HORIZONS
• ATTACK ON PEARL & LOSS OF FORCE Z
• FAREWELL HMAS Kanimbla
• DOES KENYA’S SOMALI ADVENTURE ENABLE ISRAEL TO DETER IRAN?
• ARE US MARINES READY FOR FUTURE WARS?

HOW TO DEAL WITH PIRACY’S VIOLENT TWIST?

Pirates are more willing than ever to kill to get what they want. This has prompted navies to take a harder stance, but above all has seen the advent of armed protection teams aboard merchant ships sailing in dangerous waters. In the United Kingdom the Security Association for the Maritime Industry (SAMI) seeks to provide regulation for the ship protection business. Iain Ballantyne talks to Peter Cook, who is one of SAMI’s key Consultants, about challenges facing the new organisation. In supporting articles we also analyse the current state of affairs in the fight against piracy off East Africa.

Pictured:  A Protection Vessels International security team member guards a merchant vessel sailing through a high-risk area off East Africa. Photo: PVI.

RETURN OF THE WARRIOR

Editor-at-Large Jonathan Eastland provides an account of the British destroyer HMS Liverpool’s return to Portsmouth from combat operations off Libya, an event that demonstrated the enduring importance of the Royal Navy in the life of the nation.

Pictured: Sailors of HMS Liverpool in Procedure Alpha on the ship’s upper decks.

Photo: Jonathan Eastland. For more info: www.ajaxnetphoto.com

ROYAL NAVY & ‘THE HAGUE DOCTRINE’

A PERFECT FIT FOR THE 21st CENTURY?

Creating a coherent and seamless foreign policy is a huge challenge. Following his look at the ‘Cameron Doctrine’, as illustrated by the UK’s light military intervention in Libya, Dr Dave Sloggett investigates how the Royal Navy might assist the Foreign Office, under the stewardship of William Hague.

Pictured: The Royal Navy Duke Class frigate HMS St Albans breaks away from the Nimitz Class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, both ships pursuing their nations’ foreign policy East of Suez. Photo: MC3 Benjamin Crossley/US Navy.

BIG E: 50th BIRTHDAY

She is a legend of the seas, sustained through five decades of front line service by nuclear power and the first of her kind in the world. The US Navy carrier USS Enterprise has celebrated her 50th birthday, which makes her older than the majority, if not all, of her present Ship’s Company. We mark the event with a special photo feature.

Pictured: Sailors spell out “E=MC2” on the flight-deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ship’s commissioning. Photo: MC3 Alex R. Forster/US Navy.

EUROPEAN CARRIER STRIKE

As part of a look at developments in European carrier strike, WARSHIPS IFR gained an insight into how the leading exponent of the capability in Europe works on the front line when Rich Cooper flew aboard the Charles de Gaulle during combat operations off Libya. We also report on progress in the UK carrier programme, visit the French frigate Forbin, which provides protection for carrier strike groups, plus cover the carrier qualification process of Cavour, Italy’s new flattop.

Pictured: The French Navy strike carrier Charles de Gaulle at sea with a US Navy carrier. Photo: Marine Nationale.

FOCUS ON GERMAN NAVY

Words and pictures on the German fleet, including the laying down of the keel for a new class of frigates and the roll out of a new submarine, plus missile test firings off South Africa.

Pictured: The German Navy frigate Sachsen launches a missile. Photo: German Navy.

THE NAVAL ROOTS OF BRITAIN’S SPOOKS Pt2

Mark Simmons concludes his look at the naval origins of the British secret service.

In this instalment he traces its evolution from the notorious ‘Ace of Spies’ down to the modern era, including the originator of Commander James Bond.

Pictured: Gary Oldman as 1970s spy master George Smiley (background) and John Hurt as his boss, ‘Control’ in the new movie version of le Carre’s ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’. Their real-life predecessors were naval officers. Photo: Jack English. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2010 StudioCanal SA.

CANADA’S BOLD NEW NAVAL HORIZONS

Charles Strathdee reports on a confident vision to regenerate the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) with a massive investment in combat vessels and auxiliaries, representing the largest ever procurement in the nation’s history.

Pictured: A CGI impression of the Canadian fleet’s future ice patrol ship. Image: Canadian DND.

ATTACK ON PEARL & LOSS OF FORCE Z

Continuing his series, Dr Robert Farley considers the myth or reality surrounding key events in WW2, in this instalment the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the USA into the conflict and loss of two capital ships that seemed to symbolise the end of UK global power.

Pictured: Japanese carrier aircraft prepare to take off as part of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Photo: USNH&HC

FAREWELL HMAS Kanimbla

As 2011 drew to a close, so did the active service life of the Royal Australian Navy’s (RAN’s) last Amphibious Landing Platform (ALP) vessel, HMAS Kanimbla, so we mark the passing into history of the vessel and her sister Manoora.

Pictured: Members of HMAS Kanimbla’s Ship’s Company march off the ship for the final time as she is decommissioned at Garden Island, New South Wales. Photo: ABIS Dove Smithett/RAN.

DOES KENYA’S SOMALI ADVENTURE ENABLE ISRAEL TO DETER IRAN?

Chief Analyst Usman Ansari examines the decision by Kenya to invade Somalia and how this may impact on the regional strategic chessboard, questioning the wisdom of a land-based adventure when securing the sea borders might have been a better option.

Pictured: Kenyan sailors with the newly formed Kenya Navy Special Boat Unit during a mass casualty drill in Mombasa on March 24, 2010. Photo: Chief Mass Communication Specialist Kathryn Whittenberger/US Navy.

ARE US MARINES READY FOR FUTURE WARS?

David Axe asks if the Leathernecks are fully prepared for the future. With global war-fighting destined to be in the maritime environment off the world’s so-called ‘megacities’ do they have the ships and other equipment they need?

Pictured: The late lamented Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) in 2007, before cancellation. Photo: Mandy McLaurin/US Navy.