In September, HMAS Sydney, one of Australia's newly modernized Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigates, along with HMAS Ballarat, an Anzac (Meko 200 ANZ)-class frigate, will officially conclude Operation Northern Trident 2009. The extended Australian Navy exercise began in April and involved an around-the-world tour including a successful anti-piracy patrol off Yemen and Somalia. The patrol was followed by training, exercises, and port calls with allied navies in Europe, North America, and Asia. During July the two warships visited New York, Baltimore, and Norfolk, Virginia, where HMAS Sydney, pictured here, was able to show off her impressive modernized weapon capabilities. This new armament fit includes the addition of an 8-tube vertical launch missile system carrying 32 ESSM missiles. The Sydney also retains the capability to carry two helicopters and launch Harpoon antiship missiles and Standard SM-1 (soon to be upgraded to SM-2) surface-to-air missiles from her MK 13 missile launcher; a capability that has been deleted from U.S. Navy variants of the class. The Australian guided-missile frigates, which are the envy of Perry-class sailors worldwide, also have upgraded electronic countermeasures, radar and sonar suites, along with improved electronics systems. The modernized Sydney and her sisters will remain in front-line service through at least the next decade, at which point Australia's Hobart-class of Aegis air-warfare destroyers are expected to join the fleet.
The U.S. naval aviation community packed plenty of celebration into a busy week this past summer when two of its most important new combat aircraft were rolled out within a few days of each other. The P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, pictured here, and the F-35C Lightning II, a carrier-based version of the Joint Strike Fighter, were unveiled in Seattle and Fort Worth at their respective Boeing and Lockheed Martin manufacturing facilities. The P-8A will replace the long serving P-3C Orion beginning in 2013, and the F-35C (along with the F-35B short-takeoff and vertical landing variant) will become the Navy's first stealth fighter when it reaches the Fleet in 2015. Foreign interest in both aircraft has been extensive, with India scheduled to be the Poseidon's first foreign customer, having purchased eight P-8s for delivery by 2015.
In recent months Iran has been making renewed efforts to flex its maritime might as it works to establish new naval bases while conducting at-sea exercises. In July Iranian and other foreign news outlets reported that Russia and Iran were conducting their first joint naval exercises in the Caspian Sea involving the cooperation of some 30 ships and two helicopters. The exercises were purportedly designed to improve transportation security and environmental protection in the region. That same month, Iran announced plans to build new naval facilities in the southern portion of the country, bordering the Gulf of Oman. The city of Jask was specifically mentioned as a location that will see increased base construction, including the creation of a special jetty for speedboats, such as the Iranian vessel pictured here harassing U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf in January 2008.