Available at no cost to maritime professionals for the first two years, students have an opportunity to earn up to fifteen college credits by completing the program, which is recognized and approved by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. The Maritime Executive alerts us that the Massachusetts Maritime Academy has launched a new online certificate [...]

Its the end of the line for the USNS Vandenberg…at least as a floating ship. It is getting ready to begin its new life as an artificial reef off Key West, FL. The ship was recently towed from Virginia to Florida in preparation for its sinking in the coming weeks. The ship has been laid up in the James River Naval Reserve Fleet known as the “Ghost Fleet”.

Several attacks by Somali pirates have been successfully thwarted in recent days by NATO and other foreign warships patrolling in the region, unfortunately the pirates in those attacks were left still roaming the high seas, albeit minus a few weapons.  Here is a brief listing of the attacks thwarted that I know of and their outcome. 18 [...]

For those keeping up with vessel tracking technology, Bryant’s Maritime Blog alerts us that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on the review of vessel tracking systems used by the Coast Guard.  Specifically, the report focuses on the duplication of data that the two primary long range tracking methods provide which include [...]

Lloyd’s List is reporting that Japan is deploying at least 2 P3-C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) to be based out of Djibouti and used exclusively for anti-piracy patrols.   The P3-C Orion MPA is specifically designed to conduct long range maritime patrols, up to 14 hours in duration and at a range of 4,600 miles [...]