Irish naval service towed sonar array operator in 2028 (colourised)

The Beckett class are not ASW vessels, but experience from using CAPTAS-1 will probably help inform whatever comes next and mean there's a cadre of personnel already versed in sonar before any new vessels arrive, which seems like a good idea?

My wild guess on how these systems will be utilised: first and foremost: training & developing an in house knowledge of modern sonar.

Operationally: if intel suggests *someone* is lurking within Irish waters to avoid RN etc. - they'll get some Irish pings to say hello-o-o-ooo, we see you.

Also the territorial waters & EEZ boundaries were added as separate vector layers over the satellite basemap.

Apologies, only spotted this now - it's Bing satellite, blue/purple hue is from the overlaying of the heatmap layer.

Thales confirms CAPTAS-1 for Irish Naval Service Thales has said that it will provide its containerised CAPTAS-1 sonar system to the Irish Naval Service, confirming a previous announcement from the Irish Department of...

www.janes.com/osint-insigh...

I'd say there's a good chance it will.

Also fwiw, pretty sure IAC C295 (#285) took a look at both MARS 6 & BOND off the south coast and Irish CG King Air (EI-IRF) took a look at BARQ off the north west, earlier today.

The Turning YouTube video by The Notwist - Topic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4bp...

Submarine cable work is stepping up on the Celtic Interconnector, with increasing activity on the French end; I will do an update in the near future.

*looks on understandingly from Ireland*
www.rte.ie/news/regiona...

Message - Dernière Nuit YouTube video by VoyageursDetournes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRGW...

What happens when the wind doesn't blow? Building the energy systems of the future One UK company saw 32% less power generated than expected from its renewable assets.

Solar power in Ireland can sound like a bad joke, but there have been lengthy periods of weeks or even months of low wind speed which were accompanied by relatively fine sunny weather - so solar has to be part of the solution here going forward...
www.weforum.org/stories/2021...

Solar has only really started to take off here in the last few years and is nowhere near winds 5GW installed capacity yet, but will likely play a critical role going forward.

View of Eirgrid dashboard, showing production from solar farms outproducing wind, roughly between 7am and 7pm.

Stats from Eirgrid Dashboard today here in Ireland - very low generation from the ~5GW installed wind turbine capacity.

Solar peaked at 1030MW & outproduced wind turbines between 07:00 & 18:45.

www.smartgriddashboard.com/all/

Possibly of note - there's a Russian flagged cargo vessel showing on AIS just ahead of it, which also left from Turkey.

Nice visualisation 🤩

I think Russian naval vessels on lengthy voyages are accompanied by tugs relatively frequently - not sure that is the case here, but one potential explanation.

On the subject of Russian vessels in the channel - looks like HMCG aircraft (G-HMGF) checked out Russian flagged tug "ALTAIR" earlier today.

On the subject of Russian vessels in the channel - looks like HMCG aircraft (G-HMGF) checked out Russian flagged tug "ALTAIR" earlier today.

A very good question that I wish I knew the answer to!

Can only speculate - interestingly both Strateg & Antares are Russian flagged, which I thought would make them a bit less likely to be subject to boarding by RN?

@pa.nton.cx

Same deal with ANTARES...

Guessing they deemed the Channel too much of a risk

Gotta love some of these routes.

Yep!

Switched on the sanctioned filter on VesselFinder - yeah, this is becoming the established trend of more and more sanctioned tankers routing around Ireland and avoiding the channel.

I am jealous!

I remember watching them as a kid - they were beautiful and sounded amazing, happy memories of seeing them doing low level training and up close at Air Spectacular 93.

(But my most vivid memory of that airshow was how the *sound* of the Draken shook me to the core... that roar....)

Jasper appeared to get no attention from the Irish Air Corps C295 MSAs or the Coast Guard's Beech King Airs - I'll take that as a sign that the relevant authorities didn't see anything overly sketchy with its short stop.

The Israelis with absolute air superiority and desperate to use every airframe they had to help their ground forces in 1967 opted to withdraw the Fouga from frontline missions after heavy losses proved using it for combat was a stupid idea.

And once the Saab Tunnan arrived in Congo, the Fouga Magister's which had been used to attack UN positions (e.g. Jadotville) were no longer effective - they were completely outclassed by the Tunnan.

Honestly I've been losing my mind with some of these articles :)