– The Scotsman – HMS Bulwark set sail for Libya yesterday to join efforts to ease the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.

– Daily Telegraph – Fourteen countries begin exercises off Scotland designed to reassure Putin’s Nato neighbours, as Nordic countries announce new defence alliance against Russia

– BBC – The Royal Navy’s first new uniform in 70 years has been unveiled.

– US Naval Institute – It is an often quaffed line, ‘British Defence Spending is the 5th largest in the world’ – inferring therefore that everything must be fine…

– Daily Mail – A fully armed Royal Navy warship was scrambled to challenge a missile-carrying Russian vessel in the waters off Britain just days before Christmas, defence sources revealed last night.

– USNI News – When the inhabitants of Scotland voted three months ago to remain part of the United Kingdom, their decision preserved not only a 307-year-old union with England and Wales but also two sites of crucial strategic importance.

– USNI News – The U.K. Royal Navy plans to relocate two Trafalgar-class nuclear attack boats (SSN) from the Southern England to the service’s primary submarine base in Scotland.

– BBC – Britain is to establish its first permanent military base in the Middle East since it formally withdrew from the region in 1971. The base, at the Mina Salman Port in Bahrain, will host ships including destroyers and aircraft carriers.

– BBC – The Royal Navy may ask US Marine Corps squadrons to fly off its new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth following delays to its new F35B fighters.

– BBC – The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has insisted that it will continue to ensure that Royal Navy warships are built in the United Kingdom.

– BBC – RFA Argus has arrived in Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak in the West African country.

USNI News – HMS Astute (S-94) — the first in class of the U.K. Royal Navy’s nuclear attack boats (SSNs) — has returned to Scotland after its first operational deployment.

– War is Boring – The British Royal Navy is deploying the auxiliary ship RFA Argus to Sierra Leone in West Africa in order to help health officials contain the deadly Ebola virus.

– USNI News – The heart of the United Kingdom’s nuclear submarine enterprise could be cut out if Scotland leaves the U.K. in Thursday’s referendum on Scottish independence, British leaders have warned repeatedly over the last several months.

– Aviation Week – Bill Sweetman writes that after too many years of hearing senior U.S. officers gripe about sequestration and congressional mandates, and fire off interservice potshots, it’s refreshing to hear a flag officer sounding optimistic.

– Aviation Week – Despite delays, U.K. begins countdown toward the return of carrier strike capability.

– The Guardian – Cross-party commission comes out in favour of keeping nuclear missile deterrent to prevent future security threats for Britain.

– BBC – The UK’s largest warship marks “a new phase in our naval history”, the Queen has said, as the vessel was officially named in her honour at a ceremony at Fife’s Rosyth Dockyard.

– Royal Navy – Royal Navy investigates mystery Russian warship in Baltic – HMS Montrose tracked the Russian corvette Soobrazitelny and then was circled by a Russian patrol plane.

– Was is Boring – The Royal Navy’s high-tech warship HMS Dragon has sortied twice in recent weeks to find and escort eight Russian naval vessels steaming through British waters.

– BBC – UK science is to get one of the biggest, most capable polar research vessels in the world.

– Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy’s HMS Tireless has been stood down from the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet.

– BBC – The crew of a Royal Navy ship are “working 24/7” to hunt for flight recorders from the missing Malaysian plane, their commander has said.

– BBC – British submarine HMS Tireless has joined the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The Ministry of Defence said the Trafalgar class submarine had arrived in the southern Indian Ocean and would help search for the plane’s black box recorder.

– War is Boring – Deceptive games are downright customary on British and U.S. subs.