– Sky News – Britain is to double its naval commitment to NATO “to send a strong message to our enemies” the Defence Secretary will announce today. For the first time since 2010 the Royal Navy will contribute to NATO’s Standing Maritime Group 1.

– The Guardian – At arms fair in London, Admiral Sir George Zambellas says navy plans to demonstrate a directed energy weapon at sea by end of decade.

– USNI News – The Royal Navy revealed more information about the design and capabilities of its new Global Combat Ship Type 26 frigate.

– BBC – Houses are getting smaller and many young people are forced to share with others. Submariners know some practical and psychological tricks for living in cramped spaces.

– BBC – Futuristic images of what Royal Navy vessels could look like in 2050 have been developed by young British scientists and engineers. They hope it will offer a glimpse of how advanced vessels could be.

– BBC – Chancellor George Osborne has announced more than £500m of contracts for the Royal Navy’s submarine base at Faslane.

– USNI News – The Royal Navy is embarking on a fresh maritime renaissance that will see it deliver enhanced capabilities in partnership with its most enduring ally. That, at least, was the message delivered by the Royal Navy’s First Sea Lord Adm. George Zambellas and his American counterpart at a joint seminar in London.

– BBC – A Royal Navy submariner has defended his criticism of safety procedures around the Trident nuclear submarines and revealed he will hand himself over to the authorities within days.

– USNI News – Had Labour emerged with the most seats in the House of Commons, its hopes of forming a viable government would have required the support of the fiercely anti-nuclear Scottish National Party. This was a worrisome prospect for advocates of strategic nuclear deterrence, who feared that a weak Labour leadership would inevitably cave in to SNP demands and scrap plans to renew the U.K.’s submarine-based Trident ballistic missile force.

– 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.