Five and a half months after departing from her home port of Rota, Spain, the Spanish Landing Platform Dock (LPD), ESPS Galicia, has completed her counter-piracy deployment with Operation Atalanta in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

ESPS Galicia, under the command of Captain Rafael Fernández-Pintado Muñoz-Rojas, joined the EU operation on 6th May 2015 and by the time she returns to Spain, she will have been away for 155 days.

The Spanish warship has acted as flagship for Operation Atalanta for over five months, hosting the Force Headquarters, commanded by Rear Admiral Alfonso Gómez Fernández de Cordoba.

With a ship’s company of more than 300, ESPS Galicia has sailed more than 25,000 nautical miles, performed eight replenishments at sea (RAS) and has visited some key regional partners, including Djibouti, Tanzania, Seychelles, Oman and Madagascar.

With her excellent facilities and highly-trained crew, ESPS Galicia conducted several training exercises with navies and coast guards in the different countries that she visited. The flagship also planned, and conducted operations designed to deter pirate activity and to reassure seafarers transiting the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

On 5th October, the Operation Atalanta Deputy Commander, Rear Admiral Christoph Joachim Müller-Meinhard, visited ESPS Galicia and bid farewell to her crew.

He said: “This is the third time that ESPS Galicia has participated in Operation Atalanta and Spain has led the operation on five occasions.  With her excellent contribution during the last five months, Galicia has displayed the professionalism and loyalty that characterises the Spanish Navy – thank you.”

ESPS Galicia is now heading home to her base in Rota, Spain, and she is set to arrive at the end of October.