Spanish Navy’s Landing Platform Dock (LPD), ESPS Galicia, arrived to her homeport of Rota, Spain, after a six month deployment.

On Sunday 25 October 2015, ITS Carabiniere performed her first friendly approach (FA) with a fishing vessel off the coast of Somalia.

On Friday 23 October 2015 the five warships that are currently deployed with Operation Atalanta off the coast of Somalia met at sea in the Gulf of Aden.

Operation Atalanta’s flagship, ITS Carabiniere, was joined by Spanish warships, ESPS Victoria and ESPS Meteoro, Dutch warship HNLMS Groningen, and German warship, FGS Erfurt. The ships came together in a close-formation and practiced close-quarter manoeuvres.

On Friday 23 October 2015, Operation Atalanta’s Force Commander, Rear Admiral Barbieri welcomed the commander of Combined Task Force 151, Rear Admiral Bay, on board the EU Naval Force flagship, ITS Carabiniere.

On Tuesday 20 October 2015, Operation Atalanta’s new flagship, ITS Carabiniere, was visited by the Operation Commander, Major General Martin Smith MBE.

Italian warship, ITS Libeccio, started her journey home to La Spezia after completing her deployment with the European Union’s counter-piracy Operation Atalanta on Tuesday, October 20.

Just prior to their departure from the Gulf of Aden and journey home to their base port of La Spezia, crew members from Italian warship, ITS Libeccio, visited the Notre-Dame de Boulaos school in Djibouti.

As part of its deployment to EU Naval Forces’ mission in the Horn of Africa, the Spanish Navy’s frigate Victoria was on a visit to the Seychelles archipelago between October 16 and 19.

Italian vessel ITS Carabiniere conducted a replenishment at sea (RAS) with US Navy ship, USNS Carl Brashear, prior to joining Operation Atalanta on Friday, October 17.

The EUROMARFOR Winter Sub Working Group Meeting took place in Lisbon.

COMEUROMARFOR and the EMF Permanent Cell, by the occasion of a working meeting.

Spanish warship, ESPS Victoria, has joined Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s counter-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia. She departed her home port in Spain on September 10.

ESPS Victoria is a Santa María class frigate. Built in Spain, her design is based on the US Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates, which were designed to act as an escort to aircraft carriers and other high value ships, as well as to conduct anti-submarine patrols. Their extensive capabilities also allow them to carry out a wide range of other missions, such as counter-piracy operations.

Earlier today, Thursday 08 October, Rear Admiral Alfonso Gòmez Fernandez de Cordoba, (Spanish Navy), handed over the Force Command of the EU Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) Somalia – Operation Atalanta, to Rear Admiral Stefano Barbieri (Italian Navy) at sea in the Gulf of Aden.

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.

On the morning of the 3rd of October, three Spanish units currently deployed to fight piracy activity and protect all the vulnerable shipping transiting the Indian Ocean met up in the Gulf of Aden. ESPS “Meteoro” joined ESPS “Galicia”, flagship of Operation Atalanta, and ESPS “Victoria”, after these last two ships had performed a simultaneous refueling at sea in the Gulf of Aden.

During the last counter piracy patrol of the ESPS “Galicia”, the Force Commander, Rear Admiral Gómez de Cordoba, who is embarked on the Spanish flagship has paid a visit to the ITS “Libeccio” and to the Lithuanian Autonomous Vessel Protection Detachment on board the World Food Program Vessel “Douro”.

On September 30th Spanish Warship ESPS “Meteoro” (P-41) performed several activities at sea focused on improving knowledge of the pattern of life in the Somali Basin and also on cooperation among EU countries.

On 29th September, Italian warship, ITS Libeccio, conducted a joint exercise with Royal Omani Navy warship, RON Al Rahmani, during a port visit to Salalah.

On the 25th September ITS “Libeccio”, after an intense monitoring of maritime traffic in the Somali basin, spotted several fishing dhows, typical fishing vessels that sometimes can hide illegal activities related with supporting piracy.

On September 17, 2015, the Commander in Chief of the Italian Fleet (CINCNAV), Vice Admiral Filippo Maria Foffi has assumed the Command of the European Maritime Force (EUROMARFOR), relieving the Spanish Admiral Javier Franco Suanzes (the Spanish Admiral of the Fleet - ALFLOT).

The Change of Command Ceremony (CoCC) took place on board of the Italian Navy warship  Giuseppe Garibaldi, in the Naval Base of Taranto and was chaired by the Italian Chief of Defense, General Claudio Graziano.

Admiral Fernando García Sánchez, the Spanish Chief of Defense and the Portuguese Lieutenant-General Sílvio Sampaio, representing the CHOD, were present among others several diplomatic, military and local authorities.

The others two Chiefs of the Fleets of four EUROMARFOR nations, Admiral Denis Beraud (French Admiral commanding the Naval Action Force - ALFAN) and Vice Admiral Pereira da Cunha (Portuguese Fleet Commander - COMNAV) attended the EUROMARFOR Command handover ceremony.

Greece and Turkey, the two nations having officers as observers in EUROMARFOR Permanent Cell, were also represented in the ceremony at diplomatic and military level.