Since 6th April the Portuguese ship NRP ÁLVARES CABRAL is joining OPERATION ATALANTA, as  Flag Ship, with the mission to provide protection to World Food Program shipments to Somalia, as also to AMISOM, as well in deterring and disrupting acts of piracy and in contributing to the protection of vulnerable shipping within the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor and the High Risk Area of Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin. As flag ship, the NRP ÁLVARES CABRAL has embarked the Commodore (Portuguese Navy) Jorge Novo Palma, the Commander of the Op Atalanta Task Force (EUROMARFOR and other EU units), as well as his multinational staff is composed by 24 militaries from all nations of EUROMARFOR (Portugal, Spain, France, Italy) and also from EU: Belgium Germany, Finland, Greece, Leetonia, The Netherlands and Sweden.

NRP ÁLVARES CABRAL is commanded by Captain Nuno Sobral Domingues, with a crew of 188 (211 including the FHQ staff) and she's the second ship of "Vasco da Gama" class frigate (MEKO 200 type), in 1991 was commissioned to the Portuguese Navy; she has a displacement of 3,200 tons and she's equipped with an organic asset MK95 Super Lynx helicopter.