Captain (SPN) Domingo Gómez-Pamo Guerra, Commanding Officer of the EUROMARFOR Task Group during CONTEX-PHIBEX 15 exercise, organized a meeting with the commanding officers of the tree EUROMARFOR ships and his international staff, on board of ESPS Cristóbal Colón, on 15 June 2015,

The purpose of this meeting was to prepare the participation in CONTEX-PHIBEX 15 achieving the best integration and cohesion between the ships and the chain of command.

An EUROMARFOR Task Group is activated from 15th to 26th of June 2015 to participate in the Portuguese Exercise “CONTEX/PHIBEX 2015 AND HARBOUR PROTECTION EXPERIMENTATION” (CT-PH15/HPX15). The exercise has been planned and is conducted by Portuguese Naval Command (COMNAV) to take place off the Portuguese western coast.

After participating in a PASSEX (a short exercise on transit) with the Portugese Air Force and the NATO martime force SNMG1, the French warship 'Courbet' arrived in Lisbon on friday. She's going to participate in the CONTEX-PHIBEX 15 exercise integrating the EUROMARFOR Task Group.

The 20th Anniversary of EUROMARFOR was mentioned in the "Revista Española de Defensa".

Patrol vessel ‘Infanta Cristina’ was patrolling in vicinity of Somali coast when detected several skiffs sailing off the coast in vicinity of the former Pirate camp named Woostock. They carried out a total of five Friendly Approaches.

After visual identification prior to the Friendly Approaches, ESPS Infanta Cristina confirmed that the Somali Skiffs did not have tripwires on board and did not detect any suspicious piracy activity. Thus, the Spanish CO decided to conduct a Friendly Approach to show naval presence and to gather information about their pattern of life.

The main part of the Somali skiffs crew members were Somali non full time fishermen, who usually come from the countryside and live in very poor conditions on camps close to the beach.

Whilst conducting counter-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia, Operation Atalanta flagship, ESPS Galicia, hosted a number of local leaders on board. 

These meetings helps to create a mutual trust and understanding between counter-piracy forces and the Somali population.

Ten Malagasy naval officers carried out counter-piracy training on board of the patrol ship Infanta Cristina during her recent visit to Diego Suarez.

On 10 June 2015, ITS Libeccio and her crew joined Operation ATALANTA and the Italian Frigate, under the Command of Cdr Daniele Paolo Maria MARTINUZZI, has begun patrolling in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali basin in support of escorts to the World Food Programme, AMISOM and the fight against piracy.

Libeccio integrates the EUROMARFOR Task Group under the Operational Command of EURNAFOR.

Today the Italian Navy celebrates the Italian Navy’s Day

On Wednesday 10 June 2015 Italian Navy warship, ITS Grecale, completed her counter-piracy deployment with Operation Atalanta off the coast of Somalia. Since joining the Mission in February 2015, she has sailed more than 18,000 nautical miles in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, conducting patrols and meeting local seafarers.

ITS Grecale has been under EUROMARFOR flag since 6 May 2015 until her relieve.

During the last week, the ESPS Galicia’s boarding team completed her first friendly approach of the Operation ATALANTA. Since the beginning of the mission until now, ESPS Galicia has been involved in other different task in order to control the maritime traffic situation.

During a patrol mission off Somalia, the Operation ATALANTA Force Commander, Rear Admiral Gómez, who is based in ESPS “Galicia” visited the merchant vessel “Douro”. MV “Douro” transports merchant aids provided by the World Food Program to Somali population.

The encounter at sea took place in the northern coast of Somalia during the transit of MV “Douro” from Mombasa to Bossasso and the patrolling mission of ESPS “Galicia” trying to deter and disrupt piracy activities and monitoring fishing vessels.

The Commander of EUROMARFOR Task Group and Force Commander of the European Naval Forces in Somalia visited ITS "Grecale" during the Saturday 30^th of May. The Italian ship is about to finish her deployment at sea with the Operation ATALANTA. ITS “Grecale” joined the Task Force 465 last 17^th February 2015. Since then, she has been patrolling the Area of Operations in accordance with the mission of the Operation ATALANTA.

SP MINEX 15 ended today nearby Alicante.

During the last 27^th May 2015, ESPS “Galicia” and ESPS “Infanta Cristina”, both from the EUROMARFOR Task Group integrated in TF 465, performed a triple refueling at sea with the replenishment ship from the Task Force 150 (TF-150) French Navy FS VAR.

EUROMARFOR flag flaunted under water, at sea, by divers of the Portuguese Navy embarked on board of the corvette Baptista de Andrade, under the command of LtCdr Santos Serafim.

BZ for the picture!

EUROMARFOR ships and NATO ships leaving Alicante for the final phase of the SP MINEX 15.

In the second week the intention is to clean an area from mines and other danger artifacts, always with pressure done by an opposite force. At the 3rd day the area will be granted as cleaned and then the main goal of this exercise will be achieved.

New pictures in the gallery: http://www.euromarfor.org/gallery.emf.php?id=12

EUROMARFOR ships participating in SP MINEX 15 arrived in Alicante to prepare the following week.

ITS Grecale after a patrol task against piracy activity of two weeks was the first Italian ship to dock at Port of Duqm as part of the close maritime cooperation between the two countries.

ITS Grecale, in the area with the European Maritime Force, reached Duqm port on May 23 and left harbour on May 25.

In the first week at sea the ships and crews had the opportunity to improve skills and work together. In this photo, aboard the corvette Baptista de Andrade, we can see the end of a great team work done by Portuguese and Spanish divers, marines and sailors.

The gallery of photos of the 20th anniversary of EUROMARFOR has been updated with new photos, take a look:

http://www.euromarfor.org/gallery.emf.php?id=15