The minesweeper Alghero of the Navy, inserted in the NATO device - Standing Nato Mine Counter Measures Group 2 (SNMCMG2), yesterday left the port of Mahon on the island of Menorca, in Spain, after a three-day stop to take part in the international exercise Spanish-Minex 18, in the waters off the Balearic Islands.
Ship Alghero in fact, the 27 in the Spanish port was reunited with the other naval units of the Second Mine Countermeasure Group of NATO, the integrated multinational maritime force that works to ensure the protection of maritime communication routes and access to ports from the threat of naval mines, passing directly to Allied Maritime Command, headquarters based in Northwood (UK).
During the stop in Port Mahon, the units of the NATO device have carried out a joint propaedeutic training to support the annual Spanish-Minex exercise, which will allow the naval units to consolidate their preparation in the search and neutralization of simulacra of naval mines, in the scope of an operational theater with a high level of enemy threat, simulated by surface units and aircraft assets.
In addition to the naval units of the SNMCMG2 group and the minesweeper units of the Spanish navy, a unit of the Greek navy and the naval units of the European device EUROMARFOR, currently composed of a Portuguese corvette, a Spanish minesweeper and one French.
After the Spanish-Minex exercise, the SNMCMG2 units will stop in Palma de Mallorca and then head to the Sicilian coast to participate in the national exercise Offshore e Italian Minex.
Ship Alghero will leave the NATO group in early June 2018, to return to the port of La Spezia.
