Coordinated by the staff of tactical operational center of costal patrol unit (CPU), the personnel of the Italian contingent of XNUMXth coastal naval group, deployed in Sinai and the Red Sea as part of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), has been engaged in recent days in a complex exercise aimed at testing the procedures counter-improvised explosives devices (C-IED) and fire prevention within the port area of Sharm el Sheikh.
The exercise, with a joint and multinational connotation, involved the personnel of the force protection and the Italian divers, together with the team Explosive Ordenance Disposal of the Army of the United States of America and American dog assets (K9) of the "Sinai" Task Force stationed in South Camp.
The exercise scenario consisted in the search, discovery and deactivation of a device on board a vessel, the coastal patrol vessel "Sentinella", parked for maintenance at the CPU quay.
Upon reporting the presence of the bomb, the tactical operations center of the MFO has therefore initiated the procedures foreseen in such cases. Once the search and discovery phase of the explosive device was completed by the on-board ready-to-use team, the divers proceeded to identify it, to then secure the CPU area and wait for team C to arrive on site -US IED and of the K9 structure, which employed a military working dog (MWD), which is a dog specifically trained to support the military in different types of activities, including the search for explosive substances.
The bomb, once removed, was subsequently defused on the quay.
The exercise made it possible to test the C-IED capabilities of the maritime component of the MFO, using at the same time specialized assets of the Armed Forces belonging to different countries and capable of operating both on land and on board naval units.
La costal patrol unit, under the command of the frigate captain Carlo Saverio D'Apote, represents the maritime component of the MFO multinational mission operating in the Sinai theater of operations for over 40 years.
