The transfer arrives 10 months after launch and only 2 months after delivery to the Algerian navy, following the achievement of the transfer navigation qualification, issued by the admiral commander of the navy training center, Rear Admiral Marcello Bernard, at the end of the preparation and preliminary training phase, carried out under the responsibility of the new ships preparation office, in La Spezia.
The unit will stop in the Ionian port until the end of February 2015 to attend the naval internship, which represents the last and most demanding part of the complex training process, designed ad hoc to be provided in phase with the construction of the unit. The naval training will be conducted by the air-naval training center of Taranto, where the Algerian crew has already attended the "courses" phase upon arrival in Italy, in October 2013. The training moment includes, through the execution of a targeted sequence of intensive training activities with increasing difficulty, at sea and in port, the achievement of full operational capacity.
The maiden voyage of the Kalaat Beni Abbes took place, even in November, in the best possible weather conditions, under the watchful eye of a group of instructors from the air-naval training center, led by the training program manager of the project, vessel captain Massimo Pitarra, who assisted the commander of the unit, Colonel Makhlouf and his crew in the first demanding navigation, which included the passage of the Strait of Messina in "precision navigation".
The ambitious program provides for the return to home, at the end of the missile systems tests, in April 2015 and will allow the Algerian navy to have a new ship, the largest of the fleet, with the first crew fully trained in record time: just over three years, considering that the cutting of the first sheet took place in January 2012.
In this context, the synergy between industry and navy in the training of foreign marinas is a precious resource, since the addition of a "training package" makes the offer of new buildings much more attractive and provides a positive image of "system" country ", considerably increasing the competitiveness of the national shipbuilding industry and the prestige of the navy. This cooperation has already produced its beneficial effects, since Algeria has highlighted its intention to purchase a new minesweeper with the same formula inaugurated for Kalaat Beni Abbes.
Source: Military Navy
