After leaving the Greek waters of the Gulf of Patras, passing the Corinth Canal, the six units of the SNMCMG2 arrived in the Aegean Sea, for this now customary end-of-year event. For this event, the Turkish navy has set up some minefields along the coasts, laying simulacra of ordnance both moored and at the bottom. The purpose is to allow the participating structures to exercise their abilities to search, identify and neutralize the underwater threat in a five-day time window from 24 to November 28. The performance of the operations will be made even more complex by the constant presence also of the asymmetric threat, both aerial and surface, in order to make the whole exercise as similar as possible to the current probable operational scenarios.
The work of the SNMCMG2 proceeds along the path of multinational integration and cohesion of the allied nations, under the command of vessel captain Giovanni Piegaja who, on board the Italian flagship, the Aviere patrol, coordinates the activities of this permanent NATO device since last 19 June 2014, date on which Italy formally assumed the command.
In addition to the Aviere ship, four minesweepers are part of the second permanent group of mine countermeasures: FGS Homburg (DEU), HMS Grimsby (UK), TCG Erdek (TUR) and HS Evropi (GRE) and a minesweeper, the BGS Priboy (BUL ). At the end of the NUSRET, the ships and crews will once again be in Izmir, where they will take leave of the local authorities, to start again with the national allocation bases for the well-deserved break during the year-end festivities.
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Source: Military Navy
