The Grecale frigate and its crew have faced a training cycle, at the Navy Training Center (Maricentadd), aimed at strengthening and increasing the operational capabilities, preparatory for both anti-piracy and passive defense activities, ie fire-fighting exercises, antifalla and simulations of failures to the on-board devices with ship in port and in navigation.
These exercises allowed the crew to acquire the necessary skills to deal with these types of events, making the ship ready to carry out the assigned mission.
The 465 Task Force, in which the Grecale frigate will be integrated, is composed of 4 ships, including a Dutch, Spanish and German unit.
For Italy it is the nineteenth participation in Operation Atalanta, which represents an operation aimed at ensuring the safety of maritime traffic and crews of Italian merchant units in transit, thus ensuring the right to freedom of navigation along maritime communication lines.
The Grecale frigate under the command of frigate captain Onofrio Marco Frumusa, is part of the first naval group of La Spezia, has a crew of 241 between men and women including specialized teams and vehicles of the Brigade Marina San Marco, of the Underwater Operative Group and of the air component of the Navy.
Source: Military Navy
UPDATE:
Rome 30 January 2015
No use of the Greek Frigate in anti-piracy mission
Regarding the news about the departure of the Grecale frigate for the Atalanta anti-piracy mission, the use of the naval unit in the Somali basin is denied.
The ship has completed the operations of preparation connected with the normal operations of the Navy in the Mediterranean basin.
Source: Ministry of Defense
