On 3 September 2016, the minesweeper Gaeta hoisted the NATO flag ashore next to the national tricolor, on the occasion of the aggregation of minehunter units in the Mediterranean to the permanent naval device.
Ship Gaeta, unit of the 54 ^ Minesweeper Squadron and first of the eight units of the class Lerici 2nd series designed for the localization and neutralization of naval mines, it passed under the command of the second NATO Naval group called SNMCMG2 (Standing NATO Maritime Mine Counter Measures Group 2), joining the other units of the group in the port of Livorno.
The second group is an international maritime force, composed of ships belonging to different nations of the Atlantic Pact, permanently available to carry out NATO missions with specific skills in the fight against naval mines. Controlled in rotation by the participating nations, the Group is directly dependent on the Allied Maritime Command - MARCOM, based in Northwood in England.
Gathered in Livorno, the NATO multinational force is composed not only of a ship Gaeta, also from the Greek auxiliary ship Aliakmon, headquarters of the command of the force, from the German minesweeper Fulda and from the Turkish minesweeper Amasara.
The four ships are now conducting exercises of various kinds in the Tyrrhenian Sea, in order to maintain the capabilities of locating and neutralizing the threat posed by mines at a high standard; the joint activity also allows to consolidate the cooperation capacities between the involved units.
At the end of this first phase, the Group's units will reach the French port of Toulon to participate in the "Olives Noir 16" exercise, an exercise that will allow them to conduct numerous training activities with other units, in the context of mine countermeasures with the '' use of autonomous and wire-guided divers and underwater vehicles.
