The first training phase was concluded in recent days, the only one of the three planned phases to be carried out entirely by sea, in favor of the Libyan Navy and Coast Guard, on board ship St. George.
The unit, which has been engaged since October 2016 in the capacity building activity within the operation Sophia of EUNAVFOR MED (EUropean NAVal FORce MEDiterranean), is the first ship of the Navy to be used for such a complex training activity.
Eighty-nine Libyan soldiers thus completed the first training cycle by receiving the patent, on board the San Giorgio ship in the waters off the port of Valletta, in the presence of the Minister of Defense, Senator Roberta Pinotti, of the Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and from the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, Federica Mogherini, the Chief of Defense Staff, General Claudio Graziano and Libyan and Maltese military and civil authorities.
The activity of capacity building carried out represented a complete and complex training with the use of instructors from various operational, logistical and training commands of the Navy and the Coast Guard, assisted by Arabic-speaking interpreters, engaged in the training of future crews of the Guard patrol boats Libyan coast and the training of the first Libyan Navy instructors.
The ship's crew St. George and the marine brigade Saint Mark they were an active part of the training action with joint practical exercises in the ship abandonment role, in the management of search and rescue events, in coaching on guard duty on the bridge and in Platform Operational Center (COP), in addition to the module visit, board, searchand seizure (VBSS) led by the brigade fusiliers Saint Mark.
The first two training cycles were dedicated in particular to coastal navigation, boat conduct, telecommunications management, search and rescue (SAR), international maritime law, Maritime Situational Awareness, fishing supervision, fire fighting and activities of boarding. The training activity was integrated with a diving course and underwater activity organized by divers belonging to the Belgian Navy. During the third cycle, training modules in the field of law enforcement were carried out by the staff of the European agency FRONTEX. The fourth cycle concerned technical modules on on-board thermal engines and maintenance activities in general, logistics and teaching methodology. Finally, the last cycle just ended concerned international law, carried out by a team of the UNHCR (United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees), first aid with personnel from CISOM (Italian Relief Corps of the Order of Malta) and the Belgian Navy and practical exercises aboard two patrol boats of the Guardia di Finanza.
The training activity just ended is only the first of three different phases that saw the training and training of officers, non-commissioned officers and sailors on board St. George, who have been qualified instructors and then trainers in turn for Libyan crews. The second phase consists in training the Libyan military in the training centers of the member countries of the European Union; the third phase, on the other hand, will take place in Libya and will concern the training of the crews for the conduct of the patrol boats and patrol boats supplied.
