These days, the Navy is at sea not only for the conduct of national and international maritime safety operations - with a total of 10 ships and submarines with over 1.300 sailors involved, including Naval Aviation crews and departments of the San Marco marine brigade - but also for an intense training activity aimed at maintaining full operational capacity. In Taranto the second naval division, under the command of Division Admiral Paolo Pezzutti, is conducting an exercise with several naval, aerial and underwater units, among which the aircraft carrier stands out Cavour, the destroyers Andrea Doria e Francesco Mimbelli and the logistic support vessel Etna, with on board the students of the Naval Military School F. Morosini.
The exercise aims to train crews for the main types of operations at sea in anti-aircraft, anti-ship and anti-submarine contexts. The activities are set up according to a logic of "increasing difficulty", with the aim of putting staff to the test in a complex and realistic environment, thus consolidating and increasing skills, both on an individual and crew level.
In the next few days, two French Navy ships returning from a long activity in the Indian Ocean will also join the Italian group, which was also attended by an Italian Navy helicopter embarked for the occasion on the amphibious ship Mistral.
In this stimulating multidisciplinary and international exercise scenario, taking place in the Ionian waters, the aircraft carrier Cavour in this way, it can effectively continue the preparation for the outward journey to the United States which will take place in the second half of this year to qualify the standard flight deck Joint Strike Fighter in the STOVL version and thus embarking the first Italian F-35B aircraft assigned to the Navy.
At the same time, in the waters in front of La Spezia, a group consisting of the minesweepers Alghero, Rimini and Termoli practices the detection and neutralization of underwater devices under the command of Admiral Silvio Vratogna, commander of the Mine Countermeasure Forces.
This complex of naval departments will end on Friday 19 June.
Training at sea is fundamental for the Navy, because it allows to prepare, in the most effective and realistic way possible, the crews to safely perform the institutional tasks, to ensure the protection of national interests for a maritime country like ours, wherever they reside.
