September 29 ended by ship Gaeta the aggregation period to Second NATO Mine Countermeasure Group (SNMCMG2), after the Italian minesweeper rejoined last September 3 in Livorno with the Group, consisting of the Greek auxiliary ship Aliakmon, headquarters of the command of the force, from the German minesweeper Fulda and from the Turkish minesweeper Amasra.
Activities conducted by ship Gaeta in this period there were many, especially in conjunction with the complex exercise "Olives Noires 16", organized by the French Marine Nationale and conducted in the waters in front of the cities of Toulon and Marseille.
For two weeks, military personnel from Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Poland, Sweden and Belgium were engaged in mine-hunting and fighting training.
The sounding of the seabed, in search of the simulacra of explosive devices released specifically for the exercise, was conducted with various methods and with the various technologies that each Navy has developed over the years. Among the various existing systems, hull sonar and variable depth sonar, vehicles commanded by naval units and autonomous vehicles capable of conducting research independently were used; teams of divers also operated for the optical identification of the devices and for their counter-identification or removal.
Among the means used by ship Gaeta, two autonomous vehicles of the latest generation of the type REMUS 100 for the exploration of the seabed which, launched from the naval unit or from an inflatable boat in the area to be reclaimed, follow a planned grid, to subsequently re-emerge at a predetermined time and in a specific period, carefully planned.
After the recovery of the vehicle and the valorisation of the information collected by it, the mine proceeds with the optical identification and possibly the removal or blasting with the diving team or with the wire-guided vehicles on board.
After this busy month and punctuated by fast pace, ship Gaeta and her crew return to port enriched with new experiences and an increasingly solid “know how”.
