From the 28 to the November 30, the frigate Virginio Fasan, for five months the flagship unit of the anti-piracy operation Atalanta, conducted in the waters of the Horn of Africa a series of activities that saw the Italian crew engaged in both humanitarian initiatives towards the Somali town of Hobyo, and in integration and training activities with the Republic of Korea Navy (South Korean navy) and the People Liberation Army Navy of China (Chinese navy).
In particular, on November 28, the Italian unit returned to the waters off the coast of Hobyo, a village in central Somalia, in order to distribute medicines in favor of the small local health unit. Ship Fasan in fact, he had already conducted last October a "focused operation", called Aeolus, in the waters in front of the town and, in that circumstance, had been met the village doctor who had expressed the need for medicines for the local population. Therefore, on this occasion, the Force Commander operation Atalanta, Rear Admiral Fabio Gregori, along with the commander of Nave Fasan, cf Sebastiano Rossitto, invited the mayor of Hobyo and a representative of the local community on board to give them the precious health support.
The next day, Nave Fasan he carried out a complex training activity in which a Spanish supply vessel, ESPS, took part Patino and the destroyer Chungmungong of the South Korean Navy. The meeting at sea between these three units was not random: in fact, in addition to Nave Virginio Fasan of the Ship Patino, which today constitute the two European naval assets of the operation Atalanta, from November 28 to December 3, also Nave Chungmungong is integrated into the device Atalanta - 465 Task Force, under the command of the Italian Rear Admiral Fabio Gregori.
These integration activities are carried out cyclically with the aim of developing and expanding the interoperability between the European forces of the operation Atalanta and the naval forces of countries that, like South Korea, operate constantly in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean to combat piracy and the maritime security of merchant shipping in the area.
In particular, during the training activity, kinematic maneuvers in naval training were carried out, as well as exercises of "winchex" and "chair lift". The latter concern two different ways of passing personnel from one ship to another while navigating. The first consists in the passage of personnel through a helicopter in flight that, using its own winch, takes the personnel on board and releases it on the other unit, while the second involves the transhipment of personnel between two naval units in close navigation that install, through cables, a structure that allows you to move a chairlift from one side of the unit to another. At the end of the activities, Nave Fasan has carried out an FAS (Fuel at Sea), which is a refueling at sea of fuel with the Spanish supply vessel.
Subsequently, the day 30 November, Nave Fasan he met in the waters of the Gulf of Aden a military unit of the People Liberation Army Navy of China, Nave Haikou, also a flag unit of the Chinese anti-piracy operation conducted by the Escort Task Group 171.
At the meeting between the two units at sea, the meeting was followed, aboard Nave Virginio Fasan, of the two Force Commander of the "anti-piracy operations", the European Atalanta and the Chinese ETH 171. This event proved to be an excellent opportunity for i Force Commander to share information and perspectives on the activities carried out in the waters of the Indian Ocean by the two naval devices, as well as an excellent opportunity to strengthen links of cooperation in the protection of maritime traffic and, more generally, for the freedom of navigation in the waters of the Horn of Africa.
