Courtesy Photo | HNLMS De Zeven Provincien conducts a Maritime Situational Awareness approach on...... read more read more
NAPLES, Italy -- After almost seven weeks of Operation Active Endeavour, Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 has hailed the last ships met it its mission period and has begun moving out of Mediterranean.
“It was a very successful period. In this network based operation we have been able to make good use of the existing network and managed to improve on it. As recent threat warnings showed it is vital we keep investigating all activity in the Mediterranean to deter and disrupt any terrorist activity, said commander of SNMG2 Commodore Michiel B. Hijmans. "With a force like SNMG2 we are also very capable of protecting and defending when necessary. If everybody involved in the Mediterranean traffic keeps communicating and contributing to the information systems, illegal activity can much more easily be detected and dealt with.”
Starting in Lisbon, SNMG2 has patrolled the Mediterranean Sea from the Straits of Gibraltar to Lebanon and from Turkey to Egypt. More than 2000 ships were hailed by the force that at times was made up by as many as 13 units from eight different nations. During the entire operation SNMG2 was supported by numerous assets provided by NATO nations; submarines, helicopters and airborne surveillance aircraft, to include NATO's own AWACs all made a contribution. Also ships from NATO partners passing through the operations area contributed to the overall mission goals. Ukraine contributed the corvette Ternopil to November's Surge Operations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.
SNMG2 was able to enhance the already thorough picture NATO has on all shipping patterns in the Mediterranean. The awareness amongst mariners of Operation Active Endeavour and possible terrorist activity in the Mediterranean has been confirmed and improved. Several anomalies were detected and investigated and when appropriate were handed over to national authorities for further action.
On two occasions SNMG2 units had to perform a rescue at sea. Together with the Spanish authorities 19 possible illegal immigrants were rescued when drifting in a small inflatable boat between Algeria and Spain.
In the eastern Mediterranean a man, who claimed to be adrift for 10 days in a broken down speedboat was rescued and handed over to the coast guard.
With its new flagship HNLMS De Ruyter and with the satisfaction of a successful period spent in Operation Active Endeavour, SNMG2 is ready to begin its next NATO mission.
| Date Taken: | 12.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2010 08:53 |
| Story ID: | 62088 |
| Location: | NAPLES, IT |
| Web Views: | 130 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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