UK Navy’s HMS Grimsby has come to the end of a minehunting exercise led by the Spanish which saw her hunt dummy mines while coming under a variety of attack scenarios.
The Royal Navy minehunter represents the UK’s commitment to the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) in the Mediterranean – and she regularly exercises her skills with her NATO counterparts.
For the Spanish minehunting exercise the NATO minehunting fleet from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and Turkey, as well as an Italian frigate, worked out of Cartagena in the area of La Manga.
Crew six – which forms HMS Grimsby’s ship’s company – worked tirelessly to hunt mines despite fighting off simulated attacks from both sea and air as they would be expected to do in a war environment.
Their tenacity paid off as they made the largest haul of mines recovered – a total of six and a figure matched by FGS Homburg, her German counterpart.
HMS Grimsby‘s Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Will King said: “It is exercises like these that go to show that NATO remains a proactive and operationally effective force in the Mediterranean.
“It is clear that we continue to work well together, proving our ability to fight and win.”
The Faslane-based minehunter will continue to operate in the area for the next few months before returning to the UK.