German Navy’s diver support vessel FGS Rottweil is scheduled to depart its homeport in Kiel, Germany, on January 30, to join NATO’s standing mine countermeasure group two.
The vessel and her crew will spend the next five months sailing with the SNMCMG2.
Coming from the German Navy’s 3rd Mine Warfare Squadron, the ship will join the group in the Italian city of Civitavecchia.
The 40-strong crew, under command of Corvette-Captain Stefan Oeggl, will work together with their Polish, Spanish and Turkish counterparts.
Among the exercises SNMCMG2 will be undertaking is the Romanian exercise Poseidon that will take place in the Black Sea. This exercise will see the deployment of mine divers and mine countermeasure drones.
This is where the FGS Rottweil will be able to show its capabilities. The ship was initially a standard Frankenthal-class minehunter commissioned in July 1993. However, 14 years later, between 2007 and 2008, Rottweil was modified for diver support operations at German Peene-Werft.
The vessel was fitted with a recompression chamber and a diving platform and is now capable of supporting 15 divers and their associated equipment.
Apart from exercise Poseidon, SNMCMG2 is also scheduled to take part in Italian and Spanish Navy mine countermeasure drills.
The ship and crew are expected to return home in June.