The Israeli Navy recently hosted explosive ordnance disposal divers from the navies of the US and France for mine countermeasure exercise Noble Melinda 2018.
The exercise focused on enhancing cooperation and regional maritime security by sharing tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and fostering stronger interoperability between the participants.
“This year’s exercise was a huge success. Many of the lessons learned from previous exercises were applied to drastically improve the interoperability and TTP exchange with this vital regional partner,” Lt. Ben Fernandez, EODMU-8 exercise lead, commented. “This exercise is a way the US can demonstrate its continued support of Israel, as well as protect the maritime domain from threats.”
Noble Melinda is a regularly scheduled exercise and was not associated with, or a reaction to, any real-world events, the US Navy said.
US Navy divers from EODMU-8, forward-deployed to Naval Station Rota, Spain, provide EOD capability to locate, identify, render safe, recover, field evaluate and dispose of all explosive ordnance, including underwater, biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.