EU NAVFOR hosted a press conference on 20 February 2012 to present an update on Operation ATALANTA, piracy off the Horn of Africa and a view towards future developments. The briefing was hosted by Operation Commander Rear Admiral Duncan L. Potts with Deputy Operation Commander Rear Admiral Rainer En
From its port in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, and travelling through the Red Sea into the area of operation off the Coast of Somalia, the FGS BERLIN joins the multi-national EU NAVFOR off the Horn of Africa , 17 February 2012. The FGS BERLIN is a class 702 combat supply ship, capable of refuelling and re
A group of sailors from the Portsmouth based HMS Richmond have carried out team work training using HMS Raleigh’s high ropes course, as the ship undergoes a maintenance period at Devonport Naval Base, in Plymouth. HMS Richmond sent eight Junior Ratings to the Royal Navy training base in Cornwall to
A Royal Navy patrol ship has issued a record on-the-spot fine to fishermen using undersized nets after sailors boarded a Dutch fishing vessel in the North Sea. HMS Mersey, one of the Royal Navy’s three fishery protection vessels, was on routine duties when she spotted the FV Elizabeth sailing 40 nau
The European Union will remain fully engaged in Somalia: this is the message conveyed in the first week of February by the EU during a visit in Mogadishu by senior representatives operating under the EU Common Security and Defence Policy. For the first time, General Håkan Syrén, Chairman of the EU M
On 31 January 2012, the EUNAVFOR flagship ESPS PATIÑO conducted a Replenishment at Sea (RAS) with the NATO Flagship TGN GIRESUN watched by Russian observers before the exercise was repeated by the Russian Flagship Admiral Tributs with the Russian Fleet Tanker Pechenga with NATO and EU NAVFOR observe
UK-based A&P Group and Thales Australia have signed an agreement to provide through life support services to HMAS CHOULES – the Royal Australian Navy’s new Bay Class Landing Ship Dock. A&P Group has an existing support contract with the Defence Materiel Organisation for the interim support of the ve
On 27 January 2012, the Spanish Chief of Defense, Admiral Fernando García Sánchez, visited the EU NAVFOR Flagship, ESPS PATIÑO alongside in Djibouti, accompanied by the Spanish Chief of the Navy, Admiral Manuel Rebollo, Chief of the Air Force, General Jose Jimenez Ruiz, Commander of the Joint Comman
On 23rd January 2012, EU NAVFOR Operation Commander Rear Admiral Duncan L. Potts welcomed Mr. Alexander Rondos, the recently appointed EU Special Representative to the Horn of Africa to the Operation Headquarters in Northwood for a briefing on the EU NAVFOR mission and discussed future close coopera
A Portsmouth-based Royal Navy patrol ship has caught and detained a fishing vessel for using illegal nets in the North Atlantic. Fishery protection vessel HMS Severn was operating 200 miles (320km) off Land’s End – working on behalf of the Marine Management Organisation – when she inspected the fish
EU NAVFOR warship FGS LUEBECK re-located an Indian registered dhow which had been used as pirate mother-ship involved in the attack on M/V FLINTSTONE early the same day. A Dutch Vessel Protection Detachment (VPD) stationed on the Dutch-registered civilian fall-pipe vessel had repelled the attack fol
On 17 January 2012, following coordination with a Danish Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Aircraft operating on a search mission for pirate ships, the Spanish Combat Supply Ship SPS PATIÑO, Flagship of Operation ATALANTA, assisted an Iranian flagged dhow which had run out of fuel off the Somali Co
It has been confirmed that the Spanish judicial authorities will prosecute the six Somali suspected pirates, who attacked the EU NAVFOR Flagship, the SPS PATINO on 12 January. Following receipt of the evidence package, the Spanish Audiencia Naciona has confirmed it will undertake judicial proceeding
Rear Admiral Christian Canova (French Navy) hands over the responsibility of Deputy Operation Commander of the European Union Naval Force Somalia, Operation ATALANTA to Rear Admiral Rainer Endres (German Navy) on 12 January 2012 at the Operational Headquarters (OHQ) in Northwood, near London. Joinin