AFM SURFACE UNITS ON EXERCISE IN GREECE

AFM SURFACE UNITS ON EXERCISE IN GREECE

Fifty Armed Forces of Malta personnel, from 2nd Regiment's Maritime Squadron, on board two Kondor class offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) have recently completed exercise NAVEX 001. The nine day naval exercise was conducted on the outer limits of Malta's Search and Rescue Region (SRR).

The two OPVs, P-29 and P-31, were under the respective commands of Lieutenant Andrew Mallia and Lieutenant Carmelo Grech. Overall command of both vessels was of Captain Martin Cauchi Inglott. The exercise aimed at honing ships' bridge personnel training in coastal navigation utilising the excellent opportunities offered by the multitude of islands located in the Ionian and Aegean Seas.

The exercise commenced on the 31st May 2000 and included two days of manoeuvres at sea en route to the island of Crete (some 450 Nautical Miles east of Malta). The longer sea duration of the exercise also posed adequate time to the Directing Staff to conduct emergency drills such as fire-fighting, abandon ship procedures, rudder failure and man overboard drills. A Mailbag Transfer was conducted when both OPVs were underway, which saw the contingent's medical officer, Surgeon Captain Gino Bartolo MD delivering his first medicines from vessel P-31 to P-29.

A port call at the Hellenic Naval Base in Souda Bay was also made. The AFM's OPVs field tested newly installed GMDSS radio communications equipment on board. Such equipment, often indispensable for coordinated searches (occasionally lasting days), gave the Kondor vessels effective communication with its Rescue Coordination Centre at Luqa Barracks in Malta. When tasked with search missions, any of the AFM OPVs may be tasked as On-scene Commander and it would be responsible to coordinate the operations with search aircraft and vessels from other countries as well.

The OPVs later navigated back to Malta by circumnavigating the Peloponnisos peninsula and by going through the Corinth Canal. The testing 1100 Nautical Mile voyage presented gale force winds besides other mundane operational setbacks, such as mechanical faults. This was the first time that an AFM patrol vessel ventured across the Ionian Sea into Greek waters. It served to foster locally established contacts with the Hellenic Navy, besides giving beneficial and successful experience to AFM crews in the eastern waters of Malta's SSR. Logistical requirements requested by the OPVs were also transported within a matter of hours to Crete by Air Squadron's Pilatus Islander aircraft, piloted by Captain Mark A. Said. The OPVs returned to Malta on the 9th June, 2000.