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SNMCMG2 participates in Turkish Mine Exercise NUSRET14

IZMIR, Turkey – Standing NATO Mine Counter-Measures Group TWO (SNMCMG2) began its participation in the annual Turkish Mine Warfare Exercise NUSRET 14 today.

SNMCMG2, led by the Italian frigate ITS AVIERE (flagship), includes the minehunters TCG ERDEK (Turkey), HS EVROPI (Greece), HMS GRIMSBY (UK), FGS HOMBURG (Germany) and BGS PRIBOY (Bulgaria).  The aim of the exercise is to provide training opportunity for the Mine Counter Measures (MCM) to test their mine warfare skills, improve co-operation and interoperability among the Allied navies.  A mine-laying vessel and two maritime patrol aircraft will deploy inert exercise mines for the purposes of training the MCM vessels.

To create a challenging multi-threat warfare environment for the participating units in the exercise, the Turkish Navy is providing broad range of participating units, including the mine layer and mine hunters, a corvette, fast patrol boats, a Command and Control ship, the two aircraft and an EOD team.

The exercise is split up into three challenging phases. During the first phase, the mine layers will deploy the moored and aground exercise mines. During the five day second phase, the MCM units will search, identify and neutralize the underwater mines. The second phase will also feature the constant presence of asymmetric threats, both from air and sea, in order to enhance the complexity and realism of the exercise scenario. During the final "hot wash-up” phase, the exercise participants will receive the results and evaluate their performance.  

"Exercise NUSRET 2014 provides one of the most challenging and dynamic mine warfare training opportunities for NATO to test its mine counter-measures capabilities every year,” said Commander SNMCMG2, Captain Giovanni Piegaja. "I look forward to a well-organized and valuable exercise that should enhance this Group’s multi-threat warfare capabilities, and I thank the Turkish Navy for their efforts in putting this event together.”