Under the command of Commander Gregory Guiran (French Navy), the French flagship FS Somme houses the staff, which ensures the operational and logistical coordination of the three mine hunters integrated into the Group: HS Evropi (Greece), ITS Termoli (Italy) and TCG Ayvalik (Turkey).
This exercise is a great opportunity to improve our interoperability and resilience through a realistic multi-pronged scenario
SPANISH MINEX-21 is a quickly-evolving mine countermeasures exercise with a scenario under realistic conditions, aimed at reducing the mine risk in the presence of an asymmetric threat, as close as possible to Allied coasts. It runs 26 April – 7 May 2021.
“This exercise is a great opportunity to improve our interoperability and resilience through a realistic multi-pronged scenario including an asymmetric threat,” said Commander Gregory Guiran.
EUMARFOR and a group of Spanish mine hunters also participate in the exercise, alongside SNMCMG2.
During the first week, SNMCMG2 units have already discovered nine exercise mines and three decoys, demonstrating Alliance's mine warfare expertise.
SNMCMG2 is one of four standing forces that comprise the maritime component of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), which is part of the NATO Response Force (NRF). To respond to contingency situations, additional forces can be added to these groups, with the NATO command staff on board and the ships of the Group as the nucleus, capable of providing timely support to NATO operations.