Mine Countermeasures Exercise ‘Spanish Minex-15’

The mine countermeasures (MCM) exercise ‘Spanish Minex-15’, commenced on May 18th and will last until May 28th. A total of eleven vessels, four aircraft and about 500 sailors are taking part in these operations off La Manga and Alicante, Spain.‘Spanish Minex’, organized annually by the Spanish Navy, has the aim to implement common procedures for the defense of ports and anchorage areas against naval mines.

Participation of 500 servicemen from six nations

Spain, Germany, France, Turkey, Italy and Portugal are the participants of this exercises conducted under the command of Captain Jaime Golmayo on board the offshore patrol vessel ‘Relámpago’.

Participating units include: the OPV ‘Relámpago’ and the Spanish minehunters ‘Segura’, ‘Tambre’, ‘Sella’ and ‘Tajo’; the submarine ‘Galerna’, the auxiliary vessel ‘Las Palmas’, the patrol boat ‘Formentor’, MCM Divers, and units from the Aircraft Flotilla, as well as Air Force C-101s and a P-3.

International units are: the German and Turkish minehunters ‘Bad Bevensen’ and ‘Enez’ from NATO’s SNMCMG-2; the Portuguese corvette ‘Baptista de Andrade’, and the French and Italian minehunters ‘Capricorne’ and ‘Rimini’.

The mines used in ‘Spanish Minex-15’ are environmentally friendly simulated devices which will be recovered once the exercise concludes. As usual in this type of exercises, the opportunity will be taken to clean the sea bottom of the exercise area.