The offshore patrol vessel ‘Serviola’ heads for West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea.

The offshore patrol vessel (OPV) ‘Serviola’ set sail from Ferrol last Friday for a four-month deployment in the Gulf of Guinea integrated into the operational structure of the Armed Forces. These deployments are intended to enhance maritime security and cooperative security operations in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea, organized by the Ministry of Defense. It is divided into three stages:

The first one, until the end of March, intends to conduct Cooperative Security activities with the navies of Mauritania and Cape Verde.

During the second stage, the OPV will deploy in Gulf of Guinea waters and will carry out maritime security exercises with navy units from Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Angola, Gabon, Sao Tomé and Principe and Nigeria so as to enhance their naval capabilities and foster mutual understanding and confidence.

The third and final stage will consist of military cooperation activities with Senegal and Morocco.

The ‘Serviola’ is replacing her sister ship ‘Centinela’ in this deployment. These ships support the Defense Diplomacy Plan designed to cooperate with regional west-African nations to help them enhance their maritime capabilities and to promote mutual understanding and confidence, thus contributing to maritime security of Spain.

The OPV ‘Serviola’, under command of Lt-Cdr. Ramón González-Cela, was built by Navantia in Ferrol and commissioned into active service in 1991. She is the first unit of a series of four OPVs. Her main missions include maritime security, fight against marine pollution, SAR, tracking possible illegal activities and collaboration with other Constabulary and State departments with responsibilities in the maritime domain like counter-terrorism and drug-trafficking.