Premium
Frigate Queen Maria leaves on Saturday from the Constanta military port in order to integrate with Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG-2), according to AGERPRES.
The warship will conduct, in the October 27 - December 7 period, missions to survey naval traffic and discourage potential threats on the southern flank of the North Atlantic Alliance, in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea, informs a release sent to AGERPRES by the Romanian Naval Forces.
In the period of deployment in the Mediterranean Sea, the frigate Queen Maria, with one IAR-330 Puma Naval helicopter and a detachment of Special Operations Forces on board, will participate in the NATO operation "Sea Guardian" under the leadership of the Allied Maritime Command of NATO (MARCOM), as well as in the multinational antisubmarine combat exercise "Mavi Balina 20", organized by the Turkish Naval Forces, in the November 2 - 9 period, the quoted source mentions.
The NATO operation Sea Guardian was launched in 2016 as a response to developments of the security environment, and Romania is participating in this correlated effort of the allies to ensure the maritime security in the Mediterranean Sea, anually, since 2017, with a frigate.
The frigate, manned by 240 sailors, is under the command of captain Victor Durea and has stops planned in the ports of Aksaz (Turkey), Souda (Greece), Alexandria (Egypt), Haifa (Israel), in order to restore combat readiness.
The preparation for the ships departure on mission has taken place in conformity with the measures to prevent the infection of the crew with SARS-CoV-2, and during the stopovers in the mentioned ports the servicemen will remain in isolation, on board.
