According to a short news release published at NATO's Allied Maritime Command Naples web site, F-491 TCG Giresun replaces F-245 TCG Oruçreis as the flagship of SNMG-2. Commander Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 has moved to a new flagship. Since 17 June 2011, TCG ORUCREIS has hosted Rear Admiral (LH) Sinan Azmi TOSUN, Turkish Navy,... Continue Reading →
SNMG-2 Gets A New Flagship
Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) gets a new flagship in December. According to Turkish Navy, the current Flagship F-245 TCG Oruçreis will be relieved by the frigate F-491 TCG Giresun. Since June 2011 Turkish Navy is in command of SNMG-2 and MEKO 200 Track II class, TCG Oruçreis is the flagship. The reason behind this change... Continue Reading →
Nusret 2011 Mine Warfare Exericse
Between 20th and 30th November 2011 The Turkish Navy will host the Nusret 2011 Exercise. This is an annual exercise to hone mine hunting skills of the participants. This years exercise area is Bay of Saros just west of the Gelibolu peninsula which is a very appropriate place for a mine warfare exercise. The list of the... Continue Reading →
SNMCMG-2 Is In Patras For An Exercise With Greek Navy
Tomorrow NATO's SNMCMG-2 will start a 3 day visit in Patras, Greece. SNMCMG-2 is currently led by Captain Abdulhamit Şener of Turkish Navy. Last month the task force made a visit to Spit, Croatia. Following their departure from Split, the ships of SNMCMG-2, led by the flagship A-579 TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasanpaşa, conducted underway exercises with... Continue Reading →
Ten Years Of Operation Active Endeavour
In the wake of the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks on WTC, NATO implemented Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. One of the actions taken in this regard was the starting of Operation Active Endeavour (OAE) in Eastern Mediterranean. The aim of OAE is to control the shipping through the Mediterranean basin by hailing ships or by boarding them so that the... Continue Reading →
The Situation In The Eastern Mediterranean (Part 4)
Last weeks events especially the death of Mr. Jobs, turned the attention of the public's focus away from the Eastern Mediterranean. The number of articles published, the war mongering and empty threads diminished with the public general interest. May be it is good so. Now is the era of back office diplomacy. It is time... Continue Reading →
TCG Oruçreis, The Only Ship In NATO’s SNMG-2, Takes Part in Exercise Joint Warrior
In July I posted the above photo of the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 and asked if this was the lamest NATO fleet ever? The answer was "No" as at that time SNMG-1 was made of only one Italian destroyer. Today SNMG-1 has 4 ships. In the mean time, the SNMG-2 has indeed become the lamest NATO fleet.... Continue Reading →
Spanish Port For US Navy’s BMD Ships
Spain agreed to host the ships US Navy is deploying to Mediterranean for NATO’s missile defense system. “Today the [NATO] security partnership takes a major step in the right direction,” Panetta told reports at the briefing. “With four Aegis ships at Rota,” he added, “the alliance is significantly boosting combined naval capabilities in the Mediterranean... Continue Reading →
SACEUR, Admiral Stavridis Is In Ankara
SACEUR, Adm. Stavridis arrived in Ankara today. He had meetings with General Özel, Cheif of Staff of Turkish Armed Forces, with Mr. Yılmaz, MoD Turkey, and Turkish MoFA delegates. He was in Israel yesterday and the day before attending some meetings too. When the most senior commander within NATO visits two countries that have a... Continue Reading →
The Situation In The Eastern Mediterranean
As 19th September 2011, US based energy company Noble Energy is starting to drill for gas off Cyprus in Block 12. The company has already conducting exploration for gas off the Coast of Israel and found some large gas reservoirs. Block 12 lies just across the border of the Israeli-Cypriot maritime exclusive economic zones from... Continue Reading →
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