The harsh conditions of two Spanish Navy ships in NATO's SNMG-1

@DefAviation ES 1·28·2024 · 21:00 0

A few weeks ago, two ships of the Spanish Navy joined NATO's Permanent Naval Group No. 1 (SNMG-1).

The meeting of five Spanish frigates of the Santa María Class in the Gulf of Cádiz
The new ship 'Carnota' A-61 of the Spanish Navy and the Galician origin of its name

These ships are the frigate "Almirante Juan de Borbón" F-102 and the Combat Supply Ship (BAC) "Cantabria" A-15, both based at the Ferrol Arsenal. The integration of these ships into this naval group is expected to last until the month of July. The SNMG-1 has been under the command of Spanish Rear Admiral Joaquín Ruiz Escagedo since January 11. This group's scope of action is the waters of northern Europe, which in winter offer much harsher weather conditions than those encountered by the SNMG-2, which operates in the Mediterranean.

Proof of this is this video published by SNMG-1 on January 20, in which we see the F-102 SH-60 Seahawk helicopter on a day with big waves: "Well, nothing, it seems like it was a good morning," says a masculine voice over the public address system ironically, while the waves. "Oh my mother!", exclaims a female voice from among the crew, watching as the waves reach the helicopter.

🌊 Smooth seas do not make good sailors 🌊🇪🇸 #WeAreNATO #StrongerTogether #DeterrenceThroughReadiness#BalticGuardian #StandingMaritimeGroupOne #snmg1 #NATO #UnitedWeStand #AlwaysOnGuard pic.twitter.com/4xLLcnV2LI

— COM SNMG1 (@COM_SNMG1) January 20, 2024

It hasn't all been bad weather, of course. On January 22, the Bundeswehr published these photos in which we can see e The Spanish SH-60 landing on the Combat Supply Ship "Bonn" (A 1413) of the German Navy.

A few days ago, the SNMG-1 arrived at the port of Klaipeda, in Lithuania. That city was the former capital of that country in the interwar period, since at that time Vilnius was part of Poland. Dj Den Kot published this video yesterday in which we see the arrival of Spanish ships to that Lithuanian city, accompanied by the aforementioned German ship and the frigate "Luigi Rizzo" (F595) of the Italian Navy.

On January 22, the Lithuanian Navy published this photo of the F-102 frigate moored in the port of Klaipeda, with the pier completely covered in snow.

In Klaipeda, the F-102 frigate received a visit from the Spanish ambassador to Lithuania, Nieves Blanco Díaz, and the Defense Attaché, Colonel Manuel González Calvete, from the Army. The Embassy of Spain in Lithuania published these photos of the visit on January 24. In the first one we see the flight deck of the frigate "Almirante Juan de Borbón" and just behind it, to its stern, the BAC "Cantabria".

Also on January 24, SNMG-1 published the three photos that you can see below of the visit of participants in NATO's Furious Wolf exercise to the F-102 frigate. In the first photo appear, among others, several Lithuanian soldiers, two Canadian soldiers, a French soldier, an Italian soldier, two soldiers from the Spanish Army (the fourth and the fifth from the right) and two sailors from the Navy Spanish.

In the following two photos we see Lithuanian soldiers and Spanish sailors in the F-102 Combat and Information Center (CIC).

Finally, Captain Giedrius Premeneckas, commander of the Lithuanian Naval Force, received Rear Admiral Ruiz Escagedo and the commanders of the four allied ships. The presence of these ships in that area is essential to provide assistance to some Baltic countries whose naval forces are small, compared to those of other NATO countries.