Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 visits Civitavecchia, Italy after participating in Mare Aperto 22-2

Courtesy Photo | Ships participating in Mare Aperto 22-2 conduct a passing exercise. The exercise, run by the Italian Navy, took place throughout the month of October 2022 and included ships, submarines, aircraft and ground forces from Italian, EU and NATO Allied partners.  

CIVITAVECCHIA, ITALY

10.27.2022

Story by Cmdr. Fernando Estrella 

NATO Allied Maritime Command

CIVITAVECCHIA, Italy – Three ships from Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) visited the port of Civitavecchia on Oct. 20 after three weeks of conducting Exercise Mare Aperto 22-2 (MA 22-2).

MA 22-2 is a large, live exercise conducted by the Italian Navy in concert with Allied and EU partners in the Ionian and Tyrrhenian Seas throughout October.

The aim of MA 22-2 is to train and test commands, staffs and crews to strengthen and enhance the planning and conduct of activities at sea in a realistic, multi-dimensional scenario, specifically a NATO Article 5 Operation. The exercise included serialized and free-play events, during which planners granted commanders maximum freedom of decision at sea. While SNMG2’s participation in the exercise has concluded, the Italian Navy is scheduled to continue MA 22-2 until Oct. 27.

SNMG2 conducted live-fire gunnery exercises, air-defence activities, anti-submarine warfare events, and various surface ship-maneuvering events during the exercise.

“This is one of the more dynamic and robust exercises we’ve done to date and that’s a credit to the Italian Navy,” said SNMG2 Commander U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Scott Sciretta. “In this exercise we enhanced our cohesiveness and war fighting readiness as Allies, while breaking down barriers to integration. During a very robust, multi-domain warfare exercise where we played the role of an opposing force, we overcame these barriers and improved our shared understanding of command and control and execution of joint tactics, techniques and procedures. I couldn’t be more impressed with the Italian Navy and the leadership of Italian Rear Admiral Vincenzo Montanaro, the Task Force commander who led the exercise. As a result of our participation, we increased our interoperability, honed our war fighting skills and sailed away a stronger NATO maritime force.”

SNMG2 entered port in Civitavecchia with U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Forrest Sherman (DDG 98), Spanish Navy guided-missile frigate ESPS Cristobal Colon (F 105) and German Navy tanker FGS Spessart (A1442).

For more news and information on SNMG2, visit https://mc.nato.int/SNMG2 or follow us at:

www.facebook.com/StandingNATOMaritimeGroup2

www.twitter.com/COM_SNMG2

www.instagram.com/snmg_two

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• Date Taken: 10.27.2022
• Date Posted: 10.27.2022 05:30
• Story ID: 432088
• Location: CIVITAVECCHIA, IT
• Hometown: LONDON, GTL, GB
• Hometown: NAPLES, IT
• Hometown: NORFOLK, VA, US
• Hometown: WASHINGTON, DC, US