Relay within EUNAVFOR Med (updated)
(B2) La Somme, a command and refueling vessel (BCR) of the (French) Navy, joined the European Union's Operation Sophia (EUNAVFOR Med) for a few days to supply the ships engaged in the fight against trafficking (arms, human beings) in the central Mediterranean (facing Libya).
The German tanker Werra had to temporarily leave the operation in mid-September to carry out a national recovery operation for two German nationals belonging to the NGO "Sea-Eye" (read: The Werra to the rescue of nationals arrested by the Libyan coast guard). The ship then returned to the operation. He will be relieved in the next few days by his sister ship le Hair (a tanker modified to also supply submarines) which left its home port of Eckenförde on October 17.
The European operation currently has six ships: the Italian aircraft carrier Guiseppe Garibaldi (551), which is the force command flagship, the German frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpomern (F-218), the landing ship FRG Mounts Bay (L-3008), the Spanish frigate Navarre (F-85), the French frigate Courbet and the high seas patrol boat Jacoubet Ship Sign. It has two or three planes: 1 Luxembourger, 1 Spanish and 1 French (intermittently).
NB: The mine hunter Dates left the mission on September 14. The Spanish Frigate Queen Sophia left the mission on September 24 relayed by Navarra after 4 months spent in the mission. I'Euro ITS left the mission on October 10. The British Type 45 frigate HMS Diamond (D-34) left the edge on October 14.
(NGV)
(October 22) Updated with details on the Werra ship