The Special Naval Warfare Force carried out an assault and hostage rescue exercise with the collaboration of a ferry from the shipping company ‘Baleària’

A special force made up of Command and Control elements, Special Operations units, different craft and five helicopters, carried out a boarding and rescue exercise off the Spanish coast..

In an outstanding example of cooperation between a civilian company and the Spanish Navy, a force made up of a Command & Control element, Special Operations units, and vessels from the Special Naval Warfare Force (FGNE in its Spanish initials) and five helicopters from the 5th and 10th aircraft squadrons carried out a boarding and hostage rescue exercise on December 15th on the vessel ‘SICILIA’ from the passenger and cargo shipping company, ‘Baleària’.

The exercise permitted to verify, once again, that the integration of the Navy's Special Naval Warfare Force with other military operators and aircraft crews, has the capability to undertake difficult tasks due to their unique adaptation to the maritime and coastal environment, as is being constantly demonstrated in real operations in which the FGNE has participated contributing to the achievement of freedom of navigation where a pirate threat exists.

On this occasion the force was launched from an Advanced Operational Base to intercept, without other support forces, a ship sailing tens of miles away.

It was also an excellent opportunity for the FGNE's Staff (PLM), which deployed and activated a C2 (Command & Control) element, exploiting the FGNE's deployable command and control capabilities to plan and conduct Special Naval Warfare operations.

For the organization of this exercise, the Maritime Action Force Headquarters coordinated the search for available civilian vessels, of any nationality, interested in participating in exercises of this nature. The degree of realism of this type of collaboration allows the FGNE's operational units to improve their training in maritime counterterrorist missions. Likewise, for the collaborating ships it is an opportunity to increase their internal security training in the face of threats and their degree of confidence in the resolution of crisis situations whenever pirate attacks and kidnappings do take place.

The Special Naval Warfare Force

Special Naval Warfare is defined as those special operations that are conducted mainly in the maritime domain, in sea-land operations or in support of other naval operations. It is therefore a kind of specialization of the Special Operations that require interventions in all kinds of special situations at sea requiring unique skills and characteristics of both materiel and servicemen, while being able to also operate on land.

The Special Naval Warfare Force (FGNE) is the fundamental unit of the Spanish Navy special naval warfare capability.

The FGNE is qualified to carry out all the doctrinal tasks inherent of Special Operations. The capabilities of the FGNE are enhanced by the participation of the Spanish Navy's Aircraft Flotilla crews and aircraft and the support of submarines and other warships from the Specialized Support Group made up of units of the Navy's Marine Corps Brigade and the Protection Force that provide complementary capabilities.