The Spanish Navy’s Expeditionary Task Group ‘Dédalo’ concludes its lengthiest deployment

For three and a half months, the Task Group has been providing deterrence and defense to NATO’s maritime borders, from Istanbul to Helsinki.

With the arrival of the LHD ‘Juan Carlos I’ and the LPD ‘Galicia’ at Rota Naval Base, the third deployment of the Expeditionary Task Group ‘Dédalo’ in eighteen months has come to an end.

The deployment began on April 3 and included the participation of two of the three ships from the Fleet’s Amphibious and Force Projection Group, the ‘Juan Carlos I’ with her ‘Harrier’ planes and helicopters of the Navy’s Aircraft Flotilla, and the ‘Galicia’, in addition to a Reinforced Marine Corps Landing Battalion and the F-100 frigate ‘Blas de Lezo’ and the F-80 ‘Reina Sofia’. A total of 1,733 Spanish Navy professionals took part in the deployment, 520 of them Marines.

Throughout the three and a half months of this mission, the Group has covered NATO's entire maritime flank, from Istanbul in the Mediterranean to Helsinki in the Baltic Sea, working ceaselessly with the navies and armed forces of 28 of the 32 allied nations participating in the main NATO exercises.

Among the exercises, ‘Neptune Strike’, in which, for two weeks, and under Allied Command, the ‘Dédalo’ Task Group worked side by side with the ‘Charles de Gaulle’ (France) and the ‘Cavour’ (Italy) carrier groups, conducting air missions over the countries on the Alliance's eastern flank.

On the other side of Europe, the BALTOPS exercise took place. It was the largest amphibious operation in the 75-year history of the Alliance, with five almost simultaneous landings along the coasts of the Baltic Sea. The Spanish Task Group played a major role in three of them, those carried out in Latvia, Poland and Germany. In those operations, it shared the leading role with the Expeditionary Group of the American aircraft carrier USS ‘Wasp’.

During the stay of the Spanish group in the Baltic area, a Swedish ‘Stingray’ helicopter remained on board the ‘Juan Carlos I’ for five days. It was the first time that an element of the armed forces of that country integrated into a NATO unit since its accession to the Alliance last May.

Also in the Baltic, the ‘Dédalo’ Task Group received the visit of H.M. King Felipe VI accompanied by the President of Estonia.

The Group ended its deployment calling at the Spanish ports of Guecho and Vigo, where the ships had the opportunity to show their capabilities to the tens of thousands of people who came to visit them.

The three and a half months of continuous activity at sea of the Expeditionary Task Group has once again demonstrated the Navy's capability to carry out advanced operations in any scenario, no matter how far away it may be from national territory, for prolonged periods of time. This makes the group an important deterrent element in crisis situations.

Although the main mission of this Task Group is to carry out military operations on land operating from the sea, the ample capabilities of the Group allows the ‘Dédalo’ to easily reconfigure itself to face all kinds of missions, from those of maximum military complexity, such as ‘Neptune Strike’ or BALTOPS, to those of humanitarian aid, such as those carried out after the earthquake that shook Turkey last February, and where the men and women of the Group distributed 3,600 tons of aid and helped rescue two survivors from the rubble of the city of Alejandreta.