The 41st Escort Squadron leads the Advanced Exercise MAR 24-2 in the South of Spain.

The 41^st Escort Squadron is leading an advanced exercise with the participation of up to eight Spanish Navy ships, and units from other armies and allied countries.

On September 23^rd the MAR 24-2 exercise began in waters of the Gulf of Cadiz, the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea. It is an advanced training with the participation of up to 8 Spanish Navy ships and different military units from allied countries, focused mainly in the area of Above Water Warfare (AWW).

In addition to the three fundamental pillars of AWW (electronic warfare, surface warfare and anti-air warfare), MAR 24-2 has been designed to allow further progress in the design and analysis of defense techniques against unmanned vehicles (Counter Unmanned Vehicles, C-UXV), a threat based on disruptive techniques present in different theaters of operations today. 

The Task Group of MAR 24-2 is made up of 3 F-80 frigates (‘Reina Sofía’, ‘Navarra’, ‘Canarias’), 1 F-100 frigate (‘Méndez Núñez’) and 1 combat supply ship (AOR ‘Patiño’).

During the exercise, the LHD ‘Juan Carlos I’ and the LPDs ‘Galicia’ and ‘Castilla’ will be integrated into the group for different periods.

Collaborating assets which play an important role for the comprehensive training of the Task Group include: aircraft from all the Squadrons of the Spanish Navy's Aircraft Flotilla, the tug ‘La Graña’, Special Operations Teams from the Spanish Marine Corps and the Italian Navy, F-18s and D4 aircraft from the Spanish Air Force, batteries from the 4^th Coast Artillery Regiment of the Spanish Army, MH60R helicopters from the HSM-79 ‘Griffins Squadron’ of the US Navy stationed in Rota, as well as an airborne emissions and disruption simulator, and an aircraft from NATO's Joint Electronic Warfare Core Staff (JEWCS), based in Yeovilton (United Kingdom).

Worth underlining is the fact that the synergies created between the different participating units, totaling 1800 people, will make possible the generation of multiple scenarios with numerous challenges for a Task Force trying to achieve local sea control, and guaranteeing the safety of merchant shipping in two simulated international straits specifically created for the occasion.

During the exercise, the Task Group will operate under the threat of conventional and non-conventional forces, materialized by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA), in a scenario similar to that currently existing in the Red Sea and in the Strait of Bab el Mandeb.

This scenario is of great value for the participating ships, since the wide variety of programmed events will allow all the units to train their crews (at all levels) in seafaring techniques, naval gunnery and electronic warfare exercises, among other more complex tactical exercises at group level, where the decision-making process will be exercised in an uncertain and volatile environment.

The planning, organization, direction and execution of the Exercise is carried out by the Commander of the 41^st Escort Squadron, Captain Ernesto Grueso García, embarked with his Deployable Staff on board the frigate ‘Navarra’, which will act as the Group's flagship.

Frigates ‘Navarra’ and ‘Canarias’ are the last two of a series of six F-80 frigates, stationed in Rota Naval Base (Cadiz). Despite their age, (around 30 years of service), they all maintain their capabilities fully operational, and regularly deploy in waters of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean in the framework of the European Union's operation ‘Atalanta’.