Nave Francesco Morosini, second ship of the Multipurpose Altura Patrol (PPA) class of the Navy left from the naval base of La Spezia April 6th for a naval campaign in the Far East which will last 5 months.
“Keep up the honor and the flag of the Navy”. With these words the Chief of Staff of the Navy, Admiral Enrico Credendino, speaking at the Naval Base of La Spezia, greeted the crew of Nave Morosini, for the Campaign in the Far East, the day before departure.
The activity, which will be developed over a period of more than five months and will end in September, will see the Unit bear witness to the country system and the excellence of national industry, navigating “in an area where our Navy has been missing for several years, a world that we know little about” – as the Chief of Staff reiterated – “but in which a strong strategic, military, diplomatic and political interest insists”.
Admiral Credendino also wanted to underline how this activity makes it possible to “develop training synergies with foreign navies such as Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States of America”, guaranteeing high visibility for the Navy and more generally for the country , and allows “to display our flag in very complicated waters, in some ways even more untangled than those of the Mediterranean”.
Yesterday in La Spezia at the departure the crew was greeted by the Undersecretary of State for Defense Matteo Perego di Cremnago and the Commander in Chief of the Naval Squadron Admiral Aurelio De Carolis and numerous military and civil Authorities, as well as exponents of the management of the national industry.
“The mission you are about to undertake is very demanding but at the same time fascinating, I envy you and if I could go back in time I would make the choice of life that you have undertaken, enlisting in the Navy. I will support you throughout the campaign with conviction and pride”, so the honorable Matteo Perego of Cremnago Under Secretary of State for Defense to the crew.
Among the planned activities, for the promotion of defense industrial excellence, the presence at the Singapore International Maritime Defense Exhibition (IMDEX) and at the Langkawi International Maritime Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA). Following the expected participation, in the South China Sea, in the Indonesian-run Komodo 23 exercise focused on the search, rescue and evacuation of civilians during a crisis situation in the Region and which will see the involvement of all the main countries of the Asian area facing the Pacific Ocean.
During the campaign, the patrol vessel will go to the Far East and ply the waters of the China Sea arriving at the ports of Yokosuka, in Japan (14-18 June) and Pusan, in South Korea (21-24 June) carrying out activities of Naval Diplomacy in fifteen ports of fourteen Southeast Asian countries.